God of Gamblers (film): I expected better after all the hype

I don't remember exactly where I got the heads up to see this film, I think it was suggested to me on a blog post where I was raving about how awesome I think Kung Fu Hustle is or something like that. So when the person was so adamant that this movie was going to be equally as great, I kind of expected it to be a lot better than it actually is.

Had I had no expectations I probably would have been ok with it but since the bar was already set so high in my mind, I guess I was predetermined to be disappointed and I was.

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The film is just like the name of it would suggest, about a guy who is just the best gambler in the world or something like that. It seems like he can never lose and the richest and most powerful people in the world think they can one up him only to have all of them lose.

In one scene that I found particularly dumb, they are playing a simple game of dice which would always be completely random in real life and when the opponent of the God of Gamblers gets a 6, the lowest score possible, he still wins by having one of his dice destroyed in the cup.

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Well this or that happens and by happenstance the God of Gamblers gets a hit on the head in an accident and he is made mentally challenged to some degree and none of his handlers can find him and he doesn't know where or who he is afterwards.

I guess this is where the story is meant to get interesting but I just found it kind of stupid.

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he ends up falling in with a group of I guess low class losers who figure out who he is and then start to use his amazing luck to make money for themselves. The "god" now is childlike and doesn't even understand the games he is playing yet he still continues to win. The only thing that he needs as motivation to continue playing are some chocolates of a particular brand that he is constantly munching on, much like a child would.

You probably recognize the name Chow-Yun Fat as much as I do so I had some idea who he was when I started watching it. It is labeled as an action/comedy but perhaps that comedy aspects of it are specific to people who speak Cantonese because I don't think I so much as even chuckled during the entire thing.

Basically the story pans out like you would expect it to in that the gang of degenerates start to care about him over time and aren't simply interested in making money off of him. It's a feel-good movie I guess. The acting is pretty poor and I would say that this movie is nowhere near as good at Kung Fu Hustle and I can't really imagine why the person who thought they were somewhat similar in style and quality was thinking when they recommended it to me. Maybe they were messing with me when they suggested it.

Should I watch it?

Honestly, I don't really think so. A lot has changed since 1989 in terms of quality of films are concerned and that is definitely evident in this production. It was relatively popular and spawned 2 sequels as well as some other adaptations that are based on the general premise. For me, I only continued watching it because I was waiting for it to get really good and thought maybe it had some sort of really dramatic an unexpected ending. It does not. There might be some people out there that would appreciate this sort of thing but for most, I think this one should be a hard pass.

_{you can currently stream this for free from a wide variety of places including the entire film being available legally on YouTube}