Dak ging san yan lui 2

I somehow managed to make it all the way through this movie, but was dumbfounded by the complete lack of entertainment delivered. My friends and I are fans of HK film, but WOW. This movie has it all, and by all I mean everything a movie shouldn't have. Underdeveloped and stereotyped characters, way over-the-top overacting, cheesy special effects, talking robots, no less than 20 double-foot jumpkicks, impossible situations, unfunny "gags" and "jokes", elementary school premise, mindless killings, and too-long running time for the material. Throw in the fact that Gen-X Cops was a decent film and this movie becomes even harder to bear. Quite simply, if you're entertaining the idea of watching this film...don't.

First and foremost, this movie was surprisingly released in 2000, and not in 1991 as it clearly looks. I'm still trying accept this. Let's just say the cinematography isn't a reason to see it. 

Gen-X Cops 2: Metal Mayhem (also known as Gen-Y Cops) is a thoroughly amateurish, incredibly cheesy Hong Kong attempt at a Hollywood-style blockbuster. I haven't seen the first Gen-X Cops movie, so I can't compare the quality between the two. The sequel, however, falls firmly into the "so bad it's (almost) good" category. The dubbing is atrocious, the fight and action scenes (while occasionally entertaining) are poorly choreographed, some of the acting is beyond awful, and the story is a mess of stolen robots, police officers trying to clear their names, maniacal hackers, and slapstick humor. Probably my least favorite thing about it was that it was simply too long and too often it was boring. 

I only watched the movie because of Maggie Q. (not nearly enough of her) and Paul Rudd (in his most ill-fitting role ever, though he still manages to be unintentionally funny). If you have similarly extraneous reasons or you just want to see a cheesy, weird movie, give Gen-X Cops 2 a shot. Otherwise, stay far, far away.

The "why" is obvious - the first one was a hit, and understandably so. Good action, decent story, strong cast. Everything a good HK movie needs.

Then along comes "Gen-Y Cops" (or one of its other names - Metal Mayhem or such). Here you have some of the cast (no Nic Tse?) from the first movie trying to stop a Transformers reject from shooting people. Why were there robots to begin with in this movie? For the most part, robots in movies haven't even been cool since 1988. On top of that, you have Match and Alien from Gen-X cops walking around talking street jive. "What's-up-my-man?" Plus, there's Edison - or as I call him "The Asian Marky Mark", because really, after watching him, you feel like he should have said "Feel the vibration!" He has the look... the Funky Bunch look.

Paul Rudd, well, I dunno. He's just there, being an Angry American Government Agency Guy (A.A.G.A.G.) who becomes a friend over the course of.3 seconds. There's a story of Edison's old friend being the one who made/sabotaged the robot and made it kill, but does it matter? Does it really matter?

Nope.

So really, all we're left with here, is Stephen Fung, Sam Lee, and the Asian Marky Mark having to fight Megatron while Paul Rudd struggles to keep up. Oh, that and they speak English for a good portion of the movie - which they do considerably well, if you overlook how obnoxious it is. By that, I mean you hear "WHOOOOOOAAAA, MAAAAAN!" every 15 to 45 seconds, usually Alien (Sam Lee)'s fault.

In my opinion, the only redeeming quality this movie had was the music it played on the DVD menu. Other than that, there's really not much to it. Stick with Gen-X Cops. That's all you need.

I saw this movie on VHS some time ago (27 Jan 2003), just because of the name of Paul Rudd on the cover. I liked his performance in `The Object of My Affection' very much and I really expected a good work. However, I found this film a complete mess. The story has a very confused screenplay and the characters are not well developed. Further, the low-budget special effects do not help much. I do not know the previous generation of Gen-Y Cops, but this next generation is not good. I do not recall exactly why I gave this grade (and I do not intent to see this movie again), but my vote is four.

Title (Brazil) : `Gen-Y Cops A Nova Geração' (`Gen-Y Cops The Next Generation')

"Gen X Cops" was an fun blend of drama, comedy, action and technology. I was disappointed to see that only a couple of the original cast members came back for the sequel, especially since it was the group of them that helped make the first film so appealing.

The plot of Gen Y (an armed American robot is kidnapped by its creator/programmer and used to commit chaos and revenge etc etc etc) and consequent subplots are really second to the action. There's quite a bit of humorous dialogue between the two Hong Kong partners, though the character of Alien truly does overact in a number of scenes and his use of English slang is overdone. For the most part, though, this is an action movie with an emphasis on technology not to be taken too seriously and is quite a departure from the first film. I think it might have worked just as well as a movie on its own instead of a sequel, but I didn't finance it.

The special effects are amusing (some well done and some not quite so well done), the action sequences are well choreographed and the new cast members hold their own, especially Edison. He's cute, got some good moves and I'm looking forward to seeing more of him in future films. What in the world was a blonde Paul Rudd doing here though???

Don't expect the most serious film in the world. Just sit back, relax, be amazed, cringe and wait to see what the next sequel brings us!

(7 out of 10)