Wheels on Meals

Buy This Item Wheels on Meals by Image Entertainment  Available from Amazon  $19.98  on 11-27-2008     A truly international production, <I>Wheels on Meals</I> teams up Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, and Yuen Biao in a comedic-action-crime caper that includes what some consider one of the greatest fight scenes ever filmed. Directed by Hung, the movie takes place in Spain, marking the first Jackie Chan vehicle set in a non-Asian location. Chan and Biao play two lunch-truck restaurateurs who are trying to make a living selling egg rolls and hamburgers in the busy squares of Barcelona. Hung is a novice private investigator searching for a beautiful pickpocket named Sylvia (Lola Ferner) whose thieving teams her up with Chan and Yuen. Sylvia is kidnapped after she discovers she is actually a wealthy heiress, and that's when Chan, Yuen, and Hung join forces to free her and kick some bad guys' butts. <I>Wheels on Meals</I> is lighthearted fun with stunts and action scenes (including skateboarding tricks and a scene in which Chan and Yuen face off against a motorbike gang) that simply reaffirm the stars' physical and comic talents. The celebrated fight scene is a matchup between Chan and international kickboxing champion Benny "the Jet" Urquidez. The intensity of their scenes together spurred rumors of a rivalry beyond the film. Whether or not this was true, the two paired up again four years later in <I>Dragons Forever</I>. As for the nonsensical title, one theory claims the film's distributor (Golden Harvest) had little success with films whose titles started with "m" so they simply switched the two words around. The DVD boasts subtitles in eight different languages but does not include the "blooper" outtakes that frequently accompany Chan's films. <I>--Shannon Gee</I> Reader Reviews I can't give this five stars, although I really enjoyed it, because it's one of those comedies that's funny but not really very good in terms of script/acting/direction/etc. However, if you want to see Jackie Chan run around acting silly and getting into semi-exciting fights, this is the movie or you. For better Hong-Kong action/comedy, you'll do better with Chan's more recent (but pre-americanized) films like Drunken Master or any of the SuperCops. Still, it was a hit at our last Samurai Film Fest, where it followed Seven Samurai - Criterion Collection - 3-Disc Remastered Edition and other Kurosawa-seriousness nicely.

Wheels on Meals Available from Amazon Price: $19.98 Updated on 11-27-2008.

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