Vaseline (Charlie Chin), Rookie (Fung Shui Fan), Teapot (Sammo Hung), Curly (John Shum), and Exhaust Pipe (Richard Ng) are a gang of small time crooks who have just been released from prison. Once they're free, they head on over to Curly's old house where his sister, Shirley (Cherie Chung) still lives. After some discussion of what they should do with their lives, they decide to turn away from crime and open up a legitimate business cleaning offices and homes.

It doesn't take them too long to rustle up a few clients, but this doesn't come without its own set of problems as the first building that they have to clean is a front for an illegal counterfeiting ring run by a Triad gang. Soon the Five Stars Cleaning Service finds themselves in the middle of a gang war. While all this is going on, Curly's four coworkers are trying to get with his cute younger sister, and a young detective (Jackie Chan) is trying to bust the gang's operations and at the same time not get run over while out roller skating. Watch for Yuen Biao in a small role towards the end of the film as well.

While not particularly plot heavy, Winners And Sinners succeeds with it's non stop barrage of action and comedy. While Jackie Chan gets top billed alongside Sammo Hung, this one really is Sammo's show. Chan's part is a supporting role and while he's on screen he is fantastic but Sammo gets a lot more done in this film and he does it with a whole lot of panache. Being considerably bigger than the rest of his co-stars you wouldn't think he'd be as fast as he is but it never fails to amaze me when Sammo busts into action as the man can move like a jackrabbit and he ends up kicking all kinds of ass in this movie.

The commercial success of Winners And Sinners lead to a few follows ups in the form of My Lucky Stars, Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Stars and Lucky Stars Go Places which were also directed by Sammo Hung (except for Lucky Stars Go Places which was helmed by Eric Tsang) and they utilized a lot of the same cast members. The follow ups were fun, but they don't flow as well as this one does. The comedic timing and on screen friendly relationship shared by the five main players is not only hilarious but also quite charming. They seem like true friends both on and off screen and in fact many of them were. There's also some very amusing interplay between Shirley and her brother's four buddies.

While the focus of the movie is on comedy first, there are still some excellent action scenes in the movie as well. Chan's stunt work is as good as ever and seeing him on roller skates shooting through heavy traffic is as exciting as it is amusing. Richard Ng and Charlie Chin also show off their skills once the gang finds themselves in too deep with the gangsters. The fight scenes here are fast and furious and expertly choreographed.

Video:

The 2.35.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer on this DVD is very nice with only some mild edge enhancement and a few scenes that show a faint coating of film grain over top. Print damage has been almost completely eliminated and the colors on the print look nice and natural. Flesh tones are life like, and the black levels stay strong and deep throughout. There are no problems with mpeg compression and overall, Winners And Sinners looks great.