Cast Member: Law Kar-Ying

It has numerous nods to the Shaw Brothers classics and harks back to those swordplay flicks of yesteryear, making you smile, cry, jump for joy and shout like a banshee, like any good martial arts film should.

Great all-round entertainment that shows Stephen Chow and the Monkey King myth at their finest.

If you enjoyed the first ‘A Chinese Odyssey’, then this second part is pretty much guaranteed to please.

This isn’t a Jackie Chan film, it’s a very entertaining and absorbing action-thriller that just so happens to have a strong central performance from a man called Chan.

The action is about only thing that makes ‘Dr. Wai’ worth watching, with Li on typically fine form for a couple of battles with some interesting opponents.

On paper, this looked a winner: Yuen Biao in an Indiana Jones role fighting an assortment of villains in search of an ancient relic. On celluloid though, this is a grand turkey.

‘Dragon Loaded 2003’ is a typical Hong Kong comedy with a little injection of romance, but never rises above the ordinary.

Avid fans of Chow’s humour can also rest assured as this is one of his sharpest films.

The humour is sharp and often hits the mark which therefore makes this one of his best and certainly most accessible films.

Packed with the deluge of banality and popular references that will doubtlessly age the film well before it’s time, this third part is every bit as frustrating and lazy as the one that came before it.

Seemingly endless scenes of two annoying kids, empty nods to whatever is currently in popular culture and a few moments of teeth-grindingly insincere pathos.

‘Kitchen’ is watchable, of course for Jordan Chan’s first-rate display, though it tends to languish in pretentiousness when a firmer hand would have been far more effective.