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®t±Cªü¼b (1998)
Roller Blade Killer


Reviewed by: Brian Thibodeau
Date: 03/08/2007
Summary: You've always avoided it, and you know it, but it's worth watching...

Breakneck teen fad movie hurls characters and situations at each other with such abandon that, by its end, you’ll wonder if the filmmakers have even abandoned the point of it all! When he’s not tending bar and performing lead in a choreographed rollerblade floorshow at the local hotspot (!), disdainfully flipping off his mother’s latest lay, or sleeping with the girlfriend of his wealthy, four-wheeled rival, rollerboy Cheng Tung-chuen is tearing up the Taipei streets with his rollerpals, which is how he witnesses hitman Billy Chow kill three other hitmen and light the bodies on fire, but since he has no father figure in his life, he ends up spending the night at Billy’s because Billy feels really bad about his career and just wants to fall in love with supercop Yvonne Yung Hung, who can afford to drive a BMW Z3 and is working to take down Billy’s contractors, cancer stricken arms dealer Deric Wan, his snickering partner William Ho and their orange jumpsuit-clad henchmen! A scene featuring Yvonne and her police captain discussing Billy’s mastery of disguises, moments before Billy walks through the door, completely unrecognized because of little more than what appears to be a dead squirrel taped around his chin, nearly establishes the film as a tongue-in-cheek spoof, but the juvie-movie earnestness of everything that follows indicates the filmmakers weren’t really kidding around at all. Climactic warehouse free-for-all, pitting rollerblades and kung-fu against bullets and a bazooka, is worth the cost of admission alone.

Reviewer Score: 6