"Hong Kong movies come of age with the film release of the infamous anime. Combining all the classic elements of the genre 'The Wicked City' is an epic assault on the senses that never relents."

"The Hong Kong anti reptoid bureau record a huge increase in reptoid activity coinciding with a series of mysterious deaths across the city. Cops Ken & Taki are despatched to track down the evil ruler of the monster world - an 150 year old demon capable of awesome magic. His plans are for world domination involving a new drug called 'happiness' with the result of mankind returning to its most primitive state and enslaved by the monster world."

"Featuring (amongst other things): Spider Women, Demons, Tentacles, Car Chases, Drug Dealing, Killer Clocks, Monster Pinball Machines, Phantom Creatures, martial arts and ancient magic."

All of the above is written on the back of the video box, and after reading that I thought that it sounded like it would be one of those film which would be quite bad in a good way. Oh boy was I wrong. This film is utter rubbish. Mince. Trash. Crap. Rotten. Terrible. Any word that fits that sort of bill will do. I do not know where to start in telling you about how bad this film is... I could mention virtually any aspect of it, and it would be bad. The hardest thing to believe is the cast. I bet you Jacky Cheung, Michelle Reis and anyone else noteworthy who was in this film will not be putting it on their CV or resume...

Just so that you do not go thinking that their is absolutely nothing good about this film, I'll mention the plus point first. Michelle Reis. Why is she a plus point? Well simply because she is one of the best looking, sexiest women I have seen on film in a long time. She looks pretty darn good throughout this film, and is about the only thing that brings this film up to the nearing on bearable mark. If you want to see her looking her best, I'd check out the former Miss Hong Kong's (in 1970) performance in July 13th (which I think is also entitles 100 Ways to Die). She is sooooooooooo good looking in that film... *drool*

Ok, now back on to The Wicked City. Why is it so truly awful? Well firstly the plot. Other than it being ridiculous, it is not that interesting and through losing interest in it quite often, I also found it very hard to follow. The description on the back of the box is no use either as it is not exactly correct, as the supposedly evil 150 year old Demon isn't actually evil as he want the reptoids (or Reptars as they are referred to in the film) to get along with humans, rather than fighting them. However, there is another one who does want all the humans dead, oh and one of the police officers is half reptoid so he goes through the huge dilema of deciding which side to be loyal to, and which he thinks is more suited to him... *yawn*, and the other cop is in love with a female reptoid (Michelle Reis - don't blame him, I am too!), so he has a dilema too... *snooze*. The little sub-plots are so cheesy and predictable, that they are really quite mind numbingly boring. Maybe that is why I got lost as far as the main plot is concerned.

Ok, so the plot is rubbish, what else? How about the special effects? Oh... My... God... I have not seen special effects this bad in a very VERY long time. They look cheap, tacky, fake and quite, quite bad. The scene near the end with the planes is a prime example of this. Had the film been made in the 60's or 70's the effects might have looked a quite impressive, if a little far fetched and wierd, but for a film made in the 90's (as far as I am aware - even if it is the late 80's the effects are still bad), there really is no excuse. I have seen films with lower budgets do better. Hell, even the Blair Witch Project with its budget could have put in better special effects than this film if they wanted to! A plane crash in that film would have been a novel twist...

Witches aside, what else can I slate in The Wicked City. How about the entire content of the film? Yup, I think that will do for this one. The content... hmmmmm... where to begin. If you can, for now, imagine all the most stupid things you could think of, and put them in a film... all the little things that you think are so ridiculously silly, and are such amzingly awful ideas, bad visual humour, or anything along those lines and again put them in a film, you would have something that is really quite pathetic to watch. I bet you know where I am going with this one... Yes, The Wicked City is that film. From the useless and quite lame and stupid looking police officers with telekinetic powers, to the machine reptoid who at one point is a pinball machine, then an elevator, then gets turned into a motorbike and is rode by another reptoid, the "Spider Woman" reptoid, and virtually every other scene in the film, you would not be able to believe that so many bad ideas could be put into one film.

I cannot think of any scene in the film which actually had my interest through a merit value. I was interested at the start of the film as I did not know what a piece of detestable trash I had before me, but that is the only time... Sorry, no I am lying, from a purely male visual point of view, any time that Michelle Reis was on screen my interest level perked up a little, especially in the scenes where she is sans clothes. Other than that though, nothing.

I am a HUGE fan of Hong Kong cinema, and before this film there has NEVER been a HK cinema film which I have wanted to switch off before it was over. I guess there always had to be one. In fact, this is one of the few films which I would honestly have to say I hate. The others which I say this to are soppy girly romantic films which are just not my taste in film, but HK cinema, fantasy films ARE my cup of tea so I should know a bad one when I see one. In The Wicked City I saw one which I will unfortunately remember for along time.

The plot, the content, the special effects, the subtitles, the acting (although this is not really the actors/actresses faults), the script, the dialogue, the editing, what else can I mention... virtually everything that is in this film is TERRIBLE. It is a waste of good actors and actresses talents, and The WIcked City was a waste of 90 minutes of my life.

AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE!!!

Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: None of the Above
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age