Police Story 2

The Hong Kong super-cop (Jackie Chan) must stop a group of blackmailing bombers at the same time that the villains of the first Police Story are out for revenge.

As much as I enjoyed this movie -- the humor, the explosions, the fast kicks to the face -- it has to be said that it never quite lives up to the first film. This should not come as a surprise to anyone, as sequels very rarely are as good as the original (though some select few do tend to be better).

We still had awesome kicks, a humor that was a bit more crude, and we had way more explosions in this one (not surprising, given the villains are bombers). But we do not get to see as much glass break, and I think the overall destruction is never quite as high. How do you top the destruction of an entire village from part one?

In this sequel to POLICE STORY, everyone is back. Jackie Chan is getting a dressing-down for catching the bad guys.... so expensively. He's busted to traffic cop, but when the bad guys show up to threaten him and girl friend Maggie Cheung, he busts some glasses. This gets him more lecturing from fatuous squad chief Kwok-Hung Lam, so Jackie quits and heads off to Bali with Maggie.

However, some guys have planted a bomb, destroying a mall, and promise more unless the real estate company pays a huge ransom. The police don't know what to do about this, so they talk Jackie back onto the force.

In terms of story-telling, this is not a well-constructed story, since with three stories -- revenge story by the bad guys from the previous movie; rocky relationship with Miss Cheung; and bomber -- a lot winds up abandoned; even though Criterion has restored this to pretty much the original length, it's apparent that a lot was lost in editing somewhere. Still, one does not watch a Jackie Chan movie for its exquisite story-telling, but for funny stuff -- Bill Tung gets gassy at one point -- and the funny, chaotic, acrobatic gags that Jackie Chan provides to his fans. He offers them here, even though they are not as madly funny as they would become over the next five years.

It's important to note that, as director and co-writer, Chan is not a glory hog. The funniest sequence is the one where the young female officers are investigating a creep they want to turn. All in all, while Jackie Chan's movies would continue to improve because his popularity with audiences gave him greater scope, this is a lot of fun.

The first half hour or so of "Police Story II" is easily it's best and it seems as if the sequel to the original action masterpiece is going to be almost as good. Unfortunately once Jackie goes undercover it starts to drag, and the film struggles to recover.

It's still enjoyable stuff though, but it's so hard to live up to the original, particularly when you're making it in such a similar way, "Supercop" made the right move by making it much different to it's predecessors. It's great to see Maggie Cheung with a larger role though. I refuse to acknowledge "First Strike" as part of the Police Story series; it doesn't even have Maggie! By the way, never ever watch dubbed/P&S Jackie movies (e.g. video store copies). God-awful!

Police Story 1 was a masterpiece, Police Story 2 is good, its that simple. Its just not as good as the original, but how many sequels are?

The plot is simple, Mr.Ku is out for revenge and a series of bombs have been set off in Hong Kong, so its up to Jackie and his regulars to investigate. May played by Maggie Cheung is once again the damsel, who's in distress by the way.

The fights and stunts are up to form. The fight scene in the park is just magnificent. About a dozen henchman grasping various metal objects are after Jackie, who uses everything from climbing frames to see-saws to fend them all off.

What the film lacks is interesting dialogue, conversations are just boring and the Chinese jokes are untransaltable into English. Jackies character is depressed and all uptight, not as fun as in the original, but the guy did go through hell in the first movie, so I guess its understandable. The pace of film is also too erratic, one minute its a rollercoaster, the next minute its like watching a melodrama.

Anyway, the action is still top notch and this film paved the way for Police Story 3 SuperCop, which gained recognition in the U.S with a theatrical release.

Inspector Ka Kui (Jackie Chan) continues his adventure in this second installment of the Police Story.

Story is a continuation of the first Police Story. Ka Kui is excused of all his actions, but gets reassigned to the traffic department. He soon gets involved with the bombers who are blackmailing the building owner. The guys who Ka Kui captured in the first part is also out of jail. His relation with Maggie is also on the rocks. Things just aren't so good for him, but when the bombers kidnaps Maggie, Ka Kui has had enough, and goes after the bombers.

This movie along with the first Police Story is filled with classic action scenes from annals of Jackie Chan's action scenes. Some of these are: Jackie crossing the freeway on foot and at the end gets hit by a van. Jackie jumping on to a two decker bus and then jumping into the glass made Lee Kum Kee's bill board. Scene where Maggie Chung runs from the villain, and steel frameworks dominoing after her (scene where she actually got hurt badly in the head). And countless falls from the building's windows.

This movie is worth watching just for these scenes, but there's a bevy of beautiful actresses from the late '80s adoring this movie.

While this movie is not the classic the first Police Story is, it's still one of the best action movies to come out of Hong Kong, and is recommended for viewing.