FANTASY MISSION FORCE

Director Chu Yin Ping is obviously a fan of Spaghetti westerns, from stolen Morricone music to the first 20 minutes which plays simlar to the introduction of the characters in The Good The Bad And The Ugly. However, just as the Italian took the western and re-invented it, this Hong Kong flick twists it even further.

There is no real sense of time. Some soldiers wear civil war uniforms, some wear WW2 uniforms, and a few even dress like the guys from The Road Warrior at the end. At times it seems like the characters are in the old west (well, old east) but then they drive '67 chevies, or are dressed like gangsters from the 20's.

Anyway, a general gathers up a gang of criminals and merceneries including an escape artist named greased lightning and a suave guy with really cool sideburns, and they all set out to rescue Mr. Lincoln. Along the way, the film becomes increasingly more bizarre. The group end up in a haunted mansion, filled with toilet paper ghosts and hopping vampires. One of the characters actually plays mah-jong with a couple of ghost in an especially funny scene. They are also captured by wire fu amazon women, and battle it out with the dreaded Japanese nazis.

Although Jackie Chan is credited as the star, he's really more of a "guest star" because he only as about 20 minutes screen time and isn't really a main character. He's damn funny when he is on screen though, and the dub job adds to the fun.

This movie is probably a aquired taste, and if you've never done LSD or your expecting Rush Hour, don't even bother, it's gonna go straight over your head. There's lots of goofy gags in the same vein as Benny Hill (guys getting smacked in the head or stabbed in the ass, fast motion scenes of soldiers marching the wrong way) and stuff like Jackie smoking a giant cigar, which is way funnier than you would imagine.

The climax finds the group at an abandoned military camp. The Japanese have given them till sunrise to prepare for battle, and the come riding on the tops of old American made cars, each of them with swastikas and/or stars of david painted on them. The battle that ensues is of epic proportions. Most of the film up 'till this point has been fairly blood-less and light hearted, but the battle scene really lets go with the sauce, and is pretty down beat.

One of those rare films so completly wacky and off the wall that it never gets boring. There really isn't an significant amount of time that passes without something insane happening, so i would really recommend checking this one out. Also, at a pirce of around $3.99 how can you go wrong?