Du cheng feng yun II

Wong Jing is back with more madness, action, explosion and a longer runtime. As every sequel tries to top its original in every way, From Vegas To Macau 2 is no different. Lots of explosion, lots of wacky humour and more CGI, if these are your entertainment, the movie will do you no wrong. From the opening gun fight to the CGI climax, the story is kept brisk to keep your attention in check.

The story: Chow Yun-fat is back as the titular gambler, Ken, with the magic hand. This time, the movie exaggerates his skills with CGI poker cards until it almost becomes a fantasy. But that's to be expected in a Wong Jing's movie. This time, the location is shifted to Thailand where Mark (Nick Cheung), an accountant in a money-laundering syndicate, DOA, is chased by Interpol and DOA. Ken has to save him and help his protégé, Vincent (Shawn Yue). Wong Jing tries to pack in everything that is entertaining into a 2 hours movie. Though it feels bloated, expect a lot of crazy and random fun. Don't expect a coherent story and character development and it will be an enjoyable entertainment. Action is ramped out. The action scene in the middle sees a break-in of the safe house with lots of explosion and gunfire. The movie's climax turns into a CGI set where a fight breaks out in an airplane. Music is serviceable. Direction and acting is fine too.

Overall: It is an enjoyable movie for the Chinese New Year holidays. There isn't anything new served but if you are looking for a low-brow funny action-packed movie, I don't see why this won't fit the description. With everything ramped for the sequel, fans will be able to enjoy the second outing. With where the movie ends, I wouldn't be surprised if Wong Jing returns for a third outing.

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Though I was incredibly pleased to discover The Man from Macau had a sequel, I also wondered why neither Mr Tse or Ms Tian, from the original film, made an appearance - did they purposefully choose to opt out, or were they never invited back? Either way, as much as it pains me to say it, perhaps it was for the best. Don't get me wrong - From Vegas to Macau 2 has everything an entertaining Chinese blockbuster ought to: an outstanding cast, plenty of action sequences, moments of hilarity, emotional sequences, a heroically themed soundtrack, some impressive stunts, and a cameo by Mr Andy Lau himself. However, over the course of the feature, even Ken Magic Hands (Chow Yun-Fat), as amazingly magical as he proves himself to be, is unable to pull a rabbit out of a hat to save this particular film.

Although several of the action scenarios are clearly borrowed from other films, and despite Ken's ninja card throwing trick becoming a little stale, the comedy is sure to impress. Much like The Man From Macau, the humorous sequences offer the viewer ridiculous, slapstick scenes, that would probably never work in any other film but this. The deranged robot is especially hysterical, though a game of mahjong, and a wrestling match, additionally offer comical highlights.

Moving on, the film's opening is especially dazzling, and prepares the viewer for a series of fantastically bright visuals. Ken is thinking about settling down with his best friend Victor (David Chiang), when his former protégé, Vincent (Shawn Yue) appears, requesting Ken's assistance. An agent with Interpol, he desperately needs Ken's help in order to take down the remaining forces of DOA, the villainous agency from the former feature. After several run-ins with vicious assassins, many of whom are unbelievably beautiful women, Ken, who initially adamantly refuses, finds he has little choice but to assist.

Mark (Nick Cheung) a DOA accountant, has absconded with 15 billion US dollars, fleeing with his daughter (the adorably cute Angela Wang), the agency he once proudly served hot on his trail. Aoi (Jin Qiaoqiao) has taken the reigns of the organization after it was dealt a severe blow in the previous feature, Purple (Michelle Hu), Aoi's lead assassin, and DOA lead enforcer (Wu Yue), being two dangerous foes, who lead an unrelenting number of highly armed troops.

It is seldom explained how DOA manage to locate the protagonists, every time they do, a series of explosions taking place. The unrelenting nature of the fireballs that cloud the screen do become a little too much, the effects, though entertaining, being deprived the glamour of a Hollywood budget. Moreover, the continuous felling of enemy agents seems unrealistic, while the heroes scrape by with barely a bruise, none of the characters, who appear on the surface to be expertly trained, ever using believable tactics. Though the film sometimes is little more than an explosive marathon, the film does manage to hide a few surprises up its sleeve, despite its occasionally predictable story-line.

Requiring his testimony to take DOA down, Interpol, with the help of Ken, try to acquire Mark, who wants nothing to do with the police, though, for the sake of his daughter, discovers he has little choice. What follows are a number of chase sequences, explosive firefights, a gangster casino, and a wrestling match, most of which has little to do with the story at hand, and appears to instead be inserted less for quality, and more for quantity.

