Reviewed by: ewaffle Date: 04/29/2010 Summary: Funny and fast paced “Dragon Reloaded” starts with excellent opening credits that show key scenes from first movie in animated boxes during the credit crawl. The first scene is flashback to “Dragon Loaded” with cheesy police produced public service television show hosted by Officer Dragon. Woman has fire ants dropped on her and is sold a cream to make her nipples the color of strawberries by a ruthless street con artist. To seal the deal Ronald Cheng skates by as Rollergirl from the movie “Boogie Nights”. He is no Heather Graham. Trainer Tang from the first movie the three cops head for a spa on a small island off the coast. It is run by a bunch of rustics that could be the Chinese version of the backwoodsmen from “Deliverance” although not as winning or attractive. A tomb robber has been busy defiling the graves of the village’s ancestors and our heroes decide to capture the robber. Unfortunately they stumble into the middle of an SDU operation, mistaking the undercover cops for ninjas bandits and ruin the ambush they had set up. So they are now stuck on this middle of nowhere island and the three comrades fail miserably in gaining the confidence of the villagers. The mayor is a tough old bird who won’t allow the local bully Tiger (Ken Lo with nutty pasted on sideburns) to pressure him into selling the ancestral shrine. They don’t impress him when they try to keep Tiger from harassing a crippled push cart peddler and his attractive daughter since the result is a painful and self inflicted injury to Dragon and they really get on the mayor’s bad side when they accidentally knock over a mountainside shrine while playing with an old artillery piece. This releases a ghost—not a very frightening creature, more annoying than anything else since the mayor has to find a place to stow the ghost/vampire until he can be reburied. Dragon volunteers to keep the vampire—Grandpa who had been a village elder--at the police station and train him like Lam Ching-Wing did in the “Vampire” movies. Even though Dragon dresses like a Taoist priest he isn’t successful until the guys decide to train using dog handling tactics, which work well enough that Grandpa is able to fetch a slipper on command. It turns out that he is not the ghost of Grandpa but a looter who was knocked out when the tomb was blown up and who is impersonating a ghost in an attempt to escape. This is the first of several set pieces, almost self-contained skits that fit the continuity of the movie but could also stand alone as gags. Captain Tang shows up with a story of having killed a mad dog. The dog is the guide and companion for Keung’s Mom who arrives at the police station to report the beast missing while Tang is in the kitchen preparing dog stew. Hei get stuck with impersonating the dog—he is terrible at it and very funny. Reinforcements arrive—Rock and his team, all in full battle dress and ready for trouble. They stake out the village celebration, lying wait for Keung. Two of them are disguised as a loving gay couple and one as an incompetent fish ball seller. Dragon, Gold and Hei are in full Peking Opera drag also waiting for Keung. A tearful mother and son reunion follows, Keung is allowed to escape, true love is found temporarily and the three friends return to the city, stopping at the airport to pick up three armed policewomen. “Dragon Reloaded” and its predecessor are funny, fast-paced and extremely silly. As long as one can overlook a few things that might shock a Western viewer (like this one) such as Ronald Cheung hitting Liu Fan in the face with his closed fist they are well worth watching. Reviewer Score: 7

Reviewed by: j.crawford Date: 04/17/2007 Summary: funny sequel Comedian, writer, and actor Vincent Kok Tak-Chiu is one of my favorite filmmakers. His 2003 Lunar Holiday film, Dragon Loaded 2003, was a hit at the box office with local audiences. Of course, a sequel was in order. This time, Kok treats his characters like fish out of water, taking them from the hip city and putting them into a rural setting. This allows Kok plenty of funny material, poking fun at country folk, city folk, movies, and the people who make them. Dragon Reloaded features the thinking man's Sammy, Ronald Cheng Chung-Kei, returning to his first starring role as Lung Wai, the goofball Hong Kong policeman. Thanks to director Vincent Kok Tak-Chiu's clever screenwriting, the movie was pretty funny with Cheng's mugging and cross-dressing antics. Funnymen Cheung Tat-Ming and Sam Lee Chan-Sam reprise their roles as his side kicks. These 2 actors always make me laugh. Kok gets good performances from a colorful supporting cast that features Miki Yeung Oi-Gan, Ken Lo Wai-Kwong, and goofy Tats Lau Yi-Dat. Reviewer Score: 8

