Sing and his good buddy really want to join the city's main gang - the axe gang. Their only problem is that they are a pair of bumbling guys that can't do anything gang-related. But they decide that at least they can pretend to be in the gang, which leads to them being confronted by the real gang.

Who would have ever thought that a thin plot line and extensive special effects could actually make a good movie? Stephen Chow must have figured that problem out and my best guess as to what he did here was just add some good humor and stir. In addition to the fact that the special effects are very imaginative, but even this alone often makes bad movies. But once again, there is plenty of wacky humor here. All the best comic timing anyone can remember from watching cartoons in elementary school is here in good doses. A chase scene, as as our hero Sing escapes from an angry landlady, is reminiscent of "The Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote" cartoon and it is positively hilarious. The stylized comic extravaganza gets only better from there.

The film also critically spares the viewer excess. There is plenty of action and lots of obvious computer effects, but nothing is really overdone as is typical of many Hollywood movies. The action and special effects don't seem reused throughout the movie, each stunt/effect is given just enough screen time to be enjoyed, but then something new is shown. A scene where two musicians fight two ninja masters really shows this - nothing is repeated in that scene. Each attack/fight move/stunt, real or magical, is always fresh. The scene is one of the most inventive fight scenes ever and a good high point in inventiveness and special effects use. --- 8/10

Rated R, kind of unfairly, for mainly comic violence and cartoonish mayhem.