The Magnificent Scoundrels

I'm not a big fan of Stephen Chow movies, but this one was good. The writers Wellington Fung, and Lik-Chi Lee really put in some great twist into this story.

Valentino (Chow ) - a con man gets dumped by his fiancé (Sandra Ng), he chases after the limo carrying her or he thinks. It turns out that it was a limo for some other couple, and Valentino get beaten up by the bride, and the groom. While trying another scheme to con people, he gets picked up by Kwan (Teresa Mo) who's another con artist. They both try to play tricks on each other, but they soon find out who they are, and decide to work on a scam together. In the mean time, gangs who Kwan conned catches up to her. They of course want their money back, but she's already spent it. In an effort to get the money, they break into a rich man's house. While they're probing the house, the owner comes home, but they think he's Jackie - a nephew they never met. Hegemony of their misadventure starts in earnest when they try to take advantage of this situation, and con the rich man.

The movie is funny, and outrageous at the same time. The way different characters interact is pure genius. Pretending one thing, scheming another, the con, and mistakes really goes hand in hand to create one big comedy.

Amy Yip shows off her nice body, and tries to con her way to the riches. I got to see a completely different side of Teresa Mo in this movie. She usually plays a pretty face, but in this movie, she's a full on comic.

This is one movie you wouldn't want to miss. Highly recommended.

7.5/10

A Stephen Chow vehicle, this film is about a con artist and his world. Mr. Chow plays Tino in a usual over the top performance. After he gets jilted by his girlfriend (Sandra Ng, in what really is a cameo), he goes through comic misadventures with Theresa Mo, someone he met who is also a con artist. She is pretty much his apprentice and they set out to steal from a person's home. Trouble is, other cons also had the same idea, but they use a different approach. It turns out to be a film of mistaken identities, fast paced nonsense and comic violence (theresa Mo seems to get slapped often). The movie also has the amazingly sexy Amy Yip as Apple, who is also a con, but a hopelessly drunken one. I don't need to tell you what happens, since if you like Mr. Chow, you'll like this. It is a slapstick comedy on helium, it is all over the place. However, that is what Hong Kong slapstick is, its almost Keystone Kops type action. Not perfect by a long shot, its entertaining. What more can you expect from a comedy? Watch it.

Stephen Chow is a comic genius and his movies showcase his quick humor and at times tastefully done slapstick comedy. But, I think he overdoes the comedy in a nonsensical way in this flick, where he plays con artist Valentino who impersonate various people with another con artist to create money-making schemes. In their way are some gangsters who has tricks up their sleeves as well.

The plot is actually pretty slow with the movie consumed with moronic jokes and far-fetched stupidity. It made me wonder how the great Wu Ma (of Chinese Ghost Story fame) would get himself cast in such an oddball comedy, but, I guess that's called versatile acting. This film would generate some laughs from viewers, but I've seen much more entertaining and funnier stuff from Hong Kong than us.

Grade D

The Magnificent Scoundrels (1991) pairs the two comedians Teresa Mo and Stephen Chow. The two become the most unlikely pair of con artists. Stephen's girl friend has ran off to the chapel and got married. He's so distraught that he tries to stop the marriage. Sadly he goes after the wrong couple. Whilst moping around he runs into Teresa Mo, (who's a real bad con artist) tries to stage an accident in front of Stephen (he's acting like a blind man) . She tries so hard to trick him but it fails badly (She tries to act like several different people, including a dog!). Feeling sorry for her, he agrees to take her under his wing. The two soon get involved in one of craziest half baked scheme you'll ever see.

A funny film starring the great team of Stephen Chow and Teresa Mo. The film has a lot of popular and well known stars and bit players in this one. Karl Maka plays Stephen's mentor, Yuen Wah and Roy Cheung play a pair of gangsters, Wu Ma co-stars as another con artist along with Amy Yip and Sandra Ng makes a brief appearance as Stephen's former girl friend. A terrific film thats full of laughs and crazy situations. This has to be one of my favorite comedies of all time. I have never laughed so hard.

Highest recommendation!

The car wreck stunt involving Stephen Chow and Teresa Mo is an all time classic.