Naughty Boys

A man is released from prison and goes to retrieve the diamonds that he and his three partners had stolen. But instead of the diamonds, he finds a box full of rocks. His partners, who also get released after a short while, believe that he plans to keep the loot all for himself, and they go after him. So he turns to his childhood friend (Kara Hui), who happens to be a pretty tough martial artist, for help. Meanwhile, a pretty female private detective (Carina Lau) is also investigating the case....Like some other martial arts films, "Naughty Boys" should be given two different ratings: one for the plot and the comedy, and one for the action. The first one would be no higher than 4 / 10; the second one could arguably be an 8 / 10; that's why I ultimately gave the film a 6. Simply put, the entire first hour is nearly worthless; but then we are treated to a spectacular 3-on-1 fight, with Kara Hui and the two male leads going against the villainous Phillip Ko. And at the end we get an extended (about 15 minutes long) set piece set in (you guessed it) a warehouse, where everybody is beating up everybody else, and everybody is looking for a suitcase full of cash AND diamonds, which keeps flying from person to person. The glorious Kara Hui shines, as does Carina Lau who performs some fantastic gymnastic tricks (even if she was probably doubled for the most difficult of them) and kicks the bad guys all over the place. It's a frantic action set-piece and pure 80's Hong Kong heaven. If you are a martial arts fan, "Naughty Boys" is worth buying for the action scenes alone, IMO. Never mind the rest of the movie.

Oh, and Jackie Chan has a 3-second cameo at the very start, if that means anything to you.