Re lang qiu ai zhan

If you watch Beach Spike as a film, it will be so terrible that you just want to smash the TV screen in front of you. However, Beach Spike is not a film, but rather a showcase for the "le-mo" bouncing up and down in their bikini and on a beach playing volleyball. While the film first few volleyball match seems to satisfy the eager awaiting candy coated eyes of the drooling audiences. The same cannot be said about the final showdown. Rather than focusing on key body parts, the camera cuts and edits and fade away. For the expecting audience, this is clearly bad filmmaking at its worst. Therefore coming into this film, it is best to not view this as a film, but rather a chance to get to know the likes of Chrissie Chau, Theresa Fu and Jessica C. Apart from that, fans of Lam Suet can rejoice. Otherwise, stay away.

Neo rates it 2/10.

• www.thehkneo.com

"Sharon" (Chrissie Chow) and "Rachel" (Theresa Fu) are two young women who have lived on the beach their entire lives. So when they learn that it has been bought by a rich family and that they are going to be evicted they decide to challenge two daughters of this family to a game of beach volleyball with the winner having the final say on the beach development. Being the defending beach volleyball champions the two daughters named "Natalie" (Jessica Cambensy) and "Natasha" (Phoenix Chou) accept. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this film resembled the "Beach Movies" of the 60's in several details. Unfortunately, other than Chrissie Chow and Theresa Fu, none of the other characters really stood out in this movie. The humor wasn't sharp, the plot was convoluted and the film seemed to run 20 minutes longer than necessary. In short, this turned out to be a very long and boring movie. Accordingly, I rate this movie as below average.

There's one big reason to watch Beach Spike, and that's if you want to see some attractive Asian girls in bikinis playing volleyball, often in slow motion. It does that very well:  the rest is a mixed bag.

The movie tries to be be a romance/comedy/sports hybrid, a bit like Shaolin Soccer. Unfortunately, it's mediocre in almost all those areas. Especially the action scenes and volleyball matches, which should be the highlights of the movie. The women look great, but it's also obvious that they're not the volleyball experts that their characters are. Most of the matches look extremely staged and choreographed, though the final one is pretty intense. The story, about two girls playing to save their beach from being closed to build a resort, often strives to be sentimental, exciting or amusing, but the writing for the characters is so thin that all that tugging at our emotions just doesn't do much. 

Still, Beach Spike is mostly light, fun, and very easy on the eyes. I finally got invested in the characters a bit at the end, and the predictability and slightness of the plot just didn't matter much anymore. Or maybe I was just distracted by how pretty Chrissie Chau, Theresa Fu and Jessica C. were. Take it for what it is, and Beach Spike isn't that bad. If you're not watching for the eye candy, you won't find much to keep your interest.