Veteran cop Huang Fei Hong (Li) and his young partner Wang Bu Er (Wen Zhang) are on a serial homicide case known as the Smiling Murders, wherein the victims expire with forced grins locked onto their faces. Suspects include budding actress Lin Jin Shui (Liu Shi Shi) and her bosomy, apparently villainous sister Dai Yiyi (Ada Liu).
We have a hypothesis that the deaths in Badges Of Fury were caused by bad comedy, so if you`re looking to avoid the fates of the victims in the Smiling Murders, the only solution is to keep as far away as you possibly can from this film. Sure, there are some snigger-worthy sequences to be had like seeing Wang Bu Er prance around in an overly short kilt but, most of the time, you`ll be inundated by bad CG and generally tedious proceedings, with few laughs to be had.
Badges Of Fury is unabashedly lowbrow, but even judging the movie by its own standards, the comedic scenes are shoddily set-up and highly repetitive. It`s like watching a lobotomised Charlie Chaplin: cast members slam into windows, doors, buildings and glass panes with the frequency of suicidal fruit flies, their gross buffoonery accentuated by cheesy visual effects.
You`d expect a movie with Li in it to at least have some solid action sequences, but alas, the beloved action star seems to mostly be dialling in this performance, as he plays a tongue-in-cheek version of his taciturn hero from past movies. Wen Zhang seems to be more at home in his role as the inept rookie, but even he`s hard-pressed to convince anyone that this movie is worth the watch.
There are possibly two (count `em!) entertaining fight scenes in Badges Of Fury, and an NG sequence that`s more entertaining than the rest of the movie put together. We`re not recommending Badges Of Fury based on those dubious merits, howeverâ€