| Taylor Wong revisits the magic buddha's palm (previously seen in his 1982 Shaw Brother's movie Buddha's Palm), transferring the spectacle to modern day Hong Kong. Kung Fu Vs. Acrobatic opens with some wonderful clips from the old Tso Tat Wah Buddha's Palm-movies and it's a nice reminder of how Hong Kong really hadn't progressed in terms of its special effects usage (in this case, when employing animation) by the time 1990 came along. Taylor doesn't really make more of a mark from this point in the film and instead Wong Jing's script takes over.
Andy Lau and Nat Chan therefore gets to be thoroughly silly and stupid, with stupid also being the grade of the comedy. Wong Jing's insistence on trying to be clever by taking past dynasty characters into the modern era while poking fun at the popular culture of its day is far from it and falls flat completely. Some low-brows jokes gets to your funny bone but it's really shameful that that even happens. Within these loony Wong Jing shenanigans, co-star/action director Yuen Wah and the animators manage to entertain slightly whenever it's magic powers battle time. It's a long trek though to get the even slightly good stuff though.
Taylor Wong never really was a good director outside of fair promise showed in Sentenced To Hang and Buddha's Palm. Kung Fu Vs. Acrobatic has its title as the most prominent trait, which is obviously not a good final tally. Also with Joey Wong, Lau Shun and Tso Tat Wah. |
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