Well, I ll start to say that this is a different film. It did have a number of reconizable faces throughout and some good fight scenes. By Good, I mean the all with Art Camacho and his 2 buddies. There is only good Bruce Ly fight scene, but I thought he made up for it by his obvious Bruce Lee impersonation and he did incorporate some philo of Bruce Lee's as well. In the end the film is worth seeing.
6 Reviews
Better Than Expected
Crap_Connoisseur7 March 2006
Chinatown Connection is a decent, if unspectacular, action/martial arts movie. I was expecting something a whole lot worse given the stars - a virtual Bruce Lee impersonator, Bruce Ly, and Lee Majors Jr. They are both surprisingly adequate, although Bruce Ly's dubbing varies in quality. There are a couple of treats in the supporting cast for genre fans, namely Art Camacho and indie scream queen, Brinke Stevens. Actually, given the novelty value of the cast and the reasonable production values, it's rather surprising that this film is so obscure.
The plot concentrates around John (Bruce Ly), a policeman who reforms violent police officers by teaching them martial arts, and a trigger happy cop, Houston, played by Majors. Predictably enough, the two are paired together and they set out to find the person responsible for selling cyanide laced cocaine. The film's plot is pretty thin but it does provide sufficient opportunities for some decent martial arts action and gun fights. A shoot-out in a church and the finale stand up as well made action sequences.
IMDb has the film listed as being released in 1990 but it feels a lot older than that. The fashion, music and mountains of cocaine all seem very 80s to me and I wouldn't be surprised if this was made considerably earlier. Chinatown Connection is pretty standard 80s/early 90s martial arts fare. Genre fans will enjoy it, as will fans of Brinke Stevens and Art Camacho.
The plot concentrates around John (Bruce Ly), a policeman who reforms violent police officers by teaching them martial arts, and a trigger happy cop, Houston, played by Majors. Predictably enough, the two are paired together and they set out to find the person responsible for selling cyanide laced cocaine. The film's plot is pretty thin but it does provide sufficient opportunities for some decent martial arts action and gun fights. A shoot-out in a church and the finale stand up as well made action sequences.
IMDb has the film listed as being released in 1990 but it feels a lot older than that. The fashion, music and mountains of cocaine all seem very 80s to me and I wouldn't be surprised if this was made considerably earlier. Chinatown Connection is pretty standard 80s/early 90s martial arts fare. Genre fans will enjoy it, as will fans of Brinke Stevens and Art Camacho.
Not Attrackable movie and characters
hassan_ghezelayagh21 October 2006
It worth to watch any movie it is my word. This movie can be watched once but it does not have enough attraction to watch it twice. I liked some parts but they are not great parts. Two cops with different attitude of fighting crime they are not suitable for this cast and , I may never see them in other movie. I do not like this movie and bad guys are not showing their cast good.It says I should write 10 lines then I write in this way: It worth to watch this movie then you will enjoy more from Real Old Brouce Lee movie. Lee Major II and Brouce Lye are not suitable for their characters Chief Detective look like head accounting department no wisdom on crime Bad guy look colored black that never match with Chinese drug rings
Claptrap Contraption
saint_brett8 November 2022
Warning: Spoilers
I'm confused about what to watch tonight after having my confidence shattered by that vile, revolting, torture device I watched yesterday called 'Kickboxing Academy.'
Surely this 'Combination Chop Suey' thing will be more "adultish?"
There's a 9 second delay at the start before a cup of noodles logo appears on screen with a wacky horror movie score that's overdosed on too much Nintendo synth. That thing's definitely chasing the dragon.
A greasy photographer snorts pure cement and collapses from a nose bleed. All those arcade games in the 80's used to warn fools to avoid dangerous substances.
Three leftovers from the movie 'Colors' hold a church to ransom but eat a shotgun. This results in The Bionic Dollar Man winding up in eternal affairs and having to answer.
Somebody tell this New Zealand guy with the funny accent - Chan - that it's the 80's and that 60's hair went out on New Year's night 1970.
A prolonged, lame, citizens on parole 'Police Academy 4' kung fu demonstration takes places as John Oats joins some suspended karate police probation squad. (It's like a fight club for law enforcement.)
This ain't doing much for me. It's like riding a bike with no tubes.
This Kiwi guy's accent is getting on my nerves. He sounds like Twiki from 'Battle Star Galactica.'
Basically, someone's selling hot batches of narcotics and two unlikely cops are "Lethal Weaponed" up and have the chemistry of pepper & pepper.
The bleak backgrounds as the settings in an industrial area of LA are horrible and make it look like a Troma wasteland.
