The first 15 minutes are just so funny with Chow playing the laid back cop who has an eye for the ladies while Conan Lee plays it straight and has some excellent fighting scenes.

Chow also has some great action scenes and the film is just so well put together I could not really see any flaws in this film and feel that this is one of Chows better films.

Also this HongKong legends version has an excellent picture and so the film looks like it could have been made yesterday.

I can heartily recommend this film to any action junkies out there looking for a fun action film that does not take itself to seriously.

Bruce Campbell watch out...
Review date: 2004-02-08 Rating: 10 out of 10

Tiger on the Beat was being filmed in Hong Kong around the exact same time as Danny Glover and Mel Gibson were putting the finishing touches to the start of the Lethal Weapon franchise. The latter may have spawned countless numbers of dismal takes on this genre (Bad Boys anyone?) but thankfully Tiger on the Beat didn’t have the same effect on Hong Kong cinema, despite being, in my opinion at least, the better movie.

International movie star Chow Yun-Fat (The Killer, All About Ah Long, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) plays Francis Li, a lazy, womanising sergeant in the police force – a refreshing change from the role of a hard-boiled cop which Yun-Fat plays in so many of his films. Not to worry, Yun-Fat still uses a good selection of guns in the movie, and despite his character apparently being inept at just about everything, he still has a practically perfect aim. He is forced to work with Michael Tso, a hard working, idealistic rookie, essentially the opposite of Li. The actor, who plays Tso, Conan Lee, has been described as “Jackie Chan on steroids”. Watching some of the martial arts scenes in this movie, it seems that this is an accurate description.

The film starts off with plenty of genuinely funny, light-hearted scenes of comedy. However, perhaps a little surprisingly to those who are used to American comedy action movies, there are soon some heavy dramatic events.

The action in this movie does not disappoint. The scenes with martial arts, while a little short, make up for that with the quality. The shootouts are equally good, with Yun-Fat finding a way to fire a shotgun with originality that rivals the shotgun/flowers scene in Terminator 2. And on the subject of action, Tiger on the Beat is renowned for its chainsaw martial arts scene towards the end. I won’t spoil anything, but suffice to say, chainsaws haven’t been as fun since Evil Dead. The comedy is also excellent, in particular the facial expressions from the two leads, although in the last third or so of the movie, comedy is abandoned in favour of drama and action.

In conclusion, the following quotation from Total DVD really sums up this excellent movie, “Like Lethal Weapon, only far funnier and with more chainsaw action”.

The DVD:

As always, Hong Kong Legends have put out a first rate DVD. The transfer is as good as possible, and same goes for the audio. It’s all presented nicely, with the usual full-length audio commentary by Bey Logan, as well as interviews with cast and crew, the most interesting of which being the one with Gordon Liu, of Kill Bill fame. Deleted scenes would have been nice, but the tribute (again by Bey Logan) to director Lau Kar-leung more than makes up for this.

Great for fans of Chow Yun-Fat
Review date: 2002-01-15 Rating: 6 out of 10

This film is comparable to Jacki Chan's 'Police Story', for the simply reason that the plot is terrible, but the action set pieces more than make up for it.
Plot? Well, two cops work together against their will, and try to catch a baddy, that appears to be almost it. But as i stated, that doesnt really matter. It starts of in a humourous vein which continues throughout (Chow managing to lie his way out of a situation where a husband comes home - apperance by Syndey from The Killer) and the action really kicks in in the second half.
I saw a trailer of this film and had to buy it. Chow uses string tied around a shotgun trigger to throw it and fie round corners! There is a samuari style chainsaw fight! Superb stuff. Definately mre for die hard Chow Yun-Fat fans, but only so that they can endure the 'plot'. The action in unsurpassed.

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