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Really Surprised!

Highly Overrated But Still Good

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

THE MAGIC CRYSTAL is something of a hidden gem of Hong Kong cinema. It's a blistering thrill-ride of a film, packed with some top martial artists partaking in some top fight scenes, and it's as fast, funny, and thoroughly exciting as other, better known examples of Hong Kong '80s action cinema like POLICE STORY and DRAGONS FOREVER. And yet it's a virtually unknown film in the West, and I only found it as a B-feature on a German double-bill disc.The use of a sci-fi sub-plot in which a child character finds an alien lump of jade may be why this one's been overlooked in favour of more straightforward action fare. Writer/director/star Wong Jing was obviously hoping to cash in on some Spielberg magic, with obvious nods to E.T. and RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, but truth be told the film doesn't need it. The action sequences alone are far better than anything Spielberg ever did.While the alien stuff is pretty cheap and cheesy, it's also fun and this film has plenty of comedy to keep you laughing along. One guy, played by Wong Jing himself, ends up being the butt of the most of the jokes and has plenty of pratfalls as a result. The martial arts comes courtesy of a reliable Cynthia Rothrock and a delightful Richard Norton, the latter playing a hulking Russian mastermind of a villain. The hero duties are performed by Andy Lau, who shows himself to be no slouch in the fight scenes either. And what a wealth of action THE MAGIC CRYSTAL has! It barely pauses to draw breath before offering up another superbly choreographed bout between the participants. It's certainly a film I'll be coming back to, to enjoy again and again, in the future.

Here we go again on an action adventure with breath-taking speed. An alien artifact is discovered in Greece, taken to Hong Kong, and everybody tries to get hands on it, while a little boy discovers the crystal contains an alien talking to him. Sometimes it happily provides super powers, sometimes it doesn't even talk, must be one of those WEIRD aliens, although... after it was locked into that crystal for 2000 years, it needs no excuse. Andy Lau, Cynthia Rothrock and Richard Norton as Russian agent Karloff (as my dubbed version calls him) deliver some spectacular fights. Even if everything is a bit incoherent and can't decide if it wants to be a kid's movie or a violent action flick, it's speedy and enjoyable, apparently even with a reasonable budget for good quality since a lot of footage was shot on location in Greece. My favorite line is Richard Norton telling the little boy: "If you co-operate, you get some ice cream. If not, you go to Siberia." Going back to school after holidays never sounded so good.

"Magic Crystal" takes an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach to movie-making: there is action, comedy, spy stuff (the villains are KGB), exotic adventure ala Indiana Jones (it was partly shot in Greece, and there are underground lairs full of traps), and science fiction (a little boy befriends an alien creature - does that remind you of anything?). The mixture of all these different genres isn't 100% smooth, but at times it is exhilarating, particularly during the fight scenes, which are furious and ferocious. Cynthia Rothrock (possible highlight: her Eagle Claw kung fu), Richard Norton (ph: the way he handles his double sharp weapons at the end ), Andy Lau (ph: using an umbrella as a weapon!), and the actress who plays his sister (ph: her astonishing body-bending abilities) are all superb in action, and there are some big laughs as well (a man wakes up to find his hands and feet having exchanged places!). IMO, any martial arts/80's Hong Kong film fan should seek this one out. (***)

Magic Crystal is one of those family/action films that you can enjoy on a boring afternoon, not saying this film is bad or anything.The story of the magic crystal is rather odd, but once you get into it, you'll start to understand (I hope). The cast in the movie is pretty good being played by a host of Asian movie stars.Cynthia Rothrock is an interpol agent looking for the magic crystal, and Andy Lau is also some kind of special agent as well.His nephew finds the crystal in his bag, only to befriend it since it can talk to him using telepathy. The crystal has the power to project images and even brainwash you from a certain distance. Richard Norton is a greedy Russian looking to use the crystal for his own little pleasure.Whom ever choreographed the fight scenes in this movie made Cynthia and Richard look awesome. From Richards' Tiger Fist all the way to Cynthias' Preying Mantis and Eagles'Claw the fighting was great.Let's not forget Andy Lau, although his fight wasn't as intense as the others, he made due with what he was using, also making up for it in latter films.In the end the Magic Crystal is a decent film to watch, my only gripes are the cheesy music that played over and over. Meaning it was the intro's theme, the fighting theme, and the ending theme. That was the only damn music playing!!!!!!!!!!!!! And Richards' poorly dubbed Russian accent was terrible. Cynthia made a joke about it in the film stating "Your English is almost as bad as your Chinese".Anyway give it a peek, I found it to be entertaining.