Badges of Fury (2013)

Excellent but underrated film

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

It appears China has entered the comedy spoof genre with two cops named Wang and Huang, whose English meaning they appear to be aware. The cops are after the smiley face murderer. Huang (Jet Li) is the seasoned policeman while Wang (Zhang Wen) is the rookie. The comedy was all over the place. Some of the comedy was slapstick; sometimes cartoon noises; sometime it was "Airplane" style humor: sometime it was movie spoof. They are capable at laughing at themselves by creating overt anti-gravity fighting. In one scene they come to congratulate the officers for arresting someone who pirated a movie, a serious crime in China, he said with a wink and then flashes an MIB style camera.Too much of the film is silliness that didn't translate well into western humor. I thought it was a good effort on the part of Chinese film makers and a step in the right direction.

When a series of strange deaths occur the Hong Kong police suspect murder. Taken individually each looks like a tragic accident but each man died with a fixed smile on his face and each of their funerals was attended by the same woman. The case is taken by a trio of detectives; impulsive Wang Bu Er; older Huang Fei Hong, who is a master of kung-fu and Angela, their sergeant. Their first suspect is the woman at the funerals; actress Liu Jin Shui. She had dated each of the dead men and they had each left her. Her sister, Dai Yiyi, is suspected too; each of the men had moved on to her… indeed her feminine charms are noticed by just about every man who sets eyes on her. As the case progresses more suspects arise and there will be quite a few fights before the case is solved.Anybody watching this expecting lots of top quality martial arts action or realism is likely to be disappointed… especially as that is what the DVD cover promises… it may say 'Genre: action/martial arts' on the box but this is a comedy plain and simple. What martial arts we see is 'enhanced' with unbelievable CGI… we certainly don't get the stunning choreography of a Jackie Chan movie or the wire-work of wuxia films. Once one has got over that it is possible to enjoy this film as a slap stick comedy. Another surprise is that Jet Li isn't the lead actor; that is Wen Zhang. The cast do a decent enough job; although it is sometimes hard to tell overacting from part of the deliberate comedy. The case isn't the most gripping; it really just serves to link the series of comedy moments. These vary from laugh-out-loud funny to cringe inducing. As stated before the action features a fair amount of CGI and this is the films biggest let down; it doesn't look real enough… the opening which should grab the viewer's attention merely made me wonder why I was watching! Overall if you want a silly action comedy it is fun enough and it is probably suitable for anybody old enough to read the subtitles… although some viewers might find the camera's fascination with Dai Yiyi's impressive cleavage a bit too much!These comments are based on watching in Mandarin with English subtitles.

I bought this expecting a badass cop movie starring Jet Li. Instead, Jet Li's role is more like a cameo appearance and the film really is a bad comedy with occasional kung fu fight sequences thrown in. I did enjoy the few fight scenes contained here, but as a whole the film is awful.The story is inept, uninteresting and stupid. The humorous aspects of the film rely on crude jokes, slapstick comedy, over the top, ridiculous moments, as well as references to Jet Li's career (officer Huang Fei Huang). That said it might have been fine, except those responsible forgot to make it funny. This movie makes the most crude, lowbrow work of producer/director Wong Jing look like highly intellectual art. Jet Li has proved with his previous films he is a very capable actor that can carry all sorts of stuff. Even though he only had a cameo appearance, Badges Of Fury is a waste of Jet Li's talents and not a good project. Hopefully, Jet Li will be given more than five minutes screen time in the next Expendables installment, one would hope.

As a long time Jet Li fan (regardless of the genre), I always look forward to films in which he appears.Promoted as an "Action/Adventure" film, 'Badges of Fury' is actually an "Action/Comedy" in the 'Beverly Hills Cop' vein via master filmmaker Stephen Chow... except that the action is totally embarrassing and the film is completely devoid of any comedy (unless you are 2 years old... which is actually an insult to 2-year-olds).Where to begin with this unmitigated disaster?Of the lead cast, Jet Li comes off best as the grizzled veteran cop. Regrettably, his comedic skills (and action talents) are sorely under-utilized. Michelle Chen struggles with a role that no one could possibly make believable (even for a supposed OTT comedy). Meanwhile, Zhang Wen mugs to the camera ad nauseum... to the point where you want someone... anyone... to shoot him and put the audience out of their collective misery. Action maestro Corey Yuen tries what he can with the fight scenes. Wire-fu is intentionally bad. The problem is that it never achieves the "it's so bad that it's good" level. Instead, it settles for just being bad... with even worse CGI work. The only stand-out is a brief sequence where a duel is fought on a round table embedded in a wall. But this is still not reason enough to sit through 94 minutes of agony.Things are certainly not helped by screenwriter Tan Cheung's lackluster, unfunny script. Logic, subtext and actual comedy are thrown by the wayside for... well, I'm not exactly sure. There are some interesting ideas here. But they remain undeveloped. With the exception of only a few actually laughs, the screenplay derives it's "humour" by aiming for the lowest, juvenile approach imaginable... something I didn't think possible until I saw this travesty.But ultimate blame lands at the feet of director Tsz Ming Wong. The key to any action flick or comedy film is timing; an artistic sense that Tsz Ming Wong is completely lacking. Scenes are painfully off-key, strained or just plain poor. He commands no sense of storytelling... instead, preferring to jump from one pointless scene to another. Logic is a foreign concept. Things happen because the director (and the script) wants them to happen. This might be fine if it all came together. Instead it just sits there. Unfunny. Bad. And painfully dull. In other words, avoid this movie at all costs.