Sau foo fei lung

Another Sammo film that is a fitting tribute to Bruce Lee. Sammo's chemistry with Karl Maka is great and the action is top-notch.

A fun movie but not one of Sammo's best!

Sammo Hung plays 'Fatty Dragon' a thrill seeking, crime fighting martial arts expert who is partners with the conniving and fast talking 'Skinny Tiger'(Karl Maka), together they take down criminals in their own compromising style.

One day they are assigned to one of the biggest cases in their careers, they must take down an known drug baron(played by the wonderful Lau Kar-Wing) and bring him to justice.

The Plot is very basic, with a rather pointless sub-plot in Singapore involving the two main characters and two local girls wanting to open a karaoke bar, but apart from that the rest of the movie is an extremely enjoyable action romp.

Sammo displays his skills proving once again why he's the best in the business, adding this time a little Bruce Lee flavour into the mix, with each fight scene having Sammo performing signature moves from all of Buce's films, it's also worth noting he's one of the best Bruce Lee imitators despite his large physique .

Karl Maka however provides most of the movies comedy, as he talks his way through out the film in a rather manic manner.

All in all this film really should be viewed for the action, not the story or acting. Also watch out for a fast and furious confrontation between a lightening paced Sammo Hung, and a knife wielding Lar-Kar Wing.

Even though Skinny Tiger, Fatty Dragon features Sammo Hung in several superbly choreographed action sequences that effectively showcase his amazing fighting skills (and his excellent Bruce Lee impersonation), the film is still one of the less essential titles in the portly martial arts superstar's resume thanks to its incredibly flimsy plot and embarrassingly unsophisticated comedy.

Sammo plays kung fu cop Fatty who, along with his scurrilous, philandering partner Skinny (Karl Maka), attempts to take down an evil drugs syndicate; during the course of their investigation, the pair get to fondle women's breasts, spy on a female gang member as she prepares for a shower, trash a Mercedes belonging to senior gang member Prince Tak (Lung Ming Yan), battle Thai lady-boys, take a break in Singapore (where Sammo shows that he might be a fighter, but he's definitely not a dancer), and generally act like complete buffoons. It's not clever, and it certainly isn't funny!

Thank heavens, then, for the film's outstanding fight scenes which go quite a way to compensate for the puerile comedy: Sammo takes on a gang of gun toting jewel thieves wearing Sesame St. masks, has a quick fight on a construction site, trashes a restaurant in pursuit of a criminal, and in the breathtaking finale, displays his skill with nunchukus in a superb battle against the syndicate's head honcho (played by the film's director Lau Kar Wing) and assorted henchmen.

Far from classic Sammo fare, but still worth a go for his avid fans, I rate Skinny Tiger, Fatty Dragon a just-above-average 6/10.

I would have rated this higher as Sammo and Karl make a good team and the fighting is awesome but none of the other reviews note the high level of violence against women (and the two lady-boy's dressed as women) in this film which made me uneasy. For whatever reason, I have never seen it explained, Sammo does an excellent job of imitating Bruce Lee including use of Nunchaku's. There are several very funny, classic scenes such as gradually destroying Tak's Mercedes car and wrecking the Commissioner's wedding. Some of the other humour doesn't work so well. Sammo Hung and Karl Mak are obviously relaxed and comfortable in one anothers company and this comes through well. My Homg Kong Legends DVD copy has some good extras.

SKINNY TIGER, FATTY DRAGON is a film that's made in the mould of the LUCKY STARS movies, featuring plenty of comedy mixed with action spills on the frenetic streets of Hong Kong. This one features genre stalwart Sammo Hung as a by-the-book cop who teams up with maverick Karl Maka (MAD MISSION) to tackle a ruthless criminal gang who have a habit of bumping off anybody who dares to cross them.

What this all leads to is a series of set-pieces, some of them martial arts focused, some of them featuring some very broad comedy indeed, and others that successfully mix the two genres in one (the car chase, for instance, which is very well achieved). Some of the gags are a little too much for Western audiences (the violence and sexual assaults against women in particular) but others hit the spot nicely.

The martial arts stuff is inevitably fine, most of it left to Sammo who wipes the floor with his enemies with a level of finesse that most slim martial artists would struggle to achieve. I could have done without the silly dubbed-in Bruce Lee noises on the soundtrack every time he fights, but there you go. Karl Maka is on strong form here too, not too annoying as the dedicated cop determined to sort out both the bad guys and his love life along the way.

All in all there's little to dislike, whether it's the familiar faces (including femme fatale Carrie Ng) to the explosive stunts and high class fisticuffs. It all works to a formula but it's an effective formula and one that's guaranteed to wring every drop of excitement and humour from the premise. Not one of the genre classics then, but not bad at all either.