Mad Mission (Aces Go Places)  B+
By Kage Alan

Cantonese pop star Sam Hui stars as King Kong, a notorious master thief who uses various gadgets and gizmos to help full off his heists. The latest one involves stealing some diamonds during a mob-deal-in-progress by. The only clue left behind is a white glove, which actually implicates another criminal who doesn’t take too kindly to being framed for something he didn’t do. In order to solve the crime, the Police bring in Chinese/American detective Albert Au (Karl Maka), mostly because the great Chief Inspector Jacques Clouseau is dead. They also assign their own tough talking takes-no-crap-from-nobody-no-how Nancy Ho (Sylvia Chang) to work with him. Unfortunately, Albert is a male chauvinist and that causes a great deal of friction with Nancy, who is far more volatile and take-no-prisoners than he will ever be.

It doesn’t take long for them to track Kong down, only there’s a new hitch. They can’t get the diamonds back because Kong’s partner hid them and was killed by the mob shortly after. There are some clues, but to get them means they’ll have to work together. With the mob closing in and White Glove trying to keep the team alive long enough to nab the diamonds for himself, it’s a comedic race to the finish line!

“Mad Mission” relies very heavily on a combination of witty dialogue, broad physical comedy that the actors make the most of, explosions, gadgets and chemistry. While I was expecting something a tad zany because many of the Hong Kong comedies I’ve seen tend to be like that, “Mad Mission” blew me away with its sense of adventure and humor. All in all, it’s good solid fun!