If Andy Lau had young children then making a film like FUTURE X-COPS for them to enjoy would be perfectly understandable. But he doesn't and so his motives become immediately less clear. Wong Jing's latest cinematic offering is a flimsy mish-mash of great scenes from lots of other, much better science fiction and action movies, recreated on a far smaller budget and then strung together by an equally insubstantial time travel plot to hugely unsatisfying effect.

Lau plays Kidd Zhao, the Future X-Cop of the title, who travels back in time from the year 2080 to 2020 in order to protect a young boy who will grow up to become an influential scientist who has discovered a new type of eco-friendly fuel. Kidd is a cyborg, more machine than man, which means he's super strong, bulletproof and has a cool cell phone built into the palm of his hand. He can also fly. The problem is that his enemies are also cyborgs, led by Fan Siu Wong, who are arguably even more powerful, as they can mutate to produce wings, multi-headed hydras from their arms, or Alien-esque tails tipped with razor sharp blades. And they don't mind killing people.

In the opening attack, Kidd's wife Millie (played by Fan Bing Bing) is shot down and killed by one of the evil cyborgs and in return, Kidd kills their leader's brother. They manage to take the scientist to safety, but it is soon revealed that the cyborgs have hijacked a time traveling device and transported themselves 60 years into the past and plan to kill the doctor when he is just a kid. Why? It's never made entirely clear. And why do they travel back to 2020 instead of say, oh I don't know, 2010? That's not explained either.

Kidd travels back, where he masquerades as a clumsy traffic cop while attempting to track down the young boy. It is then revealed that Kidd has brought his young daughter Kiki (Xu Jiao from CJ7) with him. But that's not really explained either. Kidd immediately gets the full support of the local police force, including Holly (Barbie Hsu) who instantly falls in love with him. The story then flits back and forth between unnecessary slapstick and only marginally exciting action sequences until the final reel where more plot twists are thrown in for no good reason before an entirely forgettable final showdown.

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