Wolff rating: NOT BAD
Plot summary: Gentleman adventurer Hawk helps a bumbling friend rescue a kidnapped girl while finding the Armor of God.
Biased, pithy comments: Well, it's a Jackie Chan movie, and from the stories told, this one nearly killed him. (You can see the jump in the outtakes---you can barely notice it in the film, but it resulted in a massive head injury for our hero.) The plot is nearly completely incoherent and often illogical, while Tam overacts his way to B-movie history. The fight scenes are good, but this lacks the verve of other Chan movies---we get more James-Bond-like racing around in cars (Mitsubishi, of course, since the product is placed like a brick wall across an expressway) and less acrobatic kung foolishness. A skip unless you're a big Chan fan.
Other Notes: I've often wanted to be a European star in a Hong Kong movie, since they always seem to be dumpy middle-aged guys with bad makeup. Is this how HK sees non-Asians? Tam is a monster pop star in HK. There apparently seem to be more than one version; the version I saw lacked a fairly predictable bedroom farce with Chan and Tam competing for Kwan's attention, as the importers decided it was too slow and uninteresting for American audiences. Followed by a sequel---Armor of God 2, or Operation Condor. (Gotta love wacky import release dates and renamings---Operation Condor follows Operation Condor 2 in HK sequence, but turn out to be reversible in the U.S.)
How many times I have seen it: x1
Starring: Jackie Chan, Lola Forner, Alan Tam.
Directed by: Jackie Chan