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RATING:  
SINGAPORE : This Shaw Brothers Studios Cantonese comedy follows the misadventures of two rival families and their neighbours as they try to make a living in Mongkok's busiest street.
Eric Tsang and Jacky Cheung, no strangers to the genre, play the family heads, who, in addition to dealing with escalating rent prices and competing fiercely to one-up the other's electronics business, find themselves involved in a love triangle with Tsang's wife (Anita Yuen) - all the while undertaking a mission to foil an acid-flinging rooftop villain.
Sound confusing? That's because it is.
Loosely based on an older version of the film, "72 Tenants" has a plot that is scattered, disjointed and, at times, completely haphazard.
New characters and developments spring up randomly, and the jokes often go beyond slapstick into the realm of the ridiculous.
Granted, some characters do manage to extract a guffaw or two occasionally, but that is due more to the sheer absurdity of the film than any real ingenuity on director Tsang's part.
As frenemies, Tsang and Cheung's endlessly petty attempts to thwart the other are amusing. But "72 Tenants" is, at its best, cringeworthy, and, at its worst, a complete mess. Save your hongbao for a good packet of bak kwa.
- TODAY/ra
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