Review of Wheels on Meals (1984) by Mannie L — 25 Nov 2008

â??Wheels On Mealsâ?? is a Sammo Hung-helmed goofball kung fu/comedy (with the emphasis on COMEDY) oft lauded as one of the greats. Certainly â??Wheelsâ?? has a great cast, lead by the Peking Opera School â??brothersâ?? â?? Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, and Jackie Chan, and a fight-capable professional kick-boxer Benny â??the Jetâ?? Urquidez. Sammo has made some of the true all-time classic fu flicks, but this reviewer has to break with the mutual admiration society and state plainly that â??Wheels On Mealsâ?? is not among the classics. Before all the rabid Jackie fans go nuts, this is not to say that â??Wheelsâ?? is a bad movie. In fact itâ??s quite watchable and even enjoyable. The story is not bad, the goofball comedy is played to the hilt (as it is meant to be, over the top to the extreme â?? hell I almost peed my pants seeing Sammo for the first time in his 80â??s weave complete with geri curl), and the acting is decent. BUT, as a fu flick (the other half of the formula) it simply fails to deliver for a vast majority of the film. For instance, there are only two brief fight scenes within the first hour of the movie and then we have to wait almost until the last 15 minutes for anything substantial to happen again.

Now, many reviews talk about the â??greatâ??â?¦â??one of the best of all timeâ??â?¦â??best in all of Jackieâ??s filmsâ??â?¦fight scene between Jackie and Benny â??The Jetâ??, and it is good â?? but again in the opinion of this reviewer over-hyped. First of all the fights look sped up at several points and it is pretty clear from their motions that if Benny ever met Jackie in a back alley to have it out, heâ??d in reality kick Jackieâ??s ass. Benny â??the Jetâ?? was not an undefeated kick-boxing champion by accident; but heâ??s no actor either â?? something the â??three Peking brothersâ?? are. Yuen Biaoâ??s fight with his baddie in the final fight sequences certainly shows off his quickness and acrobatic prowess but is too short to be terribly impressive. Sammoâ??s fencing fight in the same section is good but again restrained and short â?? certainly of the sequences Jackieâ??s is longest and best. Yet, even as good as this latter fight is itâ??s not enough to make this a fu classic.

As a HK comedy from Sammo Hung this is a solid 4 star movie; as a fu flick this is a 4 star movie for the 8-10 minutes of fight screen time but only about a 1.5 star movie sustained in its entirety. In the end this reviewer is compelled to give â??Wheelsâ?? not more than 3 total stars and this is generously erring to the comedy.