James and Bond are 2 professional sports car thieves who specialise in taking Porsches and Ferraris. When they are forced to steal a car on a daily basis for a HK gang boss they run foul of a tough female cop Tequila who is determined to bring them to justice. When they steal a white Porsche which has a tank full of cocaine, the drug baroness Miego orders her Western henchmen to track them down and retrieve the goods.
A very good action movie which would have been better had it not been for the unfocused plot. Although Frankie Chan is billed as the main star, it’s Yukari Oshima who steals the movie with her incredible martial arts performance. This would be her breakout role and propel her into being a HK action mainstay over the next couple of years. The Outlaw Brothers is hampered with a weak script as during the middle section of the movie it dips badly and goes off on another tangent about Bond wanting to get married to a girl who’s prepared to clean him out of money. I started to become bored as the plot lost it’s way which is a shame as the opening 40 mins had been terrific with a couple of superb set-pieces which included Frankie Chan fighting off a bunch of security guards in a parking lot with a broom. Thankfully though the story seems to recover in time for an amazing climax at a warehouse in which we see Yukari Oshima’s character Tequila have one of the best scraps you’ll ever see in a HK movie. She shows off her natural athleticism and extraordinary skills in dealing with the foreign bad guys. The choreography for her fights was put together by none other than Jackie Chan who also helped out with other scenes. The fight sequences are fast, intricate and imaginative and you can tell they’ve all got the JC mark on them. There’s a couple of good car chases as well. The humour in this movie is OK I suppose.
Frankie Chan is charming as James. His chemistry with Yukari Oshima’s Tequila is enjoyable and a lot of fun to watch. What else can I say about Yukari Oshima that hasn’t already been said about her in this movie. She is awesome in this movie and it is easily one of her best HK action roles. Michiko Nishiwaki seems to be wasted here in role as the drugs baroness Miego, she doesn’t get involved at all until the final 5 minutes.
I do have to mention that if you’re an animal fan then be prepared for some scenes of seeing chickens in distress in the climatic warehouse scene as a load of them are dropped from a container above the floor. Some of the poor birds are seen to be dying and writhing in agony on the floor and I’m sure a car runs over a couple of them too. I’m surprised that this has survived not being cut from the UK DVD version.
If it wasn’t for the boring middle section, this movie would have been rated higher. It’s still a worthwhile movie to watch if only for the brilliant action scenes.
Sadako’s Rating: 3 stars out of 5
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