WITS OF THE BRATS is a late-era Shaw Brothers comedy with a few tacked-on action bits. It was the sole directorial outing for Alexander Fu Sheng, who also has a small supporting role, but it was co-directed by Wong Jing who also wrote the screenplay and it feels very much like a Wong Jing movie. Sadly, most of this is a pretty poor knockabout comedy of the lowest wit. A quartet of idiotic characters spend a good hour bumbling around and trying to outwit each other for no good reason, and it's only towards the end that the tempo picks up and things begin to get interesting. The cast alone makes this film watchable, with Fu Sheng's younger brother Chang Chan-Peng standing in for Fu Sheng in his usual type of role, and Chan Pak-Cheung (of THE MAGIC CRYSTAL) as a hustler and pool expert. Lin Hui Huang gets much more screen time than he does usually and really shines too. Wong Yue shows up late on and is a welcome presence, but the real highlights are Lee Hoi San and Jimmy Wang Lung Wei, who each have brief but engaging fight scenes that are the highlights of the movie; the last scene in particular is a hilarious classic moment of Hong Kong cinema.
