Reviewed by: mrblue Date: 07/13/2005 In The Sixty Million Dollar Man, Chow plays his usual ne'er-do-well spolied brat, who is attending college in Hawaii and gets away with all sorts of hijinks because his father is the director of the school. After he has a rendezvous with the wife (Paulyn Sun) of a Yakuza boss (Cheng Cho), he is shredded to pices by a bomb. A mad scientist (Elvis Tsui) manages to save Chow's brain and creates a new body that has the abilty to morph into anything, that is, if they're household objects. Chow uses his new abilities to try and tame a school full of unruly kids and woo the woman of his dreams (Gigi Leung) in the process, all the while staying a step ahead of the Yakuza who have returned to finish the job. Even though he is considered box office gold, Stephen Chow has not been immune to some clunkers, and The Sixty Million Dollar Man is one of them. It's not a horrible movie by any means -- there are some very funny bits during the proceedings -- and the picture's HK$35 million box office take would be envied by many Hong Kong film-makers. It's just that it lacks that certain spark of inventiveness and manic energy that marks Chow's best work. Most of the comedy in The Sixty Million Dollar Man just seems forced. There are a few sequences which come off a just plain derivative instead of the parody the film-makers were supposedly going for. Of particular note is a long scene where Chow plays off Jim Carrey's The Mask. Even though Jim Carrey is a talented comedic actor, The Mask worked more because of the special effects rather than Carrey's trademark "rubber face". The problem with The Sixty Million Dollar Man is that the special effects, for lack of a better work, suck. I realize that this is a ten-year-old Hong Kong movie, but to call some of the special effects here "amateurish" would be an understatement. With the lack of quality effects, a lot of the scenes (including a Terminator 2 bit) come off as cheap imitations. Even the parts (such as a Pulp Fiction take-off) that don't depend on special effects come off feeling flat. Still, The Sixty Million Dollar Man does offer a few good laughs during its' running time (mostly with Chow's interactions with his long-running sidekick, Ng Man-Tat), and fans of Stephen Chow should enjoy the proceedings. But, ultimately, The Sixty Million Dollar Man lacks the spit-and-polish (or just outright chutzpah) that Chow's stronger work demonstrates, and it's for that reason that this reviewer marks it as a stunningly average entry in what has for the most part been one of the stongest outputs from a Hong Kong actor over the past twenty years. [review from www.hkfilm.net]

Reviewed by: pjshimmer Date: 02/06/2003 1. How do you get a bunch of lawless students--at a school where 90% of the teachers die--to study? By turning into a machine that only your eye doctor uses. 2. How do you impress a girl who was at your funeral 2 years ago? By competing against a magician by turning into a gigantic toothpaste and whiplashing her boyfriend. If that didn't make any sense, neither will the rest of the story. This is the WACKIEST Stephen Chow movie I've seen yet, and it takes slapsticks to new heights with all kinds of supernatural elements. The beginning was dull, but once it starts rolling, there's no stopping it. [7/10]

Reviewed by: Inner Strength Date: 05/05/2002 Summary: CRAP Simply crap. Rating: 0/5

Reviewed by: danton Date: 01/03/2002 Lacklustre effort. It started well enough, with Stephen Chiau playing an obnoxious rich kid studying in Hawaii (nice Pulp Fiction parody here), but once the film moved to HK, things stopped dead in the track. To summarize the plot: Chiau Sing Chi gets in trouble with the mob and is assassinated. A crazy professor played by Elvis Tsui saves his only remaining living parts (brain and mouth) and rebuilds him with artificial parts (hence the title). By later adding some sort of "superchip", Stephen Chiau becomes some kind of superman who is able to change himself into any number of household appliances (such as a giant microwave or a walking toothpaste). This is shown with cheesy effects in a very obvious ripoff of Jim Carrey's THE MASK. Unfortunately, it's not as funny as the original (which wasn't that funny either). Of course, the bad guys are defeated in the end, and the hero gets the girl (played by Gigi Leung), but at that point I really didn't care anymore.

