Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back

If anything, Demons Strike Back is an even zanier and more kid-friendly affair than the Chow original. Yet without Chow's unique strain of silliness, it also feels louder and more antic while covering less ground.

A madcap success on its own bizarre terms and an informative distillation of each auteur's sensibility.

A rare character-driven big-budget action-adventure - the kind of thing Americans might love if they knew it existed.

All spectacle and little substance, a stop-gap title produced perhaps to keep the brand going while the producers search for a way to bring the series forward.

Mildly entertaining with dazzling visual spectacle, but more silly, exhausting and outrageous rather than fun or funny.

impressive effects, feeble laughs, incoherent story

This time round, though, there's more high-spirited whimsy than laugh-out-loud humour.

Blockbuster sequel to Stephen Chow's Conquering the Demons has more action than comedy.

There is a wild and joyous abandon to the film-making that calls to mind Tsui's early work, Zu Warriors From The Magic Mountain.

While [the film] is never less than watchable, it's hard to shake the impression that Tsui [Hark] has partly ditched - or maybe failed to replicate - [Stephen] Chow's irreverent sense of humour.