Twins Mission

A mysterious gang connected to an ancient cult called The Gemini Clan has stolen a precious bead while on rout from Tibet to Hong Kong for an exhibition. The Beads guardians Lucky (Sammo Hung), and his son Hey (Wu Jing) must try to acquire the aid of the Clan Principal (Yuen Wah), but he refuses to help them. However when Lucky is seriously injured during an attack by the same gang, Principal decides to call on the help of two of the clans former members . . . The Twins

Do you miss the Hong Kong action films of the 80's and 90's, the no holds barred, fist to face hardcore martial arts action. Do you hate the recent trend of computer generated fluff that has been coming out of Hong Kong as of late, with mostly wires, and GCI taking place of watching real fighters and stuntmen do what they do best. Did you love Sha Po Lang for bringing back the Hong Kong action that we have missed for so many years? Well if you answered yes to any of the above questions, then Twins Mission is . . . not a film for you.

However, there is one more question that must be asked. Can you honestly say that you do not like The Twins and their off the wall wire fu popcorn action? Twins Effect was an alright Vampire Flick, and Twins Effect 2 was, well who knows what that was really, but it was kind of fun. Then there was the better, not so “Twins Film” House of Fury. Now we have the official third Twins film, conveniently titled Twins Mission. It is no SPL I can tell you that, but despite its many flaws, and horribly dated looking CGI. It passes as a watchable romp.

If you are a fan of the classic Hong Kong action flicks, then you will be glad to know that unlike Jackie Chan’s appearances in the first two Twins films, this time we have two of the legendary action stars of the good old days who stick around for the majority of the film. Those of course are Yuen Wah, and Big Brother himself Sammo Hung. I cannot stress enough how important they are to making this film as tolerable as it is. That said, I must now burst the bubble by saying that both men are not at all used to their potential. Sure they may be a bit older, and Yuen Wah may not be a limber as he once was, but all you have to do is watch SPL and see that Sammo can still do it, at least more than he does in this film. And Yuen Wah, I was so excited to see him fight again, and he does. But it’s mostly close ups and some obvious doubles.

The story in Twins Mission is pretty straight forward, but the boundaries of reality seem very disjointed. For the most part is somewhat believable, then suddenly Wu Jing is making pills float in the air. Then we return to reality, and suddenly the twins are fighting half a dozen poisonous snakes . . . with their mouth?
It may not have lived up to the hype which it gathered quite a bit leading up to its release. However it’s still passable as a mindless good time, which is about all you can ask for from a Twins film...

6/10

A film by Kong Tao Hoi