Reviewed by: mrblue Date: 12/01/2005 The sequel to 2003's surprise hit Dragon Loaded has Ronald Cheng reprising his role as Dragon, a cop who has become very successful despite the fact that he's just not that smart or good at his job. Along with his buddies Gold (Cheung Tat-Ming) and Hei (Sam Lee), Dragon runs his local precinct like a massage parlor, while also appearing as the host of a "America's Most Wanted" type TV show. The trio decides to take a break from "work" and go on vacation with their former boss (Tang Jin-Fung) to a village on a remote island. While there, the village's valuable Goddess Statue is stolen, and the bumbling cops get blamed for the heist. To avoid a scandal, the group is re-assigned to the island until the statue is found. Dragon Reloaded's fairly thin plot is just mostly an excuse for Ronald Cheng to run around and act like a nut. He has quickly become one of Hong Kong's top comedic actors, but much like most any popular HK star, fans tend to either love or hate him. The haters point out that he's really doing nothing more than ripping off Stephen Chow's "nonsense comedy" schtick while being really annoying at the same time. I do agree that Cheng does use "moy len tau" -- most of the comedy is based on Cantonese wordplay and parodies of both Western (Harry Potter, Boogie Nights) and Chinese (Mr. Vampire) movies. However, I personally don't find Ronald Cheng all that annoying, especially when compared with some other Cantonese comedians, whose antics often tend to grate on Western viewers. Perhaps it's because I haven't seen Cheng in too many movies and so he hasn't worn out his welcome, but I found him an endearing enough lead that I was able to forgive some of the jokes that fell flat or simply flew over my head due to my lack of fluency in Cantonese. With a solid supporting cast and some truly funny gags (I really enjoyed the part where some undercover SDU cops adopted the names of various movie directors), Dragon Reloaded is one of the better Hong Kong comedies I've seen in quite some time -- though, like most HK comedies, those who are new to the genre aren't likely to get most of the jokes. But for those who have already gotten their feet wet, Dragon Reloaded is well worth your time. [review from www.hkfilm.net] Reviewer Score: 7

Reviewed by: White Dragon Date: 11/16/2005 Summary: Sequel improves on the original's formula Goofy police officers Lung Wai (Ronald Cheng), Gold (Cheung Tat Ming) and Hei (Sam Lee) return for another round of eminently enjoyable wackiness in Vincent Kok's sequel to his 2003 hit comedy. Herein, while holidaying on fictional island Golden Pond Village (a dodgy CG rendering), they accidentally aide an islander in stealing the island's main village's good luck charm, a goddess statue. In turn, they end up stationed on the island to set right their blunder. Run-ins with the locals, light romance and the usual comedy hijinks ensue. Being a great fan of the first film (as well as an appreciative follower of the works of Ronald Cheng), this one offers more of the same -- I find Cheng's comedic screen persona no small amount of hilarity, so this was up there with the first film in entertainment value for me. Miki Yeung (of pop-group Cookies) makes for a cute romantic foil for Cheng, Ken Lo cameos as a Muay Thai boxing neighbouring village head, and there's in-jokes and pop-culture references aplenty. Director Kok even manages to squeeze in a MR. VAMPIRE spoof that seques to a nice Lara Croft gag (as well as pokes fun at the HK success of Tony Jaa's Thai Muay Thai vehicle ONG-BAK). I must admit, the very instant that Cheng's catchy theme tune "Rascal" roared out of the speakers...I was hooked! If you're not a fan of Cheng and his brand of comedy, give this one a miss -- but if you're looking for a step up from the original (and slight rung down from 2004's side-splitting SUPER MODEL) this is grande entertainment. Here's hoping solid box office provides a third outing for Officer Lung Wai and his cronies! Reviewer Score: 8

Reviewed by: evirei Date: 11/13/2005 Summary: Serious and effective medicine to cure bad mood or to boost laughters. I guess Ronald Cheng has really made his name in the comedy movies industry. I must say he himself looks like a funny person. Just by looking at his face makes me wanna laugh. Just can't help it. Ronald takes up the lead role in this movie and was teamed up with Sam Lee and Cheong Tat Ming. Together they are the 3 stooges that wanted so much to do something big in the police force. However, all they ever get to do is host for the "police news" and handle the canteen in the police station. Ronald soon finds out that his ex-gf who migrated to Congo is about to get married with a local boy. Worried that Ronald might commit suicide, his boss decided to bring them to a Japanese spa. Oh yeah. When it comes to spa and pretty lady. He have just awaken the demon in them. They soon set foot on Lantau island village. They soon found out that the spa was actually a scam. Right when they were about to leave, they stumble upon some suspicious man which turns out to be the SDUs. They were soon accused of sabotaging an important mission. They were then sent to the island to help find the missing treasure being stolen. Ronald was plain funny. But I guess when teamed up with Sam and Tat Ming... It just gets funnier. I guess they really got the right combo going on there. Hope they come up with the 3rd part soon. Serious and effective medicine to cure bad mood or to boost laughters. Ratings: 6 out of 10 Reviewer Score: 6