Wheels on Meals (1984)

The oddly titled Wheels on Meals is the second of three features all starring friends and former Chinese opera school brothers Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, and Yuen Biao. It’s also one of the best Hong Kong action comedies of the ’80s that contains some wild vehicular stunt work and concludes with two spectacular fights featuring American martial arts champions Benny ‘The Jet’ Urquidez and Keith Vitali.

The story takes place in Spain and focuses on a pair of carefree street vendors named Thomas (Jackie Chan) and David (Yuen Biao) who sell burgers around town out of a high-tech and tricked out yellow van while serving food on skateboards. After using martial arts to deal with some unruly bikers (led by Blacky Ko), the pair fall in love with a troublesome, but beautiful pickpocket named Sylvia (Lola Forner) who is on the run from thugs and an amateur private eye named Moby (pronounced “Mo-bey”). It turns out that she is the heir to a fortune that her dastardly uncle covets. After she’s kidnapped, Thomas, David and Moby team up to save her. But they will have to get through her uncle’s thugs first.

This film is pure fun from start to finish and features the three leads doing what they do best. Sammo, who also directs the film, keeps things moving along and lighthearted while displaying his own brand of self-depreciating humor. His bumbling efforts to be a private eye display shades of Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau. Sammo downplays his own screen fighting, but gets in some good swordplay towards the end. Yuen Biao really shines, both in charisma and physical skill. His awkward advances on Sylvia contrast with his effortless acrobatic kung fu. His outmaneuvering of karate champion Keith Vitali in the film’s finale isn’t his best screen fight, but it is impressive. To Keith’s credit, he keeps up with him to a point.

Jackie, who is used to being the star, does a good job of taking a step back to let his brothers share the limelight without missing out on the action himself. But by the end, he’s front and center opposite Benny in what I would confidently label as one of the top ten screen fights of all time. Benny is one of few Westerners who really looks like a match for Jackie onscreen. He’s a six-time world champion trained in boxing, kickboxing, and various other forms of martial arts. But all moviegoers really need to know is that onscreen he’s incredibly fast, intimidating, and powerful. The fight is as intense and grueling as any in all of Jackie’s films. The pairing was popular enough that Benny was brought back as a villain for the opera trio’s third film, Dragons Forever.

if anything seems slightly out of step with the main story, its the sanitarium. Yuen Biao’s father in the film is a patient romancing another patient who happens to be Lola Forner’s mother. Sammo uses this as an excuse to throw in some broad comedy and cameos by Hong Kong comedy actors Richard Ng, Wu Ma and John Shum. Wheels on Meals came out right in the middle of Sammo’s screwball comedy franchise, Lucky Stars, which regularly featured cameos from Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao.

According to Jackie Chan, the film’s original title of “Meals on Wheels” was reversed due to superstition at Golden Harvest over the recent failure of two other films beginning with “M.” Yet there should have been little concern over the success of Wheels on Meals. Looking back on it years later, it holds up very well as a comedy actioner. The only frustration in watching it is knowing that the trio waited four years to get back together and by then, Jackie’s mega-success overshadowed his brothers’ and the chemistry just wasn’t the same anymore.