The Conmen in Vegas Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

The Conmen in Vegas Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov July 14, 2014

Director Wong Jing's "The Conmen in Vegas" a.k.a. "Du xia da zhan La Si Wei Jia Si" (1999) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Hong Kong-based distributors Kam & Ronson Enterprises. The only supplemental features on the disc is an original trailer for the film. In Cantonese and English, with optional English and Traditional Chinese subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

King

In Hong Kong, experienced conmen King (Andy Lau, Running Out of Time, Infernal Affairs), Dragon (Nick Cheung, Election, The Stool Pigeon) and his cousin Luk (Nat Chan, King of Beggars) swindle a large amount of money from an illegal gambling parlor owned by the ruthless Big Eye Man. But before they can leave the country with the money King and Luk are detained by the police, while Dragon is captured by Big Eye Man’s thugs.

Instead of throwing them in jail, however, the local authorities offer King and Luk a deal. If they help them capture former government employee Peter Chu (Alex Man, As Tears Go By, Rouge), who has stolen 4 billion dollars and found a safe haven in Las Vegas, they will walk away with clean records and hefty cash bonuses. At first King and Dragon reject the deal, but when Big Eye Man’s thugs threaten to kill Dragon unless they are paid a very large amount of money, they change their minds. Before heading to Las Vegas, King and Luk meet Betty (Kelly Lin, Sparrow, Fulltime Killer) and Sammi (Yuk Fong), two young and very beautiful Taiwanese girls looking for an extra dose of summer excitement in their lives.

In Las Vegas, King and Luk quickly track down Peter Chu and then ask Betty to seduce him. She does her best to impress the thief, but in the process falls in love with King. Meanwhile, the thief realizes that he is dealing with professionals and comes up with a couple of tricks he hopes will teach them a lesson they will never forget.

Wong Jing's directed The Conman and The Conmen in Vegas in 1999 and the latter was officially promoted as a sequel to the former, but the two films are quite different. Lau and Cheung appear in both films, but their past is largely ignored in the sequel. In other words, familiarity with The Conman is not required to enjoy The Conmen in Vegas.

Lau is clearly the star of the film, but Jing gives the rest of the cast plenty of opportunities to impress. It has to be said, however, that Jing also uses a ton of old genre tricks to redirect the story -- if you have seen a good number of 80s and 90s Hong Kong action comedies, you will quickly figure out where the film is heading and how it will end -- so the key relationships and character transformations are indeed easily forgotten.

There is one particular sequence, however, which most male viewers seem to remember well. In it Lin demonstrates to Lau how she plans to seduce the thief they want to capture. It is wonderfully shot and Lin and Lau look terrific together.

The action sequences are good but far from impressive. This is rather surprising because Jing shot the film in location in Las Vegas with cinematographer Horace Wong, a legendary master who lensed many of John Woo’s biggest hits, including A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, and Hard Boiled.

The Conmen in Vegas Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.39:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Wong Jing's The Conmen in Vegas arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Hong Kong-based distributors Kam & Ronson Enterprises.

The high-definition transfer has been struck from a pre-existing master, but it is actually one of the better I've seen used by Kam & Ronson Enterprises. Generally speaking, detail and clarity are quite pleasing, especially during close-ups with plenty of natural light (see screencapture #3). However, there are sporadic fluctuations during the nighttime footage from Las Vegas where sharpness isn't always as convincing as it could have been (see screencapture #18). Colors are stable and natural. There are no traces of problematic degraining corrections, but grain is occasionally mixed with light noise and it isn't always as well resolved as it should be. Edge-enhancement never becomes an issue. Lastly, overall image stability is good, but some tiny flecks and even a few blotches occasionally pop up here and there (see screencapture #12). All in all, this is a decent presentation of The Conmen in Vegas, but it is obvious that there is some room for important improvements. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

The Conmen in Vegas Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: Cantonese: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 and Mandarin: Dolby Digital 5.1 EX. For the record, Kam & Ronson Enterprises have provided optional English and Traditional Chinese subtitles for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

Depth and clarity are very good, but balance could be somewhat awkward at times. This is one of the reasons why I am not particularly fond of the elaborate 7.1. remixes that appear on some HK catalog releases. Perhaps the best news here is that there are no audio dropouts any digital distortions. Also, the dialog is consistently crisp, stable, and easy to follow.

The Conmen in Vegas Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Theatrical Trailer - original theatrical trailer for The Conmen in Vegas. In Cantonese, not subtitled. (4 min, 1080p).

The Conmen in Vegas Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Wong Jing's The Conmen in Vegas is an entertaining action comedy that seems perfect to see very late at night. I like the film because a very young Kelly Lin is in it and tries really hard to impress. She obviously succeeded because after The Conmen in Vegas she appeared in a number of excellent films, such as Johnnie To's Fulltime Killer and Sparrow, and Tsui Hark's The Legend of Zu. RECOMMENDED.