DON'T GIVE A DAMN

Starring: Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Kathy Chow, Hung Tin Ming

In recent years, Sammo Hung has lost the adulation of the Hong Kong audience, and his poor box office returns meant that Sammo sought other adventures. Thus, Sammo went to the States and made his name with Martial Law.

Don't give a damn is made before Sammo jetted off for the States, and on the basis of this film, it was a wise decision. In the film, Sammo plays hard-cop Pierre Lau, a person who is just as quick with his sharp-tongued sarcasm as he is with his feet. When two new colleagues enter his department, he finds it difficult to get along with both. Tang Chuen Shek (Kaneshiro) is the new senior officer, while Yau Ching (Kathy Chow) provides the romantic interest later in the film.

While all this is happening, Pierre has got into a fight with Wong Yuk Man (Yuen Biao), a customs officer with the same sort of temperament as Pierre. They soon become good friends, and before long, the four of these unlikely souls join forces to stop the nasty drug deals of Yamamoto, the local businessman / gangster.

While the film offers plenty of fight action, courtesy of Sammo's trademark choreography, the rest of the film suffers from an alarming sense of breakdown. The script is lousy, and the plotting is so dire that you'd be forgiven if you thought you were watching two different films. A lot of emphasis is focused on the relationships, but with so much sarcasm and profanity included, there is so little time to actually develop these relationships into something meaningful. What you get is a complete codswallop of a film, with most of the action completely uninspiring. You just have to wonder whether Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao are getting on in age, as their fights are in no way as entertaining (or ferocious) as they were before.

Sammo's son, Hung Tin Ming, gets a debut here, but he doesn't get the opportunity to do jack, and suffers from poor characterisation. In fact, the whole film is pretty poor, and one alarming mistake is made when the scriptwriters decided to add an insulting remark on black people. If they thought they were funny, then God knows what the blacks thought.

Ironically, the title fits in with what most people thought of the film: don't give a damn.

RATING

5 / 10