Leung lui chai goon

Comedy action mixed with plenty of eye candy, Cop Shop Babes is a movie that makes no apologies about its intention to just entertain. Two male detectives finds themselves in a division that's all female. A bomber sends hints about next place he'll be bombing to Cop Shop Babes. You can figure the mayhem that follows.

The girls are hot, and the story isn't bad. It's not intended to be a drama or action, but you'll find both thrown in with comedy, and somewhat silly romance. The movie bucks the trend of dark movies that were the mainstream of that era, and remain light hearted and entertaining.

The girls are hot, and the plot is fun. A good movie to watch if you just want to let your hair down and relax.

Well, after years of mining the Hong Kong film genius of Jackie Chan, John Woo, Tsui Hark, Chow Yun Fat, etc., we're finally getting the dreck. Cop Shop Babes is by no stretch of the imagination a great film. Stupid cops, lame jokes, and generally lame action (though the Hannibel Lecter guy was mildly amusing) add up to a pretty mediocre film. I can honestly say this is the worst Hong Kong film I've ever seen (though it's still better than Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter). And while just about all of the women here are hot, none of them appear naked, which is a deadly blow for what's essentially an exploitation film. Avoid unless you have some friends who like to do your own version of MST3K.

Beer and Satay are two bumbling cops who get transferred to Cop Shop Girls division. Beer is a womanizer and promptly starts dating two girls at a time. Everyone's after Fireball, who blows stuff up. There's many more sub-plots than that in this wacky flick. It may be a tad too sophomoric, juvenile & slapstick-laden for some people, but I kinda enjoyed it.

My Grade: C

DVD Extras: Trailers for Cop on a Mission, and Inner Senses

I guess "uneven" is the word that best describes this movie. The (few) fight scenes are actually very good, reminiscent of the good old days of HK cinema, and the girls are extremely sexy, especially Li Shan Shan and Fei Lei. But there is also a lot of silly, childish comedy that either doesn't translate very well or simply isn't very funny in the first place. And there is also a lot of extraneous material, like the romantic complications in the life of Carina Lau. It's true that with a different, more to-the-point approach "Cop Shop Babes" could have been a great girls-with-guns flick. But, for fans of this subgenre, there is still enough good stuff here (mostly in the first and the last 15 minutes) to make this worth your time. (**1/2)