Mighty Baby
2002
Directors: Chan Hing-Kai, Patrick Leung
Stars: Lau Ching-Wan, Louis Koo, Gigi Leung, Cecilia Cheung, Rosamund Kwan
To begin with, I must admit that I haven't seen La Brasierre, so perhaps some of this follow-up's charms are lost on me. Or perhaps not. Judging by other reviews, Mighty Baby is yet another 2002 Hong Kong movie that fails to live up to expectations -- an A-list cast and crew that gets B and C-list results. Mighty Baby isn't quite as bad as some other movies I've seen over the past year, but there's not really anything in it to recommend a viewing.
Lau Ching-Wan, Louis Koo and Gigi Leung work in some sort of big company that is contracted by another big company to make a device called "Mighty Baby" that will help little children become smarter. The problem is that Ching-Wan is a bit of an idiot and Louis is "baby-phobic", so Gigi hires a girl played by Cecilia Cheung that can talk with babies... and that's about it. There's the usual romantic shenanigans and a lot of dopey slapstick as the project goes through several failed stages, but Mighty Baby fails to provide consistent laughs through its' running time, and becomes more than a bit boring as a result.
Mighty Baby's main problem is that the comedy seems to be way too forced. Hong Kong comedies are usually over-the-top, but the best HK screen comedians (like Stephen Chow or the Hui brothers) can make even the most schizophrenic happenings somehow seem natural. I don't know whether to fault the actors or directors (perhaps a bit of both), but at any rate, the results here make UPN's (a horribly generic US TV network that gave us such gems as "Homeboys in Outer Space" and "Shasta McNasty") line-up seem Oscar-winning by comparison. There are some funny bits sprinkled throughout the movie (such as one guy who does a spot-on impersonation of Andy Lau), but for the most part, the jokes inspire groans rather than chuckles.
Like many recent Hong Kong movies, Mighty Baby tries to get by on its' style and charm, rather than solid film-making. It does work to some extent. Koo and Lau are strangely likeable, and the female cast (which also includes Rosamund Kwan as Lau's nervous secretary) certainly gives some nice eye candy. However, the end result just isn't that fun to watch, and yet another in the seemingly long list of disappointing movies Hong Kong served up in 2002.
RATING: 4
A review for the DVD of this movie can be found here