The pulse of this movie is akin to a zombie's and runs at the rate of a dead melted snowman.
It's always the importation of drugs, or diamonds, with these karate movies. Gets kind of tiring after a while.
You've got this Italian bakery using cheese as a front for this cocaine factory and three baddies guarding it are only armed with pocket knives? Wow.
This movie was born without a heartbeat and this guy's hair looks like a beetle.
Well, this scene makes sense! An armed swat team - the citizens on parole karate mob - raid a drug lair and use kung fu instead of their firearms. Real clever.
Is that Daryl Strawberry?
Good Lord! The baddies are using automatic rifles that sound like single-shot .45's. Oh brother.
This guy looks like Peter North. He "cops" it in the back from sloppy awareness.
Well, that was a waste of time.
The New Zealand guy, with the funny accent and beetle head, fights Daryl Strawberry at the end as expected and Strawberry dives out a window in defeat.
The fights aren't even impressive.
Darly Strawberry looks like a country club gang member fighting in golf wear and I'm sure "Enter the Beetle Head's" ambition to be inducted in Hollywood's walk of fame was short-lived.
Says his name is Yung Henry Yu yet the movie claims he's Bruce Ly. Is that his stage name?
He's got about as much appeal as that old man at the end of 'Terminator' who states, "He's says there's a storm coming." Remember that guy's acting career? Off the hook, man.
Karate movies never failed me in the 80's, or 90's. They don't seem to be working in 2022 for some reason. How could I be forsaken? They're stupid and sap brain cells from already dead brains that watch Hollywood entertainment. We've been had, man!
Surely this 'Combination Chop Suey' thing will be more "adultish?"
There's a 9 second delay at the start before a cup of noodles logo appears on screen with a wacky horror movie score that's overdosed on too much Nintendo synth. That thing's definitely chasing the dragon.
A greasy photographer snorts pure cement and collapses from a nose bleed. All those arcade games in the 80's used to warn fools to avoid dangerous substances.
Three leftovers from the movie 'Colors' hold a church to ransom but eat a shotgun. This results in The Bionic Dollar Man winding up in eternal affairs and having to answer.
Somebody tell this New Zealand guy with the funny accent - Chan - that it's the 80's and that 60's hair went out on New Year's night 1970.
A prolonged, lame, citizens on parole 'Police Academy 4' kung fu demonstration takes places as John Oats joins some suspended karate police probation squad. (It's like a fight club for law enforcement.)
This ain't doing much for me. It's like riding a bike with no tubes.
This Kiwi guy's accent is getting on my nerves. He sounds like Twiki from 'Battle Star Galactica.'
Basically, someone's selling hot batches of narcotics and two unlikely cops are "Lethal Weaponed" up and have the chemistry of pepper & pepper.
The bleak backgrounds as the settings in an industrial area of LA are horrible and make it look like a Troma wasteland.
The pulse of this movie is akin to a zombie's and runs at the rate of a dead melted snowman.
It's always the importation of drugs, or diamonds, with these karate movies. Gets kind of tiring after a while.
You've got this Italian bakery using cheese as a front for this cocaine factory and three baddies guarding it are only armed with pocket knives? Wow.
This movie was born without a heartbeat and this guy's hair looks like a beetle.
Well, this scene makes sense! An armed swat team - the citizens on parole karate mob - raid a drug lair and use kung fu instead of their firearms. Real clever.
Is that Daryl Strawberry?
Good Lord! The baddies are using automatic rifles that sound like single-shot .45's. Oh brother.
This guy looks like Peter North. He "cops" it in the back from sloppy awareness.
Well, that was a waste of time.
The New Zealand guy, with the funny accent and beetle head, fights Daryl Strawberry at the end as expected and Strawberry dives out a window in defeat.
The fights aren't even impressive.
Darly Strawberry looks like a country club gang member fighting in golf wear and I'm sure "Enter the Beetle Head's" ambition to be inducted in Hollywood's walk of fame was short-lived.
Says his name is Yung Henry Yu yet the movie claims he's Bruce Ly. Is that his stage name?
He's got about as much appeal as that old man at the end of 'Terminator' who states, "He's says there's a storm coming." Remember that guy's acting career? Off the hook, man.
Karate movies never failed me in the 80's, or 90's. They don't seem to be working in 2022 for some reason. How could I be forsaken? They're stupid and sap brain cells from already dead brains that watch Hollywood entertainment. We've been had, man!
