I had been looking forward to this movie for a long time as a comeback for the talented Jeff Lau; unfortunately, the fact that it was shelved for a long time indicated this was not going to be a triumphant return for Lau. It's easy to see why the film's release was delayed: for a major production, it's remarkably poor.

Most of the film's budget seems to have gone into shooting the whole thing in Las Vegas, and this has a lot to do with why the movie is so bland. Hong Kong is one of the most interesting and colorful cities around, not just on film, but in real life as well. However, it's understandable that HK residents are probably getting fed up with seeing their own city on film over and over again, which explains why so many films are going overseas to shoot these days. However, Las Vegas has very little to offer; the image that "The Strip" presents is one of the most hideous and gaudy things I can imagine, and what we see of it in this film doesn't add much to the experience. Besides the more typical LV locations on display in this film, we see typical suburban settings and some hicksville locations. It's interesting for about five minutes to see Ekin and Cecilia in these settings, but after that their blandness becomes apparent. These bland locations suck the life right out of the film for an American viewer, and I imagine they aren't much more interesting for the Hong Kong audience. America has better to offer than this.

But, obviously, locations aren't the most important part of the movie. Unfortunately, as I mentioned, they really are the most notable part of this movie, whose plot takes forever to get moving, and once it does, doesn't go anywhere interesting. There is a fairly surprising twist towards the end, but it doesn't have much impact because they characters don't do much to engage the viewer. The time-travel angle isn't taken far enough in terms of either farcical craziness or truly interesting twists. In the end, everything about the movie feels flat, and it doesn't add up to much. Throw in some weak comic tangents and you have to wonder what they were thinking.

Things could've been a bit worse, though. For all the complaing about the English language acting, I thought it was relatively innocuous, certainly not as bad as what we were seeing/hearing four or five years ago. There's only one line that's particularly laughable, though it is a standout. Also, Ekin and Cecilia, actors who've been known to both bore me and get on my nerves, respectively, do okay here. Ekin doesn't have much of a character, but he acts reasonably enough. Cecilia doesn't do any of her whining here.

Still, lack of bad isn't much of a substitute for good, something this film is distinctly lacking. It's not very funny, there's no action of note, and the twists that come about don't add enough to the film to be worth the 35 minutes it takes to set them up. I'm afraid this film deserved to tank at the box office.