Straight of the bat, why the hell they decided to dub over a cast who's first language is English (all but Jordan Chan and Anita Yuen), is beyond me. It makes no sense at all...
From Golden Harvest and director Corey Yuen comes the Hong Kong action debut of Shannon Lee, daughter to Bruce of course. And just for fun, you get moments of her father shining through, such as certain moves she pulls off during fighting, and even the fact that her dead husband is called Bruce. Yes, it's as ridiculous as the overall film!
Set in Prague, the film opens with the ugliest bunch of gangsters ever committed to celluloid, with one team led by Michael Wong and the other by super-fighter, Benny 'The Jet' Urquidez. Director Yuen Kwai tries too hard to make the introductory scene of the film slick and stylish, resulting in dodgy edits that don't help kick things off well - although I did enjoy the chained, burning, jeep action...
Thankfully, it gets better!
It doesn't take long for the cinematography and edits to calm down somewhat and as we are introduced to Shannon Lee's character. Within seconds she gets her debut action scene against Brit-kicker Mike Lambert, which is a lot of fun and typically impressive of the Yuen's choreography making Lee look more like Jackie Chan than her fast striking father.
As much as I love them both, the introduction and terrible dubbing of Jordan Chan and Anita Yuen starts the downfall of the film for me. Brought in as the comedy element, which I'm sure may work in the Hong Kong version using their original language, they come across as idiots for the most of it (mostly due to the horrendous dub in this version)...
Wong is his usual cigar chomping, stone-faced, self hardly offering any excitement except for a few gunfights here and there. Of course, it's all about Shannon Lee's breakout role as an action star, and she certainly gets the higher percentage of it - impressing in her moves as well as stunt-work and gun-play. Yuen Kwai and Yuen Tak certainly did a good job in making her look like a genuine action star!
While the film may be paper thin on plot, and the comedy as weak as a kitten, And Now You're Dead has something about it that makes you want to keep watching. The action (both in martial arts and gun-play) is the films saving grace and there is plenty of it, including a ladder-on-a-helicopter stunt inspired by Police Story 3 that is good fun after an impressive, lengthy shoot-out. We certainly can't deny Kwai's talents as an action director and this definitely delivers in that department.
After a death of one of the team members on the one hour mark, the last 30 minutes takes a mature turn leaving most of the comedy behind for an all-out, action-packed, fight filled finale on a (badly CGI-ed) blimp with Lee versus Urquidez, which is fantastic. It's great to see 'The Jet' back in some Hong Kong styled action!
Overall: Overly flawed but action packed and great fun, And Now You're Dead gives HK action fans what they want, along with some unintentional laughs...
