Reviewed by: mrblue Date: 09/26/2005 Hail the Judge is Stephen Chow's take on the popular Chinese hero Judge Pao, who helped to correct injustices during the Ming dynasty. However, Chow's version of Judge Pao is more interested in money than helping people. The big problem is that he's a bit of an idiot, and keeps getting tricked by a shady lawyer (Lawrence Ng), who also manages to convince the entire town that Pao is the source of their misery. While trying to hide out from the angry populace, Pao and his sidekick (who is, of course, played by Ng Man-Tat) manage to pull a double-cross on another corrupt official (Elvis Tsui) and become heroes. Inspired by his new-found popularity, Pao vows to stay honest as a murder case involving a beautiful woman (Cheung Man) enters his courtroom. But the ghosts of Pao's past are not so easily put behind him, as the lawyer returns and turns the tables on Pao, turning him into the accused. Pao manages to escape jail, goes on the run, meets an interesting set of characters and begins to plot his revenge. Normally, I find Stephen Chow's movies hilarious, even though a lot of the jokes fly over my head due to my lack of knowledge of Cantonese. But Hail the Judge falls flat. It's not a bad movie per se; it just lacks those gut-busting moments fans have come to expect from Chow's work. The movie takes a long time to get going, and when it does (via a pretty funny scene where Stephen picks up the fine art of arguing from a catty madam played by Yuen King Tan) it feels like it's too little, too late. I will grant that the last twenty minutes or so, which features the final courtroom showdown between Stephen and Lawrence Ng, do pack in a few good jokes, but their relatively small payoff laugh-wise isn't worth the eighty minutes or so of pedestrian, by-the-book "nonsense comedy" which precedes it. This was Stephen Chow's last collaboration with prolific producer/writer Wong Jing, and that might be the problem. Even though they created some memorable works together, such as God of Gamblers II and Royal Tramp, Hail the Judge comes of as a half-baked effort from both director and star. It just feels too disjointed, like everyone on the set wasn't on the same page. Wong seemed to sense something was off, and tries to "enhance" things with lots of swearing and some bloody torture scenes. But frankly, you can't have a Stephen Chow movie without Stephen Chow -- and Chow just seems to be sleepwalking through his performance, and that drowsy feeling unfortunately transfers over to the viewer. Again, Hail the Judge is by no means a bad movie on the scale of Super Dragon's Dynamo or Bruce Li's Greatest Revenge, but both Stephen Chow and Wong Jing have done much better movies than this that are more worthy of your time. Unless you're a completist, Hail the Judge can be put on hold until that proverbial rainy day comes around. [review from www.hkfilm.net]

Reviewed by: pjshimmer Date: 08/14/2002 It does feel like a loose sequel to JUSTICE MY FOOT, since Chow's father mentions that all of his 12 sons couldn't survive -- the theme of JUSTICE MY FOOT. This isn't one of Chow's best work IMO; it's probably one of his top 40% though. The torture scenes are very disturbing and unsuitable for a comedy like this, and the plot, well, you just follow along the best you can coz it goes as fast as anything and doesn't leave you time to catch any flaw. I am extremely disappointed, action-wise. There is maybe 20 seconds of kung fu in total. Still, the comedy is great. And as usual, the final court scene has Stephen Chow as the genius, easily putting all pieces together and proving the innocent and the guilty. [7/10]

Reviewed by: Inner Strength Date: 04/16/2002 Summary: Okay This is probably the last good film I saw Stephen Chow do, he had done some bad ones before this, but this looked like his comeback with something a little more original. But never made another one anywhere near as good as this one. Not to say this is particually good anyway, but some funny scenes. The second half is a lot better than the first though. Rating: 3/5 Reviewer Score: 6

Reviewed by: danton Date: 01/03/2002 Stephen Chow period comedy where he plays a corrupt judge who decides to go straight and become a good official in order to save a woman played by Cheung Man who has been framed for murder. Highlights include Stephen's kungfu style attempts to outnag a brothel madam (undescribable, must be seen). Also features Ng Man-Tat, Christy Chung and Elvis Tsui. Typical Stephen Chow farce, not unlike Justice My Foot, Forbidden City Cop, Royal Tramp etc. Enjoyable movie.

Reviewed by: MrBooth Date: 09/10/2001 Summary: Great film, needs a better DVD! HAIL THE JUDGE - Dir Wong Jing, Starring Stephen Chiau, Elvis Tsui, Cheung Man & Christy Cheung. A loose sequel to JUSTICE, MY FOOT! from Wong Jing, and a much better film. Great production values, a really good story and some truly hilarious bits (Chiau's training in quarrel-fu is fantastic). A really good film, let down by a dire Mei Ah disc. The embedded subtitles are hard to follow at the best of times, but there's a whole 5-10 minute section near the end of the disc where they just disappear entirely. Quite an important section for the plot too, and you're left guessing what's being said. It looks like they spliced the disc together from two different sources or something, as the sound is rather muffled in that section too. Reviewer Score: 8

Reviewed by: alienlord Date: 05/07/2001 Not bad comedy (well what do you expect with Stephen Chow) has it's moments but drags on too long and tries to be serious with some unnesecary torture scenes. Still Chow is as good as always, and Elvis Tsui isn't bad either. ** and a half/4 Reviewer Score: 7

Reviewed by: Sydneyguy Date: 02/28/2001 Summary: Good I wasn't enjoying this movie or laughing that much till the final court scene which was brilliantly done!! Just because of this mini detective work and showing what they do to LIARS made up for the rest of the movie. 7/10 Reviewer Score: 7

Reviewed by: hellboy Date: 08/31/2000 An funny outing for Chow but nowhere near as funny as his other period comedies Flirting Scholar or Forbidden City Cop. The funniest scenes come from Chow learning the matial art of cursing, spewing animated explatives that mysteriously cause the sea to explode and the dead to reanimate. I can't help thinking I'm missing something as a lot of the comedy relies heavily on cantonese wordplay. 7/10 Reviewer Score: 7

Reviewed by: MadMonkey Date: 12/09/1999 A nicely wrought judicial procedural full of trademark Stephen Chow/Wong Jing wackiness, with the whole Chow crew on board. Chow plays a corrupt descendant of the famous Judge Pao, who's hated by his townspeople until his just nature is brought out by the plight of Cheung Man, a newlywed who's the sole survivor of a massacre. Nice performances, and an almost believable turning-of-the-tale by Chow, acting as judge, jury, detective, and executioner. Good stuff for Chow fans, though you'll wince at the abuse that Cheung Man puts up with... (3.5/5) Reviewer Score: 7