Police Story 2

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.

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!

Jackie Chan in flight is such a joy to behold (especially during the end credits showing bloopers and the injuries from the mind-blowing stunts), as this particular series (five films so far and a spin off from the third feature) along with "Project A" and its sequel would come down as probably his most recognizable home-grown efforts to western audiences. I love Chan's early work, and the Police Story features (which did come across as epic crime joints) are some of his best latter stuff. As for "Police Story Part 2", it continues on from the excellent original to simply match the quality and go on to be a little larger in scale and excitingly explosive… literally.

The Hong Kong police force doesn't like individual heroes and that's what they see Ka Kui as. His effective, but it always comes at a cost which they are not willing to take. So for he extreme acts Kui is demoted to a traffic cop. However after some threats on his life and his girlfriend which causes more of a stir, he decides to quit for his well-being and that of his girlfriend. But it doesn't last long when he's conned back onto the force to help combat against a string of bomb threats involving a gang holding ransom a big corporation.

Jackie Chan flexibly directs astonishingly dangerous stunts-galore and inventively rapid, if elaborate martial arts choreography in what is an old-hat, but very busy and comic book pulp cops and robbers chase formula. It's customary investigation work, by trying to predict the next move and virtually racing against the clock to stop the bad guys… which has two lots for Chan to take on. The tough action is instinctive, uncanny and lethal making it amazing to watch (with an upbeat music tempo underlining it) and boy their's a destructive mess after nearly every ordeal. This goes for the electrifying and impulsive climatic showdown. Like most of these outings it doesn't forget the humour, which is quite broad and silly, but these comic elements can be fun and actually it's rather toned down than usual. It's more-so serious involving the pressure and dangers of the job with a multi-facet performance by Chan as there's an unhealthy obsession (boldly dogged, but self-centred) making his character truly blind of what really should be important to him. However I found to get in the way was the love interest angle (the factor of police work getting in the way of love), which was important for certain story developments and to squeeze out suspenseful situations, but still those awkward moments do slow down its momentum. The performances are immensely colourful (Maggie Cheung, Bill Tung, Kwok-Hung Lam, Charlie Cho and Benny Lai) and Jackie Chan under a heavy work load shows the stamina and agility with that glowing charisma, which makes him a favourite.

Police Story 2 is so tone deaf at times that it's almost unbelieavable considering it's made by the same team that made the awesome first movie. It retains the goofy attitude and the same superb stunt-work but the whole plot is contrived, violent and sad at times. It's like "gloomy slaptstick". The sadism of the new villains and the comedic actions of Ka Kui clash into each other like to tidal waves. Also the weird cameos of the bad guys from the previous movies doesn't help at all. If it wasn't for Jackie this would be a complete dissapointment, but fortunaly he makes it bereable enough to almost enjoy it through those rough scenes.

NEW POLICE STORY II packs a violent confrontation between Jackie and an evil bunch . This stirring story about the cop named Chan Ka Kui of the Hong Kong precinct is well played by Jackie Chan. Chan Ka-Kui or Kevin Chan(aka Jackie) is a Hong-Kong cop, who scores his first big hit by virtually single-handedly apprehending and arresting a big drug- lord in ¨Police story I ¨ . In spite his success at capturing delinquents , Kevin Chan's unorthodox approach to his work as a police officer sees him removed to the traffic branch . While the crime boss recently out from prison is harassing Kevin and his sweetheart . He then plans to take a journey to Bali with his girlfriend named May (Maggie Cheung) , but while he's at a travel agency in a shopping mall, some police agents see him and report that the mall is under a bomb threat . Unable to resist the urge to get involved in officers work, Ka Kui orders the policemen to sound the fire alarm and have the mall cleared, and agrees to take responsibility for the decision . After that , the police staff (Supt. Li played by Kwok Lam) is contemplating reinstating Kevin to help them catch a group of bombers trying to extort from building owners . Then Chan looks for vengeance against the ominous villains at a cat and mouse game.

This exciting movie is packed with intrigue, thrills , unstopped action , suspense , overwhelming stunt-work and lots of violence but with humor . Jackie Chan is top notch as one army man fighting a group of heinous criminals and as always he makes his own stunts like is showed on the final fake-shots . Awesome , incredible stunts and brief comic touches , as usual ; the picture is better constructed than Chan's predecessors films . The lighting-paced storyline slows down at times , but frantic action sequences make up for it . Spotlights movie include a stirring car pursuit , Jackie jumping over a bus ,impressive and interminable fights with Chan dangling and downing , a mall blow-up and a breathtaking final explosion and other extraordinary action sequences in James Bond style . This is a phenomenal action movie distinguished by nicely cinematography of the spectacular sequences , and contains agreeable sense of humor such as previous entries . In this outing Jackie teams up again to prestigious actress and fine action star in their own right , like Maggie Cheung . This is a passable action movie distinguished by ferocious sequences , and packs silly sense of humor as well as Jackie's subsequent entries . Furthermore , moving and thrilling original musical score fitting to action by J Peter Robinson . The picture achieved success in USA and around the world . However , Jackie Chan's failed at Box-office in his American debut ,¨Battle creek brawl¨ . Chan is a hard-working actor and director throughout his long and varied career .He went on playing ¨Cannoball¨ , ¨The protector¨ and "Rumble in the Bronx", until getting all American success with ¨Shangai Knights¨ , ¨The tuxedo¨ , ¨Around the world in 8days¨ and ¨Rush hour¨ trilogy , and of the course the recent ¨Karate kid¨. Of course , his big hits were ¨The Police story¨ series that won the Golden Horse Award, a Chinese version of the Oscar , the first was titled ¨Police story(1985)¨ directed by the same Chan , it was a perfect action film for enthusiastic of the genre ; the following was ¨Police story 2(1988)¨also pretty violent and with abundant humor touches. It's followed by ¨Supercop¨ or ¨Police story 3¨ and finally, ¨Police story IV : Crime story. The picture is lavishly produced by the great Asian producers Raymond Chow and Golden Harvest production and compellingly directed by Jackie Chan . Rating : Acceptable and passable , the picture has its sensational moments here and there , but also pretty violent and with abundant humor touches mostly provided by its agile star , the super Jackie . It's a perfect action film for enthusiast of the genre .