The story stars Yuen Biao as Little John, and his on screen brother Big John is played by Leung Kar Yan.
Lau Kar Wing(famous director and brother of the equally famous Lau Kar Leung) plays the villain "Silver Fox".
The movie opens with a hilarious con by Big John and Little John that goes horribly wrong when the beggar, played Sammo Hung (who also directed) derails the plan. The two brothers are left hungry and without money after the plan goes bad so they look for another sucker to dupe. They meet Silver Fox, who not only out smarts them, but beats them terribly.
The con artist brothers realise that it is yet another opportunity to scam the man, and beg to become his students hoping Silver Fox will pay their bills, give them a place to live, and pay their gambling debts. They succeed. Silver Fox becomes their new "master" and takes care of them, but little do they know, Silver Fox is evil. He teaches the brothers to fight, and they are good. The only problem is that they can't fight without each other. Little John learns to Northern Kick and Big John learns the Southern Fist. Lau Kar Wing a real life practitioner of Hung Gar was excellent and comparatively, the other actors were out of their depth.
Things go wrong when Little John learns that his master is not only evil but is also an outlaw and a cop killer. Big John is eventually murdered by the teacher saving Little John's life. Little John vows to take revenge on his old master. He runs into the Beggar, learning that he is versed in monkey Kung Fu. He begs the Begger to teach him, but the Beggar refuses. Little John eventually cons the Beggar into becoming his teacher. Apparently he's learned nothing from the death of his "con" artist brother.
The Kung Fu lessons are full of insults and abuse. The Beggar and Little John don't particularly care for one another and Little John already seems to be over the death of his closest brother. Yuen Biao is nimble enough, and his acrobats are nice. But the monkey Kung Fu sucks. If you want to see excellent "Monkey" Kung Fu, go watch MAD MONKEY KUNG FU, better story, better stunts, better acrobats, and better training sequences.
Yuen Biao is nothing short of amazing though and he is clearly skilled as history would dictate. But his Kung Fu skills (in this movie) are too slow, and choreographed. Sammo Hung as a director is terrible. He uses camera tricks to make the actors move faster, and to cover the fact that some of the moves are lacking. Yuen Baio and Leung Kar Yan move like they're counting numbers "1-2-3-left" arm throw, it's very slow and contrived to me.
I can tell that Leung Kar Yan had no formal martial arts training, and Yuen Biao of course is very good but the choreography didn't do him justice. Plus, the students didn't care about their master, and in the end, Yuen Biao and the Beggar barely liked each other.
These student-teacher relationships are all about respect but this silly movie failed to capture the essence of these important relationships.
I will say that, Knockabout was very funny, and it did make me laugh. So I think fans of Yuen Biao and that other guy, Sammo Hung will enjoy this movie. I'm no fan of Sammo Hung so I didn't but Yuen Biao and Leung Kar Yan did just enough to keep me entertained. Ultimately, it was forgettable.
Lau Kar Wing(famous director and brother of the equally famous Lau Kar Leung) plays the villain "Silver Fox".
The movie opens with a hilarious con by Big John and Little John that goes horribly wrong when the beggar, played Sammo Hung (who also directed) derails the plan. The two brothers are left hungry and without money after the plan goes bad so they look for another sucker to dupe. They meet Silver Fox, who not only out smarts them, but beats them terribly.
The con artist brothers realise that it is yet another opportunity to scam the man, and beg to become his students hoping Silver Fox will pay their bills, give them a place to live, and pay their gambling debts. They succeed. Silver Fox becomes their new "master" and takes care of them, but little do they know, Silver Fox is evil. He teaches the brothers to fight, and they are good. The only problem is that they can't fight without each other. Little John learns to Northern Kick and Big John learns the Southern Fist. Lau Kar Wing a real life practitioner of Hung Gar was excellent and comparatively, the other actors were out of their depth.
Things go wrong when Little John learns that his master is not only evil but is also an outlaw and a cop killer. Big John is eventually murdered by the teacher saving Little John's life. Little John vows to take revenge on his old master. He runs into the Beggar, learning that he is versed in monkey Kung Fu. He begs the Begger to teach him, but the Beggar refuses. Little John eventually cons the Beggar into becoming his teacher. Apparently he's learned nothing from the death of his "con" artist brother.
The Kung Fu lessons are full of insults and abuse. The Beggar and Little John don't particularly care for one another and Little John already seems to be over the death of his closest brother. Yuen Biao is nimble enough, and his acrobats are nice. But the monkey Kung Fu sucks. If you want to see excellent "Monkey" Kung Fu, go watch MAD MONKEY KUNG FU, better story, better stunts, better acrobats, and better training sequences.
Yuen Biao is nothing short of amazing though and he is clearly skilled as history would dictate. But his Kung Fu skills (in this movie) are too slow, and choreographed. Sammo Hung as a director is terrible. He uses camera tricks to make the actors move faster, and to cover the fact that some of the moves are lacking. Yuen Baio and Leung Kar Yan move like they're counting numbers "1-2-3-left" arm throw, it's very slow and contrived to me.
I can tell that Leung Kar Yan had no formal martial arts training, and Yuen Biao of course is very good but the choreography didn't do him justice. Plus, the students didn't care about their master, and in the end, Yuen Biao and the Beggar barely liked each other.
These student-teacher relationships are all about respect but this silly movie failed to capture the essence of these important relationships.
I will say that, Knockabout was very funny, and it did make me laugh. So I think fans of Yuen Biao and that other guy, Sammo Hung will enjoy this movie. I'm no fan of Sammo Hung so I didn't but Yuen Biao and Leung Kar Yan did just enough to keep me entertained. Ultimately, it was forgettable.