Chuet sik san tau

Despite pretty bad reviews, I just had to give this film a go – it does, after all, star HK super-babe Shu Qi plus 6 other oriental lovelies as a team of all-action cat-burglars. Surely that's worth checking out? Well, as babe-fests go, Martial Angels is hard to beat. The eye candy is top quality. Shu Qi looks as fantastic as always, and of the rest of the girls, Rosemary Vandebrouck and Amanda Strang caught my roving eye in particular.

Unfortunately, if one is to judge this movie by any other possible merits, it is an absolute stinker! The story is weak, the action shoddy and the special effects downright pathetic. Director Clarence Fok and Producer Wong Jing have given us a photogenic cast and little else.

If Shu Qi is the only reason you're contemplating seeing this one, you would be better off watching Sex and Zen 2 again!

The movie is another Wong Jing's classic style that makes no apologies about its intent to just entertain. If you read the subtitles, the story isn't so bad. Shu Qi's old boy friend returns after 2 years, but he gets kidnapped. Now Shu Qi and six other girls goes out to get him back.

The movie is bit like Charlies Angels in that all girls team performs action. But the girls are much better looking than the real Charlie's Angels (US movie version that is), although their skin exposure remains low.

The movie is bit comical because of the outrageous plot of six women working together to perform theft as their profession, and all other plot being outlandish as well, but it sticks to it's purpose to entertain. I found this movie to be pretty good entertainment, and the chemistry of members of the team interesting. Not a bad movie to be part of the mix of other light hearted entertainment that are not only made in Hong Kong, but also from Hollywood.

Reasons to avoid this film: bad script, bad action, bad effects, low budget, and just generally stupid. Reasons to see this film: Shu Qi, Kelly Lam Hei-Lui, Teresa Mak Ga Kei, Sophie Ngan Wing Sze, Sandra Ng Kwun-Yu, Rosemary, and Amanda Strang. This is basically Charlie's Angels meets Mission Impossible 2 on a shoestring budget (but they can afford to blow a few small things up and rent a helicoptor). Perhaps good for a rental or if you're obsessed with Shu Qi (in which case you would do better renting "Sex and Zen 2" or "Shu Qi - Body Show".

With such an amazingly wonderfully attractive cast, any six year-old kid could think up some silly plot and still allow for a fairly pleasurable viewing experience. So, the only explanation for MARTIAL ANGELS is that the writer intentionally wanted to create an unwatchable movie. Indeed, this is what we have here -- an unwatchable movie. It is really too bad because the first part of the movie has style, the music is fun, and the actresses are worthy of worship. The writing in MARTIAL ANGELS stinks rotten eggs.

Any Hong Kong movie producers wanting better writing, hey, contact me. MARTIAL ANGLES is proof that you movie producers could do worse than me.

The movie was alright overall- the movie itself was a bit of a cliché, but if acting and effects were enhanced it would have been better. Amanda Strang's performance probably stood out the most, compared to the other typical 'angels'. The special effects were particularly bad and the ending was rather abrupt. It was a bit hard to remember all the chicks at first but the second time around I recognised all of them by their weird animal nicknames. Some of the lines were a bit cheesy and predictable, and the sudden chain of deaths really put me off. Also, I felt that some bits of the movie were a bit graphic and disturbing, but I guess for a good cause. I think it's safe to say that most people would think this movie is a load of crap, but if all these flaws were fixed then maybe the movie would score a bit higher.