Wolff rating: GOOD
Plot summary: Agent Jackie Chan is on an Indiana-Jones-style adventure to find hidden gold.
Biased, pithy comments: Chop-socky (chop-sake?) is the only word to describe this kind of film. With every scene a knock-down, drag-out fight and some killer acrobatics, it's the kind of Jackie Chan film that is so crazy you don't have time to think. Chan has said in interviews he'll never get the girl in a movie because it will ``let my female fans down,'' and in this film he's pursued by three different women (of different ethnic backgrounds, no less) who end up in some pretty amusing catfights. The role of the women is reduced to painful stupidity---Hong Kong culture in 1991 is somewhere in the late 70s, early 80s of American culture---yes, women get to speak on screen and do some fighting, but the men are the serious players. Yet Chan is such a great anti-hero (always running away when he's outnumbered, always trying to make peace in an awkward moment) that he defies the macho stereotype that would really make the gender roles offensive. The plot is pretty daffy (usual in Chan's comedies) but the stunts really make up for it and it's all you'd want to watch this show for anyhow. You can see the strong influences of ``Raiders'' as they made this film. I think the correct thing about seeing this movie is to remember that this is a movie entirely made for entertainment---it's a comic book without the thudding pretensiousness of ``serious'' comic work.
Other Notes: Re-released in the US---this is really ``Armour of God part II.''
How many times I have seen it: x1
Starring: Jackie CHan, Carol Cheng, Eva Cobo, Shoko Ikeda.
Directed by: Jackie Chan