Hong Kong's favourite pretend twins once again appear as siblings, perhaps in the hope that another on-screen outing together will finally see them fused together as one all-powerful being. Though that doesn't quite happen here, Charlene and Gillian contentedly play sisters Pearl and Jade whose acrobatic excellence is the cornerstone of a Chinese circus troupe. Little do they realise that their inherited skills are closely linked to their father's activities with a famed group of outlaws who roam the land righting wrongs while pocketing a little for themselves. The father (Wah) returns to his daughters to seek their help in locating a Tibetan artefact stolen by his evil twin brother and eventually persuades the reluctant duo to join a motley crew of enforcers entirely made up of twins.

Starting with a fairly well presented action scene in a train carriage, 'Twins Mission' quickly losses whatever impetus it had a settles into another moribund attempt to turn back the clock to an era of Hong Kong cinema now sadly lost forever. It takes more than just a few competent fight scenes to turn back the clock and director Benz Kong tries to fill the gaping holes with supposed tension and pathos. As with so many films that try to balance these elements, this ultimately proves to be the undoing of the work. 'Twins Mission' has that annoying pseudo-dance soundtrack that so many Hong Kong films today think signifies 'energy' and 'vibrancy', but this awkward feature moves like a mime artist trying to walk on a sea of molasses.

Benz Kong is never quite sure if this is a vehicle for Twins or Jacky Wu and therefore the story attempts, quite unsuccessfully, to work to their respective strengths. In the case of the former, it is a mixture of cute charm, loving camera shots of the two beautiful stars and camaraderie while the latter excels in fast-paced fight action. These two camps need not be to the detriment of each other as Hong Kong's 80s boom showed, yet 'Twins Mission' is a very unstable attempt to fuse these elements together. Twins fans are likely to be slightly better catered for here as Jacky Wu still struggles in his moments as the leading man, but neither party are likely to whoop with delight over the end product.

'Twins Mission' is a messy affair with a few bright spots to help the 90 minute running time ease past. The lack of obvious direction proves to be the ultimate hindrance to what may have been a moderately interesting big budget action film, added to the fact that the style-over-substance trend so prevalent in the past decade still gnaws away at this Hong Kong production.

The movie's slim thread of a plot has Ah Gil and Ah Sa as a pair of circus performers who are actually kung fu masters (well, aren't they all?). Their old master (Yuen Wah) comes to retrieve them, as well as several other pairs of twins, so that they can help a pair of monks (Sammo Hung and Wu Jing) who have lost a relic that can magically cure any sickness.

Oh yeah, the big hook of the movie is that the relic is also being pursued by a group of evil twins. Not exactly Shakespeare or even Wong Jing on a good day, I know. But then most people out there aren't checking out this movie for the plot, and ostenibly Twins Mission delivers on what it promises -- big and loud action.

That being said, Twins Mission certainly has its' share of problems. For starters, it's getting pretty ridiculous to pair Choi and Chung as actual twins in films, since with each passing year, they are looking less and less like each other. They're still cute and work well together, but really, it's time to retire the gimmick.

Also, for what is supposed to be a "prestige" production, Twins Mission just doesn't feel very polished. The movie was shot on both film and digital video, which makes it look incredibly cheap in parts. The soundtrack feels more like a stock score that was simply spliced in instead of being created specifically for this film.

Most damningly, Twins Mission features absolutely the worst CGI seen in a movie -- even cheap straight-to-DVD stuff -- in years. Specifically, there's a sequence towards the end where the Twins fight a bunch of snakes that look like cutting-room rejects from Anaconda 2. Shoddy work like this sometimes makes me wonder if Hong Kong film-makers are actually taking their work seriously.

Speaking of the end... well, there really isn't one. Since a sequel has already been filmed, the producers decided to pull a Kill Bill and slap on a cliffhanger ending. This sort of thing just smacks of greed and lazy film-making, and is most definitely not the direction the Hong Kong movie industry needs to be going in. Big films like this should leave the viewer wanting more, but the film-makers shouldn't be so blatantly obvious about trying to get asses in the seats for a sequel.

Despite all of this, I actually still enjoyed Twins Mission. And before you ask, no I wasn't drinking, taking cough medicine, or suffering from a brain injury. Sometimes you just need a mindless action movie, and Twins Mission fits that to a tee.

Yes, it can't come close to the classics of yesteryear. Yes, it's often cheesy as hell. Yes, it won't earn you any cool fanboy points on internet boards for liking it. But just sit back and relax, and you should have a fairly good time with Twins Mission.