Story is pretty straightforward: autistic girl, Zen (who seems less autistic than mentally challenged) has mom with cancer who can't afford her treatments, but all the thugs in town owe the mom money from her previous life in crime, so Zen and her cousin (think Sammo's overweight Fatty characters in nearly all his classics, played now for poor comic relief or pathos only since this fatty can't fight, or act) go out hunting down the marks after the cousin finds the mom's bookie-book.

Thus ensues the teenage mayhem--unfortunately the girl's skills are just not that impressive. The best fight scenes in the movie are of the Tony Jaa movies Zen watches to "learn her skills". Ms. Yanin is acrobatic to some extent but her motions are very repetitive, relatively slow and deliberate. I have to disagree with all the "gushers" out there, she's no Tony Jaa, not even close! It is just hard to believe her choreography could result in the destruction she wreaks. Just about the half way mark through the flick she exhibits a bit of flair for the staff but it is not sustained nor does it really deliver as one initially thinks it might. Probably her fight with the two chick thugs near the train tracks, and just after that with the young dude in the sweat suit, are the most believable but again even then they are not that impressive. The fight choreography is just not that impressive folks.

There are two scenes that borrow heavily in construction from two superior movies: 1) the warehouse fight about a third of the way into the movie is very similar to the long warehouse sequence in "Contour" (although not nearly as impressive as in this latter movie), and 2) the sword/stick fight in the head baddy's lair parallels the fight between Uma Thurman and the Crazy 88's in QT's KBI--although as in the previous case the scene in "Chocolate" pails in comparison that in KBI, both in terms of intensity and duration.

The final fight sequence, fought on the balconies of two buildings separated by a street, with many street signs, wires and poles for the actors to move on, is pretty intense and in some ways creative, but again it's just not very believable except when bad guys fall three stories to the pavement below.

The film has some really great moments though that have absolutely nothing to do with the "action"--the director, Prachya Pinkaew's sense of camera and composition of frame are at times simply outstanding. But these moments are few and far between and certainly only a tease in the end to "what might have been". Most of the rest of the time the cinematography looks like some other person entirely shot it on a handy-cam.

This film had a lot of potential but simply didn't deliver in ways it has been hyped to.

This is an extremely well acted fu flick, starring several of the stable SB actors, most notably the always solid Ti Lung and Chen Kuan-Tai, as well as Phillip Ko Fei and Lee Hoi San. Ti Lung is one of SB's best actor-martial artists, and Chen Kuan-Tai is one of all time HK great martial artist-actors. Putting these two together in the same film was always a winning combination (e.g. "Blood Brothers" and "Savage 5"), whether David Chiang was present or not.

In "Opium", Ti Lung plays a character not quite a hero, not quite a baddie. He starts out admirable, descends into addiction, redeems and resurrects himself, and ends admirable but mature at the conclusion of the movie. In contrast, Chen Kuan-Tai plays a baddie throughout, complete with henchmen Ko Fei and Hoi San. Both are solid, though Ti Lung's part is larger and emotionally more meaty and he plays it to the hilt. He turned in a number of great performances while at SB, but this is certainly one of his most solid, start to finish, both for dramatic quality and action/fu.

There are lots of things to like about this flick, starting with the opening credits and the main title theme music--brooding and atmospheric (don't know if it's original, but it's solid). The fight choreography is thoroughly enjoyable, and much is creative with plenty of simple but effective weapons work. The first big fight scene between Ti Lung's "whites" and Chen Kuan-Tai's "blacks" (symbolism with the fu uniforms? I wonder...) is short but cool, with fights occurring in mid-air as dudes hang from banners and streamers, kicking and punching. The climactic fight between Ti Lung and Chen Kwan-Tai is classic Shaw pole vs. spear stuff--when Phillip Ko Fei and Lee Hoi San (both with broadswords) join Chen Kwan-Tai to make it 3 on 1, things get really good. The fight choreography is solid and the cinematography is excellent with good camerawork, use of slow motion, stops and strike repeats.

At 88 minutes from opening credits to end credits, "Opium And The Kung Fu Master" plays shorter and is an easy watch, enjoyable throughout for both the fu and drama (played exceedingly well by nearly every actor in the movie).

Having said all that as a preface, "Dragon Tiger Gate" is a stylish movie with lots of tasty visuals. The fu in the movie is wire-fu for sure, but the choreography is generally very good, being done by Donnie Yen. One complaint easily leveled by fu fans is the relative paucity of the fu in the movie – this is largely a story-driven (if shallow) movie with fights of importance to the storyline tying things together.

There are some seriously slow moments if all you are looking for is action, but if you can stick with it the story and imagery is worth the sit. There are some really nice pieces of camerawork and cinematography in this movie – one example is the series of overhead shots of the pogoda fights about a third the way through the film. Whether done by crane in a set or with CGI, they are nice.