Chinatown Connection is ideal for action fans that don't take themselves so seriously.
tarbosh220002 September 2012
Warning: Spoilers
Warren Houston (Majors II) is an L.A. Cop On The Edge with a serious attitude problem. Also he plays by his own rules. When batches of poison cocaine start killing off the local drug-taking population, Houston wants to find out who is responsible. But he is teamed up with John Chan (Ly), a Martial Arts expert with a thick Chinese accent. Chan is running an experimental program at the police precinct, where instead of suspending officers with anger issues, he teaches them Martial Arts moves in the gym. Sort of a cross between anger management and Karate class. The latest recruit into the program is Estes (Camacho), an ally to Houston and Chan. They are searching for an underworld figure known only as "The Scarface Man". I guess simply "Scarface" was taken. Will these unorthodox "Kung Fu Cops" get to the bottom of the CHINATOWN CONNECTION? You thought you loved Lee Majors. You thought he was the only Lee Majors. You thought wrong. Not only is there a son to the great Keaton's Cop (1988) star, but his name is not simply "Lee Majors" or even "Lee Majors Jr." it's Lee Majors THE SECOND. Kind of like Pope John Paul II. And not only that, in this movie he's teamed up with not Bruce Lee, Bruce Li, Bruce Le, or (personal favorite) Bruce Rhee, but with yet another "Bruce", this time Bruce Ly. Add Art Camacho and Brinke Stevens to the mix and you have a movie that should be a bit more well known, both for the cast and for the fun moments it contains.
Sure, the movie is plotted and paced weirdly, and maybe not all the punches and kicks connect, but so what? The Houston/Chan team-up (either by accident or design) actually avoids some of the "you don't speak English" clichés we've seen many times in the past. They get along well together, as best evidenced when they're both speaking with a drugged-out informant known as "PCP". But the only acid on display is the wash in Lee Majors II's jeans. Though it is curious that no one ever comments on John Chan's super-thick accent even once. It's all just taken for granted.
It should also be noted that the police chief is the time-honored WYC (or White Yelling Chief), and Houston is known as "That Crazy Cop" (kind of like "That Darn Cat"?) and that he hates Slime. He calls criminals Slime at least twice in the movie. He has an awesome fashion sense, from his mustache down to his high-top Nike's. Additionally, it being the 80's, he even, inexplicably, has to face off against a Ninja at one point. Luckily his house is well-equipped with weaponry (this will remind watchers of The Office of how Dwight has various weapons hidden around the office). As if that wasn't enough, one of the baddies is none other than Malibu, AKA Deron McBee. Sadly, it's an uncredited role, but finally now we're shedding light on it.
Despite (or, more accurately, because of) Chinatown Connection's more amateurish qualities, there's a lot to like about this movie. Released by South Gate to video stores in 1990, and featuring the song (which gets no credit so we don't know who it's by or the precise title but we think it's called) "You Decided To Play", Chinatown Connection is ideal for action fans that don't take themselves so seriously.
For more action insanity, drop by: www.comeuppancereviews.com
Sure, the movie is plotted and paced weirdly, and maybe not all the punches and kicks connect, but so what? The Houston/Chan team-up (either by accident or design) actually avoids some of the "you don't speak English" clichés we've seen many times in the past. They get along well together, as best evidenced when they're both speaking with a drugged-out informant known as "PCP". But the only acid on display is the wash in Lee Majors II's jeans. Though it is curious that no one ever comments on John Chan's super-thick accent even once. It's all just taken for granted.
It should also be noted that the police chief is the time-honored WYC (or White Yelling Chief), and Houston is known as "That Crazy Cop" (kind of like "That Darn Cat"?) and that he hates Slime. He calls criminals Slime at least twice in the movie. He has an awesome fashion sense, from his mustache down to his high-top Nike's. Additionally, it being the 80's, he even, inexplicably, has to face off against a Ninja at one point. Luckily his house is well-equipped with weaponry (this will remind watchers of The Office of how Dwight has various weapons hidden around the office). As if that wasn't enough, one of the baddies is none other than Malibu, AKA Deron McBee. Sadly, it's an uncredited role, but finally now we're shedding light on it.
Despite (or, more accurately, because of) Chinatown Connection's more amateurish qualities, there's a lot to like about this movie. Released by South Gate to video stores in 1990, and featuring the song (which gets no credit so we don't know who it's by or the precise title but we think it's called) "You Decided To Play", Chinatown Connection is ideal for action fans that don't take themselves so seriously.
For more action insanity, drop by: www.comeuppancereviews.com
'The Kung Fu Squad rules, dude!'
