MY LUCKY STARS (1985) ** ½

Detective Jackie Chan needs help cracking a case.  The bad guys seemingly know his every move, so he turns to his old gang, led by Sammo Hung (who also directed), who are now wanted criminals for help.  After they spend a LOT of time goofing off and perving on the lady cop sent to babysit them, they finally team up with Jackie to take the villains down.

My Lucky Stars is a sequel to Winners and Sinners, a movie I haven’t seen, but there’s enough exposition (perhaps too much of it) so you can kind of get an idea what happened.  It starts off like a Jackie Chan Police Story sequel before turning into a Sammo Hung comedy.  Unfortunately, the two only occasionally intersect.  The early scenes hold a lot of promise as the film kicks off with some amazing stunts, including a jaw-dropping car chase, a terrific fight at an amusement park, and an inexplicable Ninja attack. 

In fact, after the stellar opening scene, Jackie disappears for a good hour, popping up only briefly for a decent fight against the Ninjas.  The great Yuen Biao gets even less screen time as Chan’s partner, who almost immediately gets kidnapped by the bad guys.  Once the film primarily becomes the Sammo show, it goes downhill fast.  A lot of the humor is downright painful to sit through (like the toilet scene), and the part where the gang dress as Ninjas and take turns tying each other up to the sexy cop is especially dire.  

Things end on a high note with an electric finale set in a haunted house amusement park attraction.  The scenes of Chan fighting Ninjas and samurais, not to mention the zombies and ghosts inside the attraction, are great.  Hung is impressive as well when he’s allowed to fight instead of mugging for the camera with his dingbat friends.  If only he had Jackie around more often, My Lucky Stars could’ve been a classic.  As it is, it doesn’t shine as bright as it could’ve.

AKA:  Winners and Sinners 2:  My Lucky Stars.  AKA:  Tokyo Powerman.  AKA:  Lucky Stars Superior Shine.