The Great Pretenders (1991)
Reviewed by: STSH on 2000-01-04
Summary: Only if you're bored
A take on The Sting and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Chinese style, but not all that great. Includes a bewildering lesson on how to cheat at mahjong, and if you can follow it, you're doing well ! There's a lot of fast talk and faster hands here, but it's pretty slow-witted and stupid. Some of the jokes are pretty offensive and unfunny, particularly Simon Yam's mincing queen act. However, if you become either bored or confused (which are quite likely), there's usually La Amy's cleavage to gawk at, primed for boob jokes aplenty. An example, and one of the few highlights of this pic, is when Amy swans around wearing a too-brief swimsuit in a beauty contest, greeted with the appropriate response : "super wet-nurse". The pace does pick up at the end, and it becomes quite funny and well-paced farce, but too little and too late. Moments it has, but not enough to lift above the mediocre.
Reviewer Score: 3