Begins promisingly as we see pudgy little Kok Siu-Man, the most irritating actor alive, having his head banged into a bell at Messy Temple. Yes, it's the continued, frequently bizarre, and always incoherent adventures of secluded monks (toddler Kok Siu-Man, his straight-arrow little pal Sik Siu-Lung, and incompetent supervising monk Ng Man-Tat). A pretty local girl has insinuated herself into their lives with the secret goal of stealing the powerful Yi-Gin Sutra from their library. Once it's taken, our three monks head for HK in pursuit, where they meet Gum, a Chinese Forrest Gump who leads them to a haunted house, where they find ghosts, evil flying fairies, and a hopping vampire; and once at their destination, Devil's Temple, poor little Sik Siu-Lung has to do most of the work dispensing with parodies of characters from recent HK hits, including the transformed girl who stole the sutra (who now resembles Brigitte Lin from The Bride with White Hair, with some Swordsman 2 mixed in), some guy who looks like The Mad Monk, a Wong Fei-Hong/Fong-Sai Yuk amalgam, and... Well, the parody element goes overboard on this one, and the moments of "ah, yes!" recognition greatly exceed those of actual amusement. Still, the best action sequences are so totally over-the-top you're left speechless. Needless to say, there's tons of farting jokes -- the moral core of all Kok Siu-Man films.

(2/4)



[Reviewed by Steve Spinali]