Reviewed by: senordingdong Date: 05/24/2001 Summary: Very Silly Fun Like all of Stephen Chiau and Wong Jing's movies, there's a lot of crazy and silly gags in it. If you like Stephen Chiau and you like nonsense comedy, this is a must see movie. This movie however, is not without it's faults. I felt that the ending was a bit rushed since it had one of those "Yeah!" Jump-up-and-freeze-frame type endings that the majority of Jackie Chan's older movies ended with.

Reviewed by: Sydneyguy Date: 02/28/2001 Summary: I like this!! Not his best but plenty of slap stick to keep you enjoyed!! IF your a PULP FICTION fan, you MUST watch this, just for it's rip off version!! 7.5/10 Reviewer Score: 8

Reviewed by: hktopten Date: 12/21/1999 The jury is still out on this one. The first couple of minutes were classic Wong Jing pervert jokes (right up my alley), but much like Tricky Brains (which I didn't like), this sucker lost its way after the first couple of scenes. It couldn't decide rather it wants to be a parody, a clone, (Pulp Fiction, the Mask, etc) or actually try to move a story. This film is PRETTY entertaining, don't get me wrong, but it isn't a classic Wong Jing or Stephen Chow film. This film looks REALLY rushed. If they took their time, maybe it will be better. The special effects here ONLY gets in the way. Don't go out of your way to see it. Definitely worth the video rental though. Ng Man Tat is ACTUALLY funny here.

Reviewed by: hokazak Date: 12/09/1999 Boy was it silly/stupid! Yet maybe it was the mood I was in, but I though a lot of it was pretty funny, and some stuff truly hilarious! I think maybe it's the audacity of reinventing the Six Million Dollar man as somebody who can turn into a talking toilet who has to find a way of avoiding getting crapped into, via his "mouth"... The spoofs of Pulp Fiction and The Mask were quite funny too -- seeing Chow do the Travolta/Watoosi dance, waving the 2 fingers laterally in front of his eyes, etc., was too much... Talk about plotlessness though - it had that Wong Jing lack of a compelling story arc... But it gets some kind of award for goofiness though...

Reviewed by: hkcinema Date: 12/08/1999 It was actually very not bad. There was a screamingly funnyrip-off of Pulp Fiction, and the long-running joke about Stephen's shower-head extention was a great gag. Even though much of the jokes and sight gags were Wong Jing-predictables, Stephen pulled them off with fresh aplomb. Stephen plays a very rich and spoiled college student and Ng Man Tat is his lackey. Stephen terrorizes and humiliates everyone and even goes so far as to deny his father. Events transpire with some thrown in bad guys and Stephen's dead. Sorta. With the help of a professor he becomes rather invincible. The effects are good but show the budget of another HK film restricted by lack of Hollywood money. Anyway, like I said, it is pretty funny and is so much better than Out of the Dark that this may have influenced my opinion. But I don't care. It's Stephen. [Reviewed by Tsuzi]

Reviewed by: hkcinema Date: 12/08/1999 Mo Lei Tau at its worst (or "best" if you look at it the Mo Lei Tau way). In many ways this movie is a throw back to earlier Stephen Chow with Wong Jing repackaging many of his old gags as "new" by throwing in motley special-effects and the Hawaii location. Of course, some people can never get enough of this stuff. About the only thing subtle here is a quick blurb against the craze on paranormal practices - this following the anti-paranormal twist in GOGR seem to suggest that Wong Jing is reversing the past trend of glorifying paranormal powers in his movies. Stephen Chow movies can be very entertaining, but I am afraid this is not one of them. (5.4/10) [Reviewed by Christopher Fu]

Reviewed by: spinali Date: 12/08/1999 Summary: NULL When spoiled millionaire Stephen Chow gets exploded to bits by Japanese triads, all that's left is his mouth and brain (though filmgoers have disputed the existence of the actor's brain for years). A semi-mad scientist (Tsui Kam Kong) makes him a new bionic body, and when he inserts the "super super chip," Chow becomes a shape-shifting invincible (though he tends to turn into unsuperheroish things like big tubes of toothpaste, a rice-cooker, or a human toilet with tongue). Now, he sets out to tame a buildingful of troublemaking high schoolers, vanquish his triad enemies, and win the love of average-looking fellow teacher Gigi Young. A bargain basement version of Mask. (1.5/4) [Reviewed by Steve Spinali] Reviewer Score: 3

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