The three male leads – Donnie Yen, Nicholas Tse Ting Fung and Shawn Yue Man Lok – all do a fine job both with acting and fighting. Of course one needs to always keep in mind that this is a comic book movie to set aside the goofy hairstyles donned by the leads – truly bad ‘peek-a-boo’ cuts. Shaw Brothers veteran Chen Kuan-Tai does a turn as the bad-guy father-figure/boss to Yen’s character (Dragon), but his talents, both as an actor and definitely as a fu artist, are completely wasted in this role – too bad really. Yet in total "Dragon Tiger Gate" is a decent story, generally well acted; and the fight scenes, while relatively few, are quite solid as wire fu goes. Solid 3.5 star movie.

Sammo has made some of the true all-time classic fu flicks, but this reviewer has to break with the mutual admiration society and state plainly that “Wheels On Meals” is not among the classics. Before all the rabid Jackie fans go nuts, this is not to say that “Wheels” is a bad movie. In fact it’s quite watchable and even enjoyable. The story is not bad, the goofball comedy is played to the hilt (as it is meant to be, over the top to the extreme – hell I almost peed my pants seeing Sammo for the first time in his 80’s weave complete with geri curl), and the acting is decent. BUT, as a fu flick (the other half of the formula) it simply fails to deliver for a vast majority of the film. For instance, there are only two brief fight scenes within the first hour of the movie and then we have to wait almost until the last 15 minutes for anything substantial to happen again.

Now, many reviews talk about the "great", "one of the best of all time", "best in all of Jackie’s films"...fight scene between Jackie and Benny ‘The Jet’, and it is good – but again in the opinion of this reviewer over-hyped. First of all, the fights look sped up at several points, and it is pretty clear from their motions that if Benny ever met Jackie in a back alley to have it out, he’d in reality kick Jackie’s ass. Benny ‘the Jet’ was not an undefeated kick-boxing champion by accident; but he’s no actor either – something the ‘three Peking brothers’ are. Yuen Biao’s fight with his baddie in the final fight sequences certainly shows off his quickness and acrobatic prowess but is too short to be terribly impressive. Sammo’s fencing fight in the same section is good but again restrained and short – certainly of the sequences Jackie’s is longest and best. Yet, even as good as this latter fight is, it’s not enough to make this a fu classic.

As an HK comedy from Sammo Hung, this is a solid 4 star movie; as a fu flick this is a 4 star movie for the 8-10 minutes of fight screen time, but only about a 1.5 star movie sustained in its entirety. In the end this reviewer is compelled to give “Wheels” not more than 3 total stars and this is generously erring to the comedy.

So what about the action? Well that’s the redeeming quality of this movie. The Fu is very solid and entertaining. All fighters are fast punchers and kickers, and most of are quite acrobatic to boot. If it weren’t for the solid fighting in this movie it would rank among the plethora of forgettable independent Fu flicks of the 70’s. The finale fight between Lee and Tiger against the leader of the Gang is worth waiting for, even if a few frames are speed up (which didn’t need to be done to make it look fast and brutal), it ends abruptly (as does the movie with thee fight), and the gang leader is losing his wig for much of the fight.

With the fights this is a decent 3 star movie whose plot will confuse but fights will keep you watching.

The fights in this movie are decent in quality but too few in quantity – the one on the movie set with the ‘actor’ impersonating Bruce Lee is pretty good, especially since Sammo is a MUCH better Bruce impersonator than the other dude, who looks more like Bruce. Let’s face it, Sammo could never be mistaken for Bruce! The end fight in the warehouse is also pretty good (see below). There’s also a decent one where Sammo dispatches – Bruce-style of course – multiple punks in his uncle’s restaurant who won’t pay their bill. Otherwise the movie is mostly silly comedy and poor dialog.

The fight in warehouse with Leung Kar Yan and the two other dudes is pretty decent and is a cool homage to "Enter The Dragon" (ETD) – and the only real nod to that movie aside from the title and an opening sequence where Sammo is being transported by boat in the marina. The white dude in the warehouse fight is clearly supposed to represent the Peter Archer character “Parsons” from ETD (the limey bully who challenges Bruce on the junk while on the way to Han’s island and is tricked into meeting Bruce on “that island over there”), while the Chinese dude in black face, crazy afro wig and sideburns is a Jim Kelly nod. Of course Bruce didn’t fight Kelly in ETD, but had he he’d have probably kicked his arse like Sammo does the Kelly stand-in in "Enter The Fat Dragon". While not nearly so obvious, Leung Kar Yan might be a nod to Shek Kin’s “Han” character from ETD. It’s too bad Leung’s fight sequences in this movie were so limited as he’s one of the most under-rated and un-heralded of the HK stars of the 70/80’s.

In the end, "Enter The Fat Dragon" is a 2 star flick, with limited 3-4 star fights that Sammo and Bruce fans will appreciate but others might skip without missing too much.