Weirdling_Wolf2 March 2021
When a terminal batch of poison-laced drugs hits the streets like a deadly white hurricane, it will take just two of the hardest hitting street savvy cops to fight back, and Chan (Bruce ly) and no less bellicose partner, Houston (Lee Majors II) are generously over-endowed with more than enough Gunhappy chutzpah and righteously steel thewed Kung Fu fury to take on the murderous criminal cartels than have so little regard for human life!
After a wicked sleazy photographer toots his terminal toot we observe Lee 'I'll backdoor this scum' Majors II unflinchingly take down heavily armed Chicano gang bangers with extreme prejudice, coldly culling them like some skell excising, stonewashed jean-clad surgeon! With cerebral, Chan and hot-headed Houston bustin' heads and kickin' down doors, this Zen, martial arts cop and his retrograde, pistol packin' partner soon discover that the source of all this toxic gear is strongly linked to Hong (William Ghent) evil, Machiavellian kingpin of Chinatown and one of the major importers of drugs.
Infrequently recalled these days 'Chinatown Connection' is a rumbustious mismatched cop actioner that is ably festooned with plentifully roustabout scenes of gung ho action, amusingly generic chitchat, no less prototypical, bullet-ready thugs, and while it occasionally lags it's certainly not without some exhilaratingly thick eared fight-flick charm! Lee Majors II is a handsome, round housing pug, and his partner, master pugilist, Bruce Ly gets the girl, Missy, none other than super B-Movie princess Brinke Stevens! Ouellette's 'Chinatown Connection' excitingly concludes with a resolutely grand chop-sockingly crazy finale betwixt sensei, Chan and mean alpha dog thug Tony (Fitz Houston), with additional B-Movie bonus points earned for arbitrary usage of a home-invading Ninja! Right on!!!!
You could superglue, Arnie, Stallone and, Statham together and this pair of ill-matched righteously enraged, justice-seeking, dope-dealer destroying, hellaciously hardcore cops would power through those old Hollywood lags like overripe cheese! Capable filmmaker, Jean-Paul Ouellette has produced a solid low budget action-fest that deserves more love, with additional B-Movie bonus points earned for arbitrary usage of a home-invading Ninja! Right on!!!!!!! And heroically handsome moustache-wearing Majors II is one honey sweet slice of sugary man-cake, and I can imagine there are a goodly many ladies and no less goodly gentlemen who would like to see more of him, if ya' know what I mean?????? AROOOOOOOO!!!!!!
'The Kung Fu Squad rules, dude!'
After a wicked sleazy photographer toots his terminal toot we observe Lee 'I'll backdoor this scum' Majors II unflinchingly take down heavily armed Chicano gang bangers with extreme prejudice, coldly culling them like some skell excising, stonewashed jean-clad surgeon! With cerebral, Chan and hot-headed Houston bustin' heads and kickin' down doors, this Zen, martial arts cop and his retrograde, pistol packin' partner soon discover that the source of all this toxic gear is strongly linked to Hong (William Ghent) evil, Machiavellian kingpin of Chinatown and one of the major importers of drugs.
Infrequently recalled these days 'Chinatown Connection' is a rumbustious mismatched cop actioner that is ably festooned with plentifully roustabout scenes of gung ho action, amusingly generic chitchat, no less prototypical, bullet-ready thugs, and while it occasionally lags it's certainly not without some exhilaratingly thick eared fight-flick charm! Lee Majors II is a handsome, round housing pug, and his partner, master pugilist, Bruce Ly gets the girl, Missy, none other than super B-Movie princess Brinke Stevens! Ouellette's 'Chinatown Connection' excitingly concludes with a resolutely grand chop-sockingly crazy finale betwixt sensei, Chan and mean alpha dog thug Tony (Fitz Houston), with additional B-Movie bonus points earned for arbitrary usage of a home-invading Ninja! Right on!!!!
You could superglue, Arnie, Stallone and, Statham together and this pair of ill-matched righteously enraged, justice-seeking, dope-dealer destroying, hellaciously hardcore cops would power through those old Hollywood lags like overripe cheese! Capable filmmaker, Jean-Paul Ouellette has produced a solid low budget action-fest that deserves more love, with additional B-Movie bonus points earned for arbitrary usage of a home-invading Ninja! Right on!!!!!!! And heroically handsome moustache-wearing Majors II is one honey sweet slice of sugary man-cake, and I can imagine there are a goodly many ladies and no less goodly gentlemen who would like to see more of him, if ya' know what I mean?????? AROOOOOOOO!!!!!!
'The Kung Fu Squad rules, dude!'
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
