Stoner

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"I wasn't shaken, but I was stirred."

- Alvin George


Stoner (1974)

AKA: Hong Kong Hitman; Man Called Stoner, A

Director: Huang Feng

Writer: Ni Kuan, Huang Feng

Producer: Raymond Chow

Action Director: Chu Yuan-Lung, Chen Chuen

Cast: George Lazenby, Angela Mao, Betty Ting Pei, Wong In Sik, Sammo Hung

Running Time: 90 min.

Plot: Two spies (George Lazenby and Angela Mao) are on different missions and must team up when both are threatened by the murderous and mysterious Dr. Sinn , who developed a new, deadly drug called "The Happy Pill".

Reviews

ALVIN GEORGE'S REVIEW: "Stoner" is a campy (by design and/or accident) HK film featuring onetime James Bond George Lazenby. The movie has some cheesy dialogue--not to mention some serious ass-kicking by Big Man George and Angela Mao, who was apparently the Michelle Yeoh of her day. The opening scene is deliciously campy, with a badly dubbed Chinese scientist saying the equivalent of, "I shall call my new invention The Happy Pill." (Hmmm, sounds like a great weapon for the next Austin Powers movie.) Mr. Lazenby has somewhat longer hair in this movie than in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service ." At times, he even wears a mustache. A certain female character, apparently George's girlfriend or whatever, overdoses, causing Lazenby to go on a vengeful crusade. There's a scene where Angela baby climbs aboard a ship and fights wearing a black two-piece "beavertail" wet suit with a hood and shiny snaps or twistlocks at the crotch. Overall, "Stoner" isn't as good as "The Man from Hong Kong" (there should've been more stuntwork and car chases), but for those of you who think George Lazenby is superior to Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan, Timothy Dalton, and Roger Moore, enjoy this movie. I wasn't shaken, but I was stirred.

ALVIN GEORGE'S RATING: 6.5/10


PERKELE'S REVIEW: I would really like to see more of these mid-70's modern day kung fu capers; the 70's setting adds the certain campy, comedic and cool feel [the clothes, the music, everything] to these movies. Here we get George Lazenby, that lame James Bond from that one early 007 stinker, and Angela Mao, "The Queen of Kung Fu". Oh, and being a heterosexual male that I am today, I can't help but mention that we get to see the gorgeous Romanolee Rose, naked! But the film's quality doesn't limit to those magnificent breasts and the funky 70's atmosphere, there's solid kung fu as well. Lazenby uses his brutal and simple streetfighting to mash up the enemy [including Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao!!!] and Angela has a blazing duel with the hapkido expert Whang Ing-Sik. Sammo Hung also worked as the choreographer here, so needless to say, the fights kick some serious butt! And I have to mention that the cave-setting used here is the same one from "Enter the Dragon".

PERKELE'S RATING: 6/10


MIGHTY PEKING MAN'S REVIEW: A film that doesn't waste anytime exploiting sex, drugs, violence, and kung-fu. George Lazenby comes off great, especially for you "007" fans who want to see him in something else besides "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". Let me tell you something, George is a guy that really knows how to throw a solid punch! Thanks to the 1970s, he isn't the clean-cut hero we saw in "OHMSS", instead we get bad hair-styles and awful polyester suites. The beautiful, but deadly, Angela Mao plays a "sidekick" to George, who also has a number of scenes where she gets to kick some serious ass. Betty Ting Pei (Bruce Lee's sperm-bank) also has a small, but sexy, role. Overall, this film is enjoyable and very laughable at times. At most, it's just plain interesting, especially for the presence of Lazenby in a Hong Kong flick.

Like most kung-fu films of the 1970s, the dubbing is awful. It seems like Lazenby's character had three different guys dubbing his voice (towards the end of the film, I could swear that's actually HIM dubbing his own voice). Many of the elements of this film are not exactly bad, it's was just made in the 1970s when most films of this genre with unintentionally funny.

MIGHTY PEKING MAN'S RATING: 7/10