New Kid in town (1990) User Reviews

See two movies for the price of one

[Induna · 4/10 · 26 August 2005]

Why? Because a number of scenes taken from Jackie Chan's 1985 film "The Protector" have been spliced on to this film just so the audience think JC is in a new film when in fact he isn't. In fact they would be confused like I was, it's like watching two different films.

The main plot are two brothers from mainland China go to Hong Kong to help their Uncle and his daughter with his restaurant. Once they leave the HK airport a number of thugs 'accientally' run into them and cause a small fight where upon the thugs are apprehended by the police. It appears they had a big bag of dope on them. Understandably their boss is not happy. Speaking of the boss this guy is weird. He always has a vacant look on his face, says very few words and has a taste for apples. You don't want to be around him when he's eating his apples.

Later on the two brothers and the girl run into the triad boss' other underlings at a night club and beat them up. Next we see a bizarre rollerskating competition. The thug's girlfriend girl takes part but gets beat so the thugs kidnap the girl who won. Basiacally the rest of the film is the two brothers and the Uncle try to rescue the girl and in the process take on the Triad gang.

Jackie Chan turns up in three scenes that have nothing to do with this film which only serve to confuse the viewer.

Weak film with a few strong moments

[gridoon2024 · 5/10 · 2 July 2008]

New Killers In Town (aka New Kids In Town, aka Master Of Disaster; I saw it under the first title and, in response to the other comment, there were absolutely no Jackie Chan scenes in my version) is about as generic and unremarkable as kung fu movies get. The good guys inadvertently mess up the plans of the bad guys; the bad guys don't like it so they strike; and finally the (remaining) good guys strike back. There are a lot of references to the differences between living in the strict mainland China and the more prosperous Hong Kong of 1990, which will probably mean more to Chinese audiences. Not unusually for a HK film, the tone switches from lighthearted to nasty at a moment's notice. Moon Lee is in top form and even gets to do some wooden board-breaking, but she spends most of the second half captured by the bad guys. The one touch of creativity in this film comes at the end, when Liu Chia Liang, star and director of many "old-school" kung fu classics, has his one and only fight in the movie, and before it starts the score switches to traditional Chinese music. (**)

A good ending, but the rest is middling (and avoid the American version)

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 22 October 2017]

NEW KILLERS IN TOWN is a middling Hong Kong action flick of 1990. The experience of watching it was soured for me as I saw the badly-dubbed American version which randomly pads out the narrative with lots of Jackie Chan clips stolen from THE PROTECTOR which only serve to muddy the waters. The main story is about a couple of goofy Chinese hicks who come to Hong Kong and fall foul of the usual gangster types.

Moon Lee is star billed but she doesn't have a great deal to do here other than show off some moves at a martial arts demonstration. The two main characters are dull and the actors fail to impress. Eddie Maher does a good intense villain as usual and Sophia Crawford plays in support, but the real star is the legendary Liu Chia-Liang, who gets one excellent warehouse fight scene to himself at the climax. There's also some fun stuff in a building site, but mainly this is a film which is too cheap to succeed.

the final gonzo act being a bloody blitzkrieg of ribcage-wrecking bellicosity.

[Weirdling_Wolf · 8/10 · 1 September 2023]

Two naive, though deadly proficient martial artists from mainland China travel to big bad Hong Kong to help out their beloved uncle (Chia Liang liu). Not long into their eventful visit when their heroically high-kicking cousin, Siu-Fung (Moon Lee) righteously Kung Fu's some drug dealing skells which puts them directly on menacing, apple crushing kingpin, Eddie's (Eddie Maher) kill list! Happily, the threadbare, predictably revenge-slathered plot is densely reinforced with an exhilarating plenitude of relentlessly manic martial arts mayhem! Once again, the jaw-droppingly beautiful mistress of gravity defying, mandible-mashing martial arts insanity is on fleet form in bullet-shredded HK action classic 'New Killers in Town'. Humorous interludes are atypically replaced with a darker tonality, there's an especially nasty moment wherein, Eddie's sadistic henchmen set fire to an ailing, wheelchair bound grandpa that feels somewhat gratuitous. Mind-boggling pugilistic awesomeness abounds in, Kar Yung-Lau's cult classic, with the final gonzo act being a bloody blitzkrieg of ribcage-wrecking bellicosity. The savage sinew-snapping showdown betwixt hatchet faced villain, Eddie and, Chia Lian Liu is an undeniably thrill-spilling eruption of unleavened power-bossage!