Review: Comedy ‘Girls vs Gangsters’ may leave you rooting for the bad guys
In the excruciatingly shrill Chinese import “Girls vs Gangsters,” a shoddy “Hangover” knockoff, a trio of girlfriends on a wild bachelorette trip to Vietnam wake up naked on a beach with one of them handcuffed to a briefcase and another in possession of a mysterious tattoo on her back.
A sequel to the 2014 romp, “Girls,” the new adventure reunites brash, spirited Kimmy (Fiona Sit) and posh, pretentious Jialan (Janine Chang) as they take their recently engaged sweet-natured bestie, Xiwen (Ivy Chen) on a last-chance, debauchery-filled escapade.
In the process of attempting to piece together the events that left them with a cache of gold bars and minus a little sister, they also find themselves having to outrun a bunch of persistent gangsters.
Meanwhile, just in case the uncredited source material isn’t readily apparent, Mike Tyson, who appeared in a couple of those “Hangover” movies, pops up as a half-American, half-Korean Muay Thai champ-turned-snack bar proprietor named Dragon.
Given the interminable crying/shrieking/squealing that ensues, it might come as a surprise that the comedy, which also sees fit to squeeze in a rape joke, was actually directed by a woman (Wong Chun-Chun), known for her 2000 documentary, the frank “Women’s Private Parts.”
While those vibrant Vietnamese backdrops make for an enticing tourism pitch, audiences are advised to skip this girls trip.
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‘Girls vs. Gangsters’
In Mandarin and English with English subtitles
Not rated
Running time: 1 hour, 53 minutes
Playing: AMC Atlantic Times Square, Monterey Park
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