DVD
Review | Mad Mission V (Aces Go Places V: The Terracotta Hit)
Written by: Kage
Alan
I was pleasantly surprised by the first few
installments of this series when
Anchor Bay released their box set here in North America, but the final
fourth
film just took all the fun out of it. Not only did it lack much
humor, but
it simply got ridiculously silly. Did that deter me from seeking
out the
fifth film when I realized there was one? Heck no! I'm a
sequel junky,
though I'm not sure that's something I should be bragging about.
Anyway, I
asked my friend Jerry in Hong Kong if he would check to see if the
fifth film
was sold over there since it wasn't here. A package arrived just
before
Christmas with this and one other disc, so I'd like to express my
sincere
thanks to him right off the bat!
After a three-year absence, King Kong (Sam Hui) and Kodajak (Karl Maka)
are back in action. Was it worth the wait? That's the
question I kept asking
myself, but as soon as the familiar theme music started to play, I was
hooked
right back in! After a botched kidnapping to return a girl to
her elderly
husband-to-be, the partners decide to part ways. Each figures
the other is
bad luck, so King Kong changes his name and starts a highly
unsuccessful
investment business while Kodajak makes his living fishing or some
such
thing.
When master thief White Glove manages to get his mittens on the
Terre-Cotta
Army, it's really only so he can possess the Excalibur sword hidden in
one of
the statues. No sooner does he wield the weapon for the first
time that it's
stolen right out of his hands by two people disguised as the Aces
partners.
Brother and sister thieves (Leslie Cheung and Nina Li Chi) make off
with the
sword and King Kong and Kodajak are framed. In order to recover
the sword, the government brings in Chinese Rambo to find the Aces,
only they don't take too kindly to being set up.
With White Glove, the mob and the police hot on their trail, King Kong
and
Kodajak must team up once more to locate the real thieves and recover
the
Terra-Cotta army or face imprisonment and execution. While some
cast members didn't return for this sequel, the new members pick up
the slack and allow the two leads to play off of them extremely well.
There is a great deal more humor and action injected in this film and
while the nifty gadgets that
dominated the first two films are all but absent, director Chia-Liang
Liu
keeps things moving at a speedy pace.
Universe Laser & Video Co. has released "Aces Go Places
V" in a fairly decent Widescreen transfer. There are some
minor glitches, flecks and specs, but nothing overly distracting.
Audio quality is solid and the film is finally
presented with its original Chinese language soundtrack. English
subtitles
are provided along with 8 other language subtitles, so pretty much
everybody
in North America and Asia can enjoy the film. The disc can also
be played in
all regions, so anybody looking to complete their collection will be
able to
watch it on their player. As for extras, there are some talent
files (in
Chinese) and a trailer.
I'm surprised that "Aces Go Places V" got made because
"IV" pretty much
killed the freshness of the series. This was a definitely a very
enjoyable
step back in the right direction, though I wonder if audiences took
notice
since there hasn't been another one made and this was released in
1989.
Still, if this is the last we'll see of the Aces team, then they went
out in
style. Let's just hope that Hollywood never sees the series
because they'll
ruin it with a remake. Again, a special thank you goes out to
Jerry for
sending the disc. As we say here, "You're the man!"
Film Rating:
B
DVD Special Features: N/A
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