Should you watch this if it’s free? OK.
Should you watch this at weekday movie ticket prices? No.
Score: 2.0/5
Secret ending? No, but there are some bonus scenes in the credits.
Running time: 100 minutes (~1.75 hours)
“Buddy Cops (刑警兄弟)” is an action comedy about two cops who suddenly find themselves becoming colleagues in the same office and brothers in the same house. Hijinks ensue when their different personalities clash. It stars Bosco Wong (Chan Kin-Fei), King Kong (Johnny Li), Kate Tsui (Petite Princess), Charmaine Fong (Bessie), Feng Tsui Fan (Philip Chan), Elaine Jin (Qiu), and Eric Tsang (Man Sir). It is rated NC-16
“Buddy Cops (刑警兄弟)” was shot in 2012, but only released this year. You’d think that all that time would have been spent perfecting the film and editing it for consistency and logic, but that is strangely absent in the final product. Bosco Wong and King Kong prove that they truly don’t have what it takes to helm a big screen production thanks to their inane and unbelievable expressions.
Highlights
Sarcastic jibes at bureaucracy
If there’s one thing that “Buddy Cops (刑警兄弟)” does well, it’s to poke fun at the ridiculous decisions made in large organisations. It disguises its snipes at red tape and pointless practices with a thin veneer of humour, and this will be probably be the only part of the film that most audiences can relate to.
Letdowns
Oafish, shallow humour
There’s nothing wrong with visual humour, but the childish antics of the main characters make it seem like they’re pre-pubescent teenagers rather than fully grown adults. Their exaggerated faces and dumb insults are so over the top that another character event asks them to “stop this nonsense.” When even the fictional characters find the actions of the two leads irritating, you know there’s something seriously wrong with the comedy.
Very little buddy cop elements
The biggest problem with the film is that there are precious few buddy elements and cop elements, which is atrocious for a film that is literally titled “Buddy Cops.” They don’t solve cases together, even if you’re charitable enough to call the crime in the film a case. There’s little police work or investigation for either of them, let alone as a duo. It’s a misleading title that seems to have been plucked out of thin air by an illiterate translator, and its original title, “Holy Beast Cops,” would have been a far more suitable name for the film.
No sense of storytelling
The movie feels like random elements Frankensteined into some vague semblance of a script, brought to life by a mediocre budget. Individually, the elements are OK, but they’re dumped together so poorly that you can see the stitching that holds the film together. Even the order of events seem to have been jumbled up. There’s no sense of storytelling, plotting, or organisation, so much so that you really wonder if there was a script in the first place.
Confused premise
The film touts itself as a cop movie, when in reality the bulk of it is made up of domestic drama. So is it a family comedy or a cop comedy? There’s no harm in having both if it’s woven together well, but the movie will focus on the family squabble for long stretches, before suddenly remembering it’s a cop movie and throwing in a police scene out of the blue. There’s no direction because the film cannot make up its mind on its style and genre, and as a result you don’t know what’s the point of the movie either.
“Buddy Cops (刑警兄弟)” could have been a decent film if it had better and more logical organisation.
“Buddy Cops (刑警兄弟)” opens in cinemas 21 April, 2016 (Thursday).
This review was also published on Yahoo!.
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