Movie Review: Bullet & Brain/神槍手與智多星

Wong Jing produced and wrote Bullet & Brain/神槍手與智多星, which was directed by Keung Kwok-Man

He directed Black Ransom, Treasure Hunt, and Princess and Se7en Kung Fu Masters, all of which I enjoyed for various reasons.

None of those movies could be called great, but they were entertaining, and for me, that’s enough.

These days, it has to be enough.

In Bullet & Brain/神槍手與智多星, underworld intrigue leads to murder, betrayal, and a lone cop’s quest to see justice done.

That sounds pretty interesting, or even impressive, but let’s be realistic: the cop is played by Alex Fong Lik-Sun, who’s not really hard-assed cop material.

But he is goofy rookie material, and that’s his role here.

He even gets to do some action scenes, and the cinematography in at least one of then is pretty good.

I grant you, it’s obviously a case of using one set of skills to make up for someone else’s lack of skills, but so what?

You make do with what you’ve got, right?

An aspiring gangster named Winston has killed his boss, The Principal.

But to get to the Principal’s money he needs to get information from Rain, the Principal’s granddaughter.

She’s being protected by Alex Fong, and when it becomes clear that he can’t protect her (which takes all of 30 seconds), she calls in a favor owed to her father by Bullet and Brain.

These two are played by Anthony Wong and Francis Ng, and they single-handedly show us how good this movie could have been.

Their characters are, thanks the actors’ abilities, smooth, believable, and engaging, and a lot of fun to watch.

Their performances are the definite stand-outs in this film.

It helps that everyone around them are one-dimensional cutouts that come dangerously close to being parodies.

But as I said before, this movie isn’t supposed to edify people.

It’s supposed to entertain them, and it entertained me.

One of the funniest things about this movie is imagining what kind of person would be able to take it seriously enough to get caught up in the narrative.

Try it.

You’ll very quickly feel pretty good about yourself, and you may even laugh.

Bullet & Brain/神槍手與智多星 has a lot of good laughs in it.

How about a Flashdance homage that looks like a cross between the fallout from a Shamu performance and bukkake?

Or the most conveniently placed huge pile of water bottles ever?

What about a subtitle that appears not once but twice saying “He is our Mammon”?

This is a movie that ends with the subtitle “I won’t do the full monty! No way!”

Bullet & Brain/神槍手與智多星 is not a very good movie, but I don’t think it was supposed to be.

It’s an entertaining movie if you’re in the right frame of mind, and I can think of a lot worse ways to spend 90 minutes.

I enjoyed it when I saw it in the cinema, and I enjoyed it again when I watched it on DVD for this review.

I’ll recommend Bullet & Brain/神槍手與智多星, but it’s probably wise to be in the right mood when you watch it and keep your expectations low.

Which is a good recipe for a married sex life.

From what I’ve read.