Naked Weapon: Drei Todesengel in geheimer Mission

Naked Weapon, from prolific writer/producer Wong Jing and director Siu-Tung Ching, is one of the most preposterous films that I have seen in a long time. It is also one of the most consistently entertaining.

Madame M (Almen Wong) is the head of an organisation that provides sexy assassins for hire. When an operative is killed, she abducts a large number of pretty teenage girls (all of whom are adept at fighting) and takes them to a remote island where they are trained for six years to become ruthless killers (special move: sever the spine with finger tips and remove several vertebrae!).

At the end of their gruelling training, the girls are pitted against each other in duels to the death. The last three alive are then given the opportunity to work for Madame M in exchange for their eventual freedom.

Hong Kong hotties Maggie Q, Anya, and Jewel Lee play the film's ridiculously attractive final trio of killers, and fans of slick, sexy action should not be disappointed: director Siu-Tung Ching delivers loads of high-kicking martial arts action scenes (thoughtfully shot in slow motion so as to give male viewers even longer to ogle the stars' bodies as they perform all manner of acrobatic moves); there are gratuitous bloody gun fights in which the gals sport teensy outfits; and we even get a couple of steamy sex scenes (Maggie Q kindly gets 'em out for the lads!).

It is true that this is a dumb, trashy, sexist, and brutally violent movie—an exercise in style over content which lacks convincing acting and a decent plot. But who cares, when you've got stunning visuals, a touch of gore, crazy Matrix-style fight scenes, and, towards the end, quite a bit of audacious wire-work (at one point, Charlene ends up balanced on one leg atop a bad guy's head)? Certainly not me!

The plot of Naked Weapon is not too bad, but the way it is ultimately presented leaves a lot to be desired. The pacing is dreadful, scenes are arranged haphazardly, and far, far more could have been done with the interesting premise. Most of the dialogue is really terrible.

However, even with all the shortcomings of the script, the movie is saved by its stylism. The action is pretty good, and while the characters obviously don't actually hit each other, their moves and speed are absolutely incredible and breathtaking. The acting is pretty good, too.

All in all, a highly entertaining package filled with sexy girls kicking ass. It's not as good as So Close, though.

7 out of 10.

Charlene (Maggie Q) is a young girl who finds herself imprisoned and trained to be an assassin, along with a group of other girls including Katt (An Ya) and the psychotic Jing (Jewel Lee). Six years later, these three girls are the only ones left alive to pass the grade, and are sent out into the outside world to become assassins, working under the control of the sinister Madame M.

What follows is a pretty much non-stop fight scene, big explosions, blood and death. It's totally cool in a way that western films try so hard but fail to be (mentioning no Ballistics). It doesn't even matter that a lot of the fighting is weak and/or doubled, the lead girls – for all their inexperience – look and move great. There's lots of wirework and plenty of camera trickery, but it gets away with it by being far more fun than it has any right to be. I loved it, and if you like girls with guns, looking cool and shooting people in slow motion, you will too.

That pretty much sums up my experience with "Naked Weapon." This film is, for the most part, a fun amalgamation of "Battle Royale," modern day Hong Kong action, and Crown International-Roger Corman Chicks-with-guns B-movie super-trash Drive-in insanity. But there is a particularly despicable scene depicting gang-rape about a third of the way through that pushes the movie over the edge into the "unwatchable garbage" arena. It's like something out of a bad, misogynistic Seventies porn flick--and I have the distinct feeling that the Americanized version I saw was softened from it's original form. It's a real shame--cos I like goofy trash. I just don't like rape.

The obvious selling point of this movie was the number of scantily clad ladies battling each other. In bullet time. That's it.

It would've been more enjoyable if the action wasn't over the top...I mean come on, breaking glass that is thrown at you with your bare fists, catching the broken glass fragments, then throwing it back to where it came from? In one sequence? Please.

The dialogue was so cheesy, I couldn't tell if it was Swiss or cheddar.

I always thought that Daniel Wu was a decent actor, until this "action masterpiece" came along. He should choose his future roles carefully or get a better agent.

Another thing that bothered me was that there was this tree trying hard to act well....oh wait, that was Maggie Q. My mistake.

Do yourselves a favour...since they say this kind of movie is one where you leave your brain at the door before watching, make sure you know where you left it, because mine ran away realizing it doesn't want to go back in my head anymore after I saw this so-called, "movie". Go see "So Close" instead. At least the cast on that flick are proven "actors".

Could I have the 2 hours I wasted on this movie back please?

1/10. (1 for the effort)