Bullet Points: Mad Mission Part 2: Aces Go Places
It has been way too long since I watched a Mad Mission movie, and since the original is already on this site, I figured the second was a good choice. Mad Mission Part 2: Aces Go Places or maybe you might know it by Aces Go Places II. Either way, your favorite characters King Kong (Samuel Hui), Kody Jack (Karl Maka) and Hot Tung (Sylvia Chang) are all back. Or maybe you know them as King Kong (hey, that one is the same), Albert ‘Baldy’ Au and Nancy Ho. Oh boy is this confusing, good thing I have some Bullet Points to help me out.
- Recap – All your favorite characters are back in Mad Mission Part 2, and for those of you who forgot about the action in Mad Mission, the movie begins with the diamond heist scene from the original. Like all diamond heists, someone is going to be upset, and in this case the American mafia is involved and they are sending Filthy Harry (played by Joe Dimmick doing his best Clint Eastwood impersonation aka Dirty Harry… get it!) or as you might know him, Black Gloves. Black Gloves makes sense because of the criminal White Gloves from the first, but us Americans love our celebrities and can’t handle interesting writing.
- Robot – Mad Mission Part 2 goes heavy on the robots, which is a good thing. When we first meet King Kong, he is attacked by remote control helicopters that combine into a large robot. My inner Voltron fan was very excited, and my outer Mad Mission fan got even more excited when King Kong got punched right through a wall. King Kong is able to take out the robot by smashing a television over its head and my entire street had to hear me shout “welcome to prime time, robot bitch.”
- Recycling – The motorcycle, scratch that, the cycling chases in Mad Mission Part 2 are even better than the first, and that movie had some of the best I’ve ever seen. Right after King Kong takes out the robot he is chased on his motorcycle, and never in my life did I know that I needed to see someone jump a motorcycle over back to back to back double decker buses. Can’t get better than that… can it? When King Kong jumps his motorcycle right into the drink it transforms into a freakin’ jetski! However, I can concede the point that all that motorcycle exhaust isn’t the best for the environment, and so did King Kong when he escapes another chase after being framed for a bank robbery on a bike with skills that would make the BMX Bandits drool.
- Reception – Mad Mission Part 2 was really packing in the action at the start, but it was about this time I thought to myself, “I was told Kody Jack and Hot Tung returned for the sequel.” They are and this time they are getting married! Kody Jack is late to the wedding, due to the bank robbery frame job, and gets his old pals involved in another car chase that sees our heroes driving a car up a tree. What can’t you do, Mad Mission Part 2?
- Reverse – You might think there are only excellent motorcycle chases, and not any good car ones (driving up a tree would make you think that) but you would be wrong. When King Kong and Kody Jack are being chased by the henchman of Bozo (Yasuaki Kurata, or we better call him by his Aces Go Places II name Bull because that is a terrible name, we get some of the finest reverse driving and two separate cars hit the two wheel switch. Man, I love conveniently placed ramps on the road. Did I mention that the chase ends with a perfectly bifurcated car that still manages to be driveable?
- Romance – If you prefer fight scenes, Mad Mission Part 2 has a big beat’em up at a Valentine’s Day themed nightclub, that not only features romantic miscommunication shenanigans with King Kong and his love interest Juju, and Kody Jack and Hot Tung, but some of the best hand to hand combat in the movie. As if they would have a scene at a bar and not have a fight, but Mad Mission Part 2 goes one further and literally brings down the roof.
- Robots – Do you remember when I said Mad Mission Part 2 went heavy on the robots, well the finale proves I am no liar. King Kong and Kody Jack are attacked by a robot, but they have a robot of their own. The scene features tons of missiles and fireworks, and who cares if the wires are all visible. It might not be the best action set piece in the movie, but it is the most explosive.
Mad Mission Part 2: Aces Go Places is a great sequel to the first movie and is pretty much non-stop action with a little comedy thrown in during the few down times. There are so many action set pieces that I couldn’t mention them all, but I should be expelled for not mentioning the finale when Hot Tung shows up with Black Beauty, looking very much like Enter the Deathmobile but with rockets, for King Kong and Kody Jack. One more thing… Mother Flippin’ jetpack!!!
Bonus Bullet Points
- Soundtraxx – The theme song sung by Samuel Hui is back in all of its whistling glory and the end credits has another Samuel Hui song, “Be My Very Best Friend” that is currently in heavy rotation in my playlist.
- Familiar Mad Mission Faces – I liked how Raymond Wong and Eric Tsang came back as Priest and Fattie respectively. Can you imagine a film today with a character named Fattie?
- End But Not the End – Mad Mission Part 2 was the last to be filmed byMad Mission director Eric Tsang (guess you can’t be upset there is a character named Fattie when it is played by the director) but there are still four more to go and one crossover film with the Lucky Stars film series. Sounds like me and you are the lucky ones.
