First up the BluRay of Wong Jing's 2011 movie Treasure Inn. It's not out here in the US but you can find it easily on the internet from places that sell Asian movies. It's a comedy action picture set in an older China. The guy with the golden sword on the left is Nicholas Tse and he plays Master Kung. He's a lowly policeman who gets crappy jobs and no respect from the other veteran officers. The guy with the teeth is Nick Cheung and he plays Brad. He's Kung's partner and the comic relief. The pretty ladies on the left are Huang Yi and Charlene Choi who play Fired Dragon Girl and Water Dragon Girl. They are bounty hunters and the love interests. The woman on the right side of the picture is Liu Yang and she plays Yuk Ling-Lung the owner of the Treasure Inn. The guy on the extreme right is Tong Dawei and he plays Man Man Chitt. He's a traveling doctor and secretly in love with Yuk Ling-Lung. She's got something going for Master Kung.
There's a robbery and all the people in the house are murdered. The thieves steal a huge white jade statue and make their escape. The local cops are incompetent, other than Master Kung, and they're pushed out of the way by Captain Iron. He takes over and raises some suspicions about our hero guys. The local officers, jumping to do CI's bidding, lock Master Kung and Brad up in prison. Our heroes meet the dragons sisters there. Thinking they can clear themselves by catching the real thieves the guys break out of jail. There's fighting, some running about, and plenty of horse riding before they wind up at the highly remote Treasure Inn. There's to be a special auction for stolen goods there. Mixed up with all these characters are a bunch of evil villainous kung fu masters who kill with special powers. Once everyone shows up at the Treasure Inn there's plenty of yakkin' and fightin' as well as plenty of comedy and romance. Wong Jing has a pretty distinctive style with a mix of fairly good action and comedy that skews more to the physical and lowbrow. Some jokes are funny and some are groaners. We laughed a lot and I sure enjoyed it. I'll want to watch it again sometimes.
I'd seen Alligator when it came out in 1980 and liked it then. It's director Lewis Teague's 2nd movie and one of his better ones. It's got a screenplay by John Sayles who came in after the first script was written. Robert Forster is Detective David Madison and he's got the job of finding out where the foot, and a bit of leg, that was found in the sewage treatment plant came from. It turns out to be Edward Norton, a sewer worker, who disappeared while at work. More parts turn up and that leads Robert to Robin Riker who plays reptile scientist Marisa Kendell. They get some romance going as the film moves along. There's an evil businessman, played by Dean Jagger, who is directing his future son-in-law's genetic lab to do some illegal research on synthetic hormones. The puppies he uses for his experiments have been going into the sewers and that's where the problem is. The puppy snacks, rich with hormones, have made an alligator dropped into the toilet 12 years ago into a huge monster with an insatiable appetite. Attempts to find the critter fail and there's plenty of reptile chompin' action and men women and children get bit by the big one. There's plenty of fun along the way and some silly jokes. I still found it an entertaining movie and would recommend it to monster and comedy fans a like. It's a bit gorey but nothing any CSI or Bones fan would find too much.
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