Magic Cop (1990)

The greatest movie ever made..!

Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

This movie is fantastic fun and by this movie is fantastic fun I mean this movie is fantastic and I also mean that this movie is really, really, fun!The subtitles can get a bit annoying sometimes especially when there is a lot of action on the screen which you are missing in order to read the lines, then have to back it up to re watch it all over again, but this is the kind of thing I would complain about any time I watch a foreign movie that has subtitles, so I can't really attack it too much for that.Great action, some really funny parts, and the acting and story are better than you would expect.

Vampire Buster Lam Ching-Ying does it again with his skillful and magical persona, playing Uncle Feng who joins forces with Hong Kong police detectives Lam (Wilson Lam) and No. 2237 (Miu Kiu Wai) to investigate a drug ring, whose leader is a black magic practicing Sorceress (Michiko Nishiwaki) that can turn the deceased into zombies.Lam Ching-Ying sheds his usual Taoist Priest character but brings the same personality and bagful of magic tricks and charms into this modern story, catching ghosts left and right in the attention grabbing introduction, which then leads to the detectives trying to stop a runaway drug dealer - all leading to a funny culture clash between Feng's mystical style in solving the case and Detective Lam's more conventional and by-the-book method.There is only some light martial arts action, but the film is pretty fast-paced with all its investigation scenes and zombie action, including the thrilling battle scenes between Uncle Feng and the Sorceress. The special effects of the film were nicely done and I thought the acting was actually good.The story could have emphasized the drug dealing plot a little bit more, but other than that, this film is great zombie and magic action fun! Grade A-

This movie is absolutely brilliant and will become a part of my collection. Sometimes, with the number of unknown movies that I have been watching lately I have been becoming a bit board, but I must remember that every so often a movie of absolute brilliance appears and Magic Cop is one of them.Plotwise Magic Cop is not all that great. It is a very basic plot of good guy verses bad guy, the twist in this story is that the good guy is a cop who happens to be a sorcerer and the bad guy (or should I say girl) is a sorceress. Okay, the description of sorcerer is very European and the magic that occurs within the movie deals more with Taoist spirituality. Even so it still makes a very interesting movie to watch. Even though the effects are poor by Hollywood standards, they are the sort one expects from Hong Kong movies and adds to the flavour of the movie. I was going to describe it as having a comic book flavour, but it does not because the comic book movies have created a very fantasy feel to them. Movies like the Big Hit use bright colours while Batman uses very distinct props which create a twisted and Gothic feel to it.A zombie, or as the movie terms it, a walking cadaver, rampages through a restaurant carrying a case of drugs. The police are a little confused that this person was able to withstand multiple gunshots and being smashed apart by cars, and this attracts the attention of a retired sergeant. In the opening sequence we are shown that he has extensive knowledge on dealing with the spirit world and he saves an unfortunate mother and daughter from the anger of their ancestors. Thus he comes onto the scene though is rejected by his peers as being unorthodox and trapped in a world that does not exist. This changes when they discover that he is able to drag up information above and beyond any normal person can find out and that at the bottom of this drug ring is a powerful sorceress that is using the art in a skeptical world to advance her power.Magic Cop is a cool movie because it merges successfully the swords and sorcery feel within the modern world. It is a movie where magic is tossed freely and evil witches try to take control of our heroes. I do not know if the magic sequences were developed by the filmmakers or considered to be true. As for magic I am very conscience of its existence because of reliable sources documenting its existence. It is more an ancient phenomenon because our skeptical western minds refuse to accept the existence of that which we cannot see or touch. Faith in the western world has all but vanished, except for that which we have in ourselves. Magic is not a good thing: it is a very dangerous thing that we must beware of, but to totally ignore it is even more dangerous.

Lam Ching Ying is one of my favorite Chinese actors and when he passed on I was greatly saddened. Although I can't pick my favorite of the movies that he's done, as there are so many great ones, "Magic Cop" is up there. Lam once again plays his "Ghostbusting Taoist monk", but in this one he's a cop (but still Ghost-busting and Taoist) This film will bring a smile to your face, it's action packed & it holds up on multiple viewings. What's NOT to like?? Still not sold? The writer of this film also wrote suck greats as "In the line of Duty", the hilarious "God of Cookery", AND Shaolin Soccer.My Grade: ADVD Extras: Just the theatrical trailer & a short bio on Lam Ching Ying