DVD Review – Badge of Fury (2013)

Surprisingly not terrible… well, not terrible, it’s actually not bad… wait, wait, wait, this is actually pretty funny… and it’s actually really good! That ladies and gentleman is my thought process over the 90 minutes running time of Wong Tsz Ming’s Badge Of Fury. The film stars Jet Li, Wen Zhang and Michelle Chen as a trio of mismatched cops. Li plays Huang Fei Hong (sounds familiar right?) the veteran super cop whilst the young Wang Bu Er (Zhang) thinks of himself as THE ultimate super cop, and he is pretty special but 90% of the time he’s a total idiot. Guiding these two is Angela (Chen) a female inspector who is leading the case of the dreaded Smiley Killer.

Chief suspect is young actress Liu Jin Shui (Liu Shishi) as all of the victims happen to be her ex-partners. Digging a little further we are introduced to her older sister Yiyi, a real heart breaker; graced with supermodel looks and rather outstanding assets, this has led to many of her sister’s men grovelling at her feet.

Then we have their cousin Liu Jun (Stephen Fung) who does his best to help his cousins as well as care for his paralysed uncle. It’s up to our trio of crazy cops to get to the bottom of the grinning murders and all the clues are pointing to the Liu family! This is a comedy right?

Badge Of Fury is a rollercoaster of a movie, initial impressions from the trailers clearly made this film seem very cringeworthy and it seemed insane that Jet Li would be a part of it, but after watching the movie, I completely get it – this film must have been an absolute blast to film!

Understandably the zany cartoon comedy mixed with CGI and wire-work will annoy many, but it grows on you, and it suits characters like Wang Bu Er. The film also knocks occasionally on the fourth wall poking fun at actors, for example Huang Fei Hong’s reaction when he’s told that people pirate kung fu movies starring Jet Li.

The amount of notable old school kung fu actors making appearances in the film as well was personal highlight for myself, when Wang tails Yiyi they find a courtyard filled with ageing martial artists from the likes of Lau Kar-Leung to Fung Hak-On. Leung Siu-Lung even has a role in the film, not quite matching the bar he set on Kung Fu Hustle, but it was great to see him on screen once again.

Overall it’s like City Hunter for this decade; it’s zany, comical, it’s got villainously buxom females and the action is kick ass!

4/5