ODD COUPLE isn't a bad knockabout comedy but I was expecting more from the team. This is slightly lacking in the action stakes when compared to something like MAGNIFICENT BUTCHER or KNOCKABOUT, both of which had far better fight choreography and more fluid and exciting action scenes. In many moments of ODD COUPLE, Sammo will kick an opponent only for his foot to go nowhere near the guy. This happens multiple times and became something of a distraction for me.Otherwise this is a straightforward Hong Kong comedy with lots of action scenes to keep it moving along nicely. Sammo Hung teams up with co-star and director Lau Kar-Wing to play a couple of martial arts masters who seem to spend most of their lives sparring. To confuse matters further, both actors also play their young apprentices, so double dual roles for the pair. I wasn't really fond of this plot development which seemed pretty silly. The supporting cast is rounded out by Mars playing a character called Potato who is one of the goofiest you'll ever see, smaller parts for Lam Ching-ying and Lee Hoi San, and the great Beardy as a stock villain.The action scenes are acceptable but where this film falls down is the comedy. I usually don't mind Chinese humour but it goes way over the top here and quickly becomes grating. It doesn't help that the dumb American dubbing really saps the film of vitality and the exaggerated voices sound like they're from some idiotic cartoon. I can't believe that they made Spice Girls jokes during this dub, it really is the worst ever and unfortunately affected my enjoyment of the movie.

I have to say that I have seen an awful lot of Sammo Hung movies and not only is this one of his best films, but it is probably the finest weapons movie in the history of kung fu movies, and there have been a lot. This film is not like many other kung fu films in the way that the fights start small and then get bigger and better as the film progresses. The fights in this film practically start from the word go, with the standard remaining high throughout the rest of the film. The first (and in my opinion the best) big fight in the movie starts about fifteen minutes into the film where the old Sammo and the old Lau do battle with their weapons. The fight is so well choreographed that you wish that it would never end. After this fight the fight scenes become shorter until Leung Kar Yan comes into the picture, then the fights turn violent. Leung is such a menacing villain that you really are rooting for the good guys to win. Once the young fighters have killed the villain its time for them to fulfil their masters wishes and fight each other until one of them wins. this culminates in a duel that is similar to the fight earlier in the film and is outstanding in its execution. This film is so great that no kung fu fan should be without it. Even if you hate weapons films this film may well change your mind, and if it doesn't there are a few open hand fights which are equally as fantastic. An absolute masterpiece, I can't recommend it enough!

This one goes in my top ten kung fu movies as one of the silliest. the weapon fighting scenes are excellent. As with any good kung fu movie, it contains a lot of over-top-characters:* The king of the spear * the king of the sword * The exthortionist at the market (what a moustache!) * The king of the spears' sidekick, Potato (with the funky ummm.. hair) * The king of the swords sidekick, the humpback * And last but not least: Mr. Rockin', who has his own theme music.All in all, an excellent and very funny martial arts movie.

This movie portrays old rivals,played by Sammo Hung (King of the sword) and Lau Kar Wing (King of the spear) who meet every 10 years to find out whose weaponry skills are better.These duels always end up in a draw and as the two warriers are aging they decide to each take on a pupil so that the duel may continue. What makes this interesting is that Sammo plays Lau's student and Lau plays Sammo's student. Some amusing scenes eventuate. This from the video cover: "Skillful balletic duels between the sword and the spear rival even the best work of Jackie Chan and Liu Chia Liang in their intricacy" With these comments I would have to agree. However this film would have to be the silliest Sammo hung movie I have ever seen. There are some scenes which I don't feel contribute much at all to the overall plot. Having said that, The duels between the elderly Sammo Hung and the elderly Lau Kar Wing with their respective weapons are masterpieces. Their mastery of these weapons has to be seen to be believed. So too, the duels between the young Sammo with the spear and the young Lau with the sword as the students of the elderly masters just goes to prove how versatile and how skilled these men are. Towards the end of the film they unite to defeat a common foe in a brilliant fight sequence and then go on to fight each other to a draw just as their old sifu's had done in another incredible fight sequence so ultimately the riddle of whose weaponry is better goes unanswered. An unusual movie with some really silly scenes but a lot of great action.