Review of Wheels On Meals

Introduction

Wheels on Meals is another film featuring the "holy trinity" of Hong Kong Cinema, namely Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao and Sammo Hung. They didn`t do very many films together, but the ones that they did do have all stood the test of time pretty well.

Wheels on Meals features our 3 stars who have ended up in Spain for some reason (let`s not dig too deep here). Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao have a mobile fast food van (the wheels that serve the meals), while Sammo Hung is a bungling amateur private investigator (obvious Clouseau parallels there). They all get involved in some way with Sylvia, a small time crook who seems harmless, but there are lots of people after her for lots of different reasons.

Our heroes will need to fight a few bad guys on the way, including Benny `The Jet` Urquidez and Keith Vitali.

Video

This film is now over 20 years old, and like most films from the era, the prints have never been very well looked after. We get a 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer, which is very good on the whole, but it does seem to be plagued with smeary skin tones. Whenever you look at a skin tone, it always looks like it`s smeared. Considering the poor quality of the original it`s still a pretty good job, and I doubt you`ll ever see it looking better.

Audio

A choice of DD2.0 stereo or a pair of DD5.1 soundtracks - Cantonese or English. As ever I went for Cantonese with subtitles turned on.

The DD5.1 remix is quite a subtle one, as there`s not that much for all of your speakers to do. There are a few directional sounds to look out for, and the odd bit of action for the rear speakers, but this is a fairly low-key affair. This is not such a bad thing and is a perfectly acceptable soundtrack.

Features

As ever, we get a feature packed double disc set from those nice people at Hong Kong Legends.

We start off with yet another excellent commentary from Bey Logan (surely the most knowledgeable commentator of all time). As ever he knows everything about every scene, and has lots to tell you about the cast and some of the stunts. An exemplary commentary.

Everything else of note is on disc 2. We have interviews with two of the main protagonists, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao as well as extended interviews with Benny `The Jet` Urquidez and Keith Vitali.

There are also interviews with Brett Ratner and Stanley Tong who talk about working with Jackie Chan. These are interesting although they aren`t related to the film on this DVD.

There`s also a selection of out-takes (not all that good for once) and the usual trailers.

Conclusion

If you enjoy any or all of the following:-

1) Jackie Chan films
2) Martial Arts films
3) Action films

then this DVD is definitely one for you. The film is another enjoyable, action-packed romp which you won`t forget in a hurry. The stunts are good, the fights are great and even some of the comedy scenes work (I`m not always a fan of some of the comedy in these films).

Given the usual limitations of the source material, Hong Kong Legends have done another excellent job, and it`s fair to say that you`ve never seen this film looking so good. The video and audio are an improvement over any version you`ve ever seen before (unless you happened to watch the daily rushes at the time of filming perhaps), and the excellent selection of extras adds a lot to the overall package. The extras are not quite as great as some Hong Kong Legends releases, but there`s still plenty to watch.

Recommended.