The primary story-line is however forgotten the moment Ken is swept away on a love-struck adventure with his former paramour Molly (Carina Lau), who appears to make an entrance at the most unexpected of times. Their rekindled relationship, which required extra padding to be efficiently portrayed, seems to be inappropriately inserted into a script unable to cater for it, which unfortunately, could be said for much of the sub-plots. Occasionally, From Vegas to Macau 2 appears to be a series of short stories, all thrown into one film, none of which ever properly connects, the film's conclusion being as equally vague.

The young Ms Wang, alongside Yuan Quan as Mark's wife, deliver the most emotionally powerful scene in the film, however, the saddest part about the movie is the screen time many of the actors are deprived of. Mr Yue, for a time, is entirely forgotten, with Ms Lau only ever appearing intermittently, and Kimmy Tong, as Ken's daughter Rainbow (one of the few cast members from the previous film), appearing no more than twice, Mr Yun-Fat and Mr Cheung stealing the show.

When I reviewed The Man From Macau, I referred to it as 'good, but not great'. From Vegas to Macau 2 is perhaps a step down from that - though occasionally good, for the most part, it is simply alright. When director Jing Wong next creates his sequel in this franchise, perhaps he could focus on creating one story, rather than one hundred.

Why all jokes were childish. It is a real pain keeping watch it to the end.

I could never imagine the movie industries in Hong Kong and China would have deteriorated so low and so unthinkably bad. I thought the first one (now we call it prequel?)in 2014 was bad enough, but guess what? The 2015 sequel just transcended it about 100% and became the champion of the worst of the worst! I don't even understand that we could call this film a comedy, because if you think what we saw in it got the ingredients of what we called 'sense of humor', then you are wrong. And if you think we saw here is Chinese humor or Hong Kong humor, then again, you are deadly wrong. We can't call the clowns in circus or rodeo comedians, because clowns just play dumb and stupid, do something so crazy that normal and rational people with reasoning abilities and logic won't do, what they do might make the under developed kids laugh. On the same premises, we cannot call the comedians who do the standup clowns, because there is and there are differences that can be easily distinguished.

What we got here in this stupid film are bunch of well-known Hong Kong actors, or shall we say, a bunch of has-been, who in the eyes of those producers and investors still could ensure some box office ticket selling potential. And then, the lousy script turned all these actors into clowns, they were cruelly abused by the script, its scenarios and the stupid plot (if there was any). The whole movie was just pathetic, so pathetic that I don't even know how to describe it, because what I saw was just over-the-top pretentiousness, contrivance, exaggeration, shallowness, and most of all, stupidity. What I hate and resent most of this film is how they wasted so much money to do it and purposefully made it so bad. If you think what they showed you in these two films are pure Hong Kong humor or even Chinese humor, you are pathetically wrong. What we saw here is the most obvious reason why and how good and normal movies from Hong Kong and China has become rare and rare, less and less. One of the reasons why the productions out of H.K. and China is so bad is because the totalitarian Chinese Communist government censors all the media products, the easiest way to pass the censorship is making stupid farces that won't touch any sensitive taboo of the reigning party and easily to get a release certificate and permit.

If you would like to keep your I.Q. and logic at a normal level, allowing them to develop in the right direction, don't waste your time watching it.

I must admit that I did enjoy the 2014 prequel to "From Vegas to Macau II", so it was with some expectation that I sat down to watch the 2015 movie "From Vegas to Macau II" (aka "Du cheng feng yun II"), although I feared that it might suffer from the usual sequel effect of being a poor runner up.

However, writer and director Jing Wong definitely stepped up to the occasion and delivered a movie that was every bit as enjoyable as its predecessor. Yeah, I kid you not. This 2015 movie was just as entertaining as the 2014 movie.

The storyline was good, and it did feel like a good continuation from the first movie, with some nice enough references back to the first movie. And you just got to love the scene with Andy Lau and the reference to the "God of Gamblers" movies, that was just a stroke of genius.

"From Vegas to Macau II" had a great cast ensemble, with the likes of Yun-Fat Chow, Eric Tsang, Andy Lau, Ken Lo and Carina Lau, to name but a handful of the great performers that were in the movie. They all brought something very enjoyable and individual to the movie, which definitely worked well in favor of the movie.

There is a good abundance of action, drama and comedy to be had here throughout the course of the movie. And I must admit that I went back and watched the scene with the little girl and the crocodiles two times because it was just hilarious.

My rating of "From Vegas to Macau II" is a six out of ten stars. Well worth taking the time to sit down and watch this 2015 movie from writer and director Jing Wong, especially so if you enjoyed the first movie as well.