CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

dafrosts Yipao (Biao) and Taipao (Ka-Yan)(My CC shows their names as Lil Jon and Big Jon) are the Hope and Crosby of the countryside, if Hope and Crosby knew Kung-Fu. These two run every kind of scam possible to make money. They are robbed by The Beggar (Sammo)twice, while arguing over their bounty. After running afoul of a casino owner and ending up penniless, they try a scam at a restaurant to get food. It backfires as they get played by their "sucker", The Fox(Chia Yung Li), who not only takes the Jade ring Taipao wears, but also roughs the Duo up pretty well. The boys develop an elaborate scam involving The Fox taking them on as students. The Fox trains them to work as a team. The Fox uses them to eliminate his old partners, Matchmaker and The Painter. The duo heads into town and attempts another scam against the Casino owner. Their scam is revealed by The Beggar, who also steals the Duo's money. The Duo manages to beat the Casino owner's minions this time, but still end up penniless. Yipao returns to The Fox's home, in time to overhear a conversation between The Fox and a policeman called The Tiger, in which The Fox's true nature is revealed. Yipao watches, from a hiding place, as his "master" kills The Tiger. Taipao returns to the house shortly after the murder and unintentionally alerts The Fox to the fact Yipao knows his true identity. This leads to some amazing fighting in which The Fox tries to kill Yipao. Taipao gives his own life to save his brother. Yipao goes on the run and encounters The Beggar, who takes Yipao on as a student. The training is humorous to watch. The jump roping scene is incredible. I rewound the movie to watch it three times. The final fight scene is worth every moment. The Monkey style The Beggar and Yipao use is humorous and powerful against The Fox's snake style. Even in battle, The Beggar and Yipao find humor. I always feel sorry for the restaurant owners' in these movies. Their places always end up in shambles. I give this movie an 8 out of 10 because the fight scenes are incredibly impressive. The humor seals it. Another winner for Sammo and troupe.

gridoon First things first: the fight scenes in "Knockabout" are plentiful and SUPERB. Some of them are staged like elaborate comic dances - Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton would probably be pleased if they could see some of the gags here. In addition to his great fighting, Yuen Biao performs many admirable acrobatic feats (I doubt that Jackie Chan could ever do some of the stuff that Biao does here), and Sammo Hung moves with incredible agility for a man his size! There is also a lot of comedy in this film, which will not be to everyone's taste, as it involves a lot of mugging and twitching (as well as exaggerated sound effects and animal sounds), but there ARE some genuinely funny moments. The only problem with the film is the plodding pacing: there simply isn't enough story to support 100 minutes of running time. (**1/2)

sarastro7 "Knockabout" is a prime example of all the virtues of old school kung fu movies. It has cool characters, comedy, seriousness, a classic type of story, and loads and loads of great fighting and training sequences (especially, of course, towards the end). And it has these elements in such gold standard versions that it comprises a superb representation of the classic Hong Kong martial arts movie genre."Knockabout" brings together three of that time's top names in the world of kung fu movie-making, Sammo Hung, Ka-Yan Leung and Yuen Biao. Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao went on to do many movies with Jackie Chan, and actually Ka-Yan Leung's comedic role in this movie could well have been played by Jackie Chan. But I guess, at the time (1979), Ka-Yan Leung was a hotter name. This is the first time I've seen Ka-Yan Leung in a comedy role; he's usually very intense and serious, and often even bitter (see "Lightning Kung Fu" and "The Postman Strikes Back"). So this is quite a change. He pulls off the comedy part very well indeed, demonstrating that his acting range isn't limited to one kind of role.The main reason Ka-Yan Leung's such a hot property, however, is his marvelous kung fu skills. In "Knockabout" he and Yuen Biao are a couple of thieving brothers who're pretty good at kung fu. But when they encounter a guy they can't beat, they beg to become his students. And indeed, he teaches them to become so good that (as he tells them) "ordinary people" are no match for them. So, the happy-go-lucky brothers promptly go out in search of some "ordinary people" to test their new skills against. They find a bunch of extortion racketeers at the local marketplace, who, when asked who they are, claim to be "merely ordinary people" - and then, of course, the fighting breaks out! Very effective comedy.Sammo Hung plays a beggar/thief who follows the naive brothers, consistently fooling them out of half their loot. When their newfound master turns out to be a bad guy who only trained the brothers in order to fight off his enemies (who were using combinations of styles that no one person could counter, but two could), Sammo's the only one who knows enough kung fu to beat him. And that's leaving out a *lot* of details! This is a very good movie with a good story, but parts of it are not as entertaining as it could be. The seriousness is *too* serious, considering how wacky the movie's comedy dimension is, so it comes off as not being very well balanced.I rate "Knockabout" an 8 out of 10. It's among the really good ones, although one movie with a similar cast that is even better, is "Prodigal Son" (1982), which I rate a 9. (9 is my top rating for movies without several layers and other exceptional qualities, like aesthetic cinematography, etc. So far, the only kung fu movies I've rated a "10" are "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Hero".)

scottnow I just love this movie and give it 10 out of 10. Sammo is great and is his usual funny self with great martial arts, but Yuen Baio is AMAZING! I know he is famous for his kicking and acrobatic prowess, but in this film he is absolutely awesome. Some of the training sequences with Sammo where he is back flipping, somersaulting etc whilst using a skipping rope really show his fantastic acrobatic skills and he looks dead cute and sexy as well. His facial expressions are great whether he is being silly or serious and shows that he also a good actor as well as being an amazing martial artist. If you are a Yuen Baio fan, this film is a DEFINITE MUST SEE.