I am a big fan of Yuen Biao, and I had heard that Iceman Cometh was supposed to be *the* Yuen Biao movie, with a great leading performance and some spectacular kung fu. I finally found the DVD a couple of days ago - and unfortunately I was quite disappointed. Yuen Biao is certainly not bad - far from it -, but the movie actually doesn't have that much fighting in it, and the story, while moderately entertaining, does lack a good deal of charisma. The comedy is fair but not great, and there are some really nasty scenes of violence. All in all, not a very well-balanced product.
As a Yuen Biao movie, it certainly falls grievously short of classics like Zu Warriors From The Magic Mountain and Prodigal Son. Maggie Cheung is not bad here, either, but doesn't manage to make the movie look better than it is.
Iceman Cometh reminds more than a little of the similarly themed 1991 Hong Kong movie Kung Fu Vs. Acrobats (Ma deng ru lai shen zhang), in which Yuen Wah also plays the bad guy, and which I've rated a 6. Iceman Cometh deserves the same grade. But since I had much higher hopes for Iceman Cometh, I can't help being somewhat disappointed.
As a Yuen Biao movie, it certainly falls grievously short of classics like Zu Warriors From The Magic Mountain and Prodigal Son. Maggie Cheung is not bad here, either, but doesn't manage to make the movie look better than it is.
Iceman Cometh reminds more than a little of the similarly themed 1991 Hong Kong movie Kung Fu Vs. Acrobats (Ma deng ru lai shen zhang), in which Yuen Wah also plays the bad guy, and which I've rated a 6. Iceman Cometh deserves the same grade. But since I had much higher hopes for Iceman Cometh, I can't help being somewhat disappointed.