Anjos de Aço 3

The Iron Angels (Alex Fong, Moon Lee, Kharina Sa, Fong's new male partner, and another guy called "The Computer" - no sign of Elaine Lui this time) go to Thailand to stop some terrorists. That's pretty much all the plot you need for this one. For pure fighting fans, this is probably the best film in the series. Moon Lee has more fight scenes than in the previous films and looks pretty lethal: one of her best moves is when she jumps on a guy, wraps her legs around his waist, flips backwards, lands on top of him and punches him straight on his face! And Fong has an extended Muay Thai ring match against a local fighter. But shootout fans won't be disappointed, either; a gunfight near the end has an INCREDIBLE body count that easily rivals that of most war movies. The girls-with-guns factor is brought down a little by the absence of Elaine Lui, and the fact that Kharina Sa is given nothing to do, but goes up again with the addition of several female baddies, the leader of whom is a pretty muscular blonde. There are also notable Bond references: we get the female version of the Bond vs. Red Grant train fight in "From Russia With Love" as Moon Lee takes on a Japanese killer lady (who even has shoe-knives!), the blonde villainess pets (not a cat but) a baby croc, and at the end the heroes attack the terrorists on jetpacks like the one Connery used in "Thunderball" - only these are equipped with inexhaustible machine guns! (**1/2)

Well choreographed fighting is the only real highlight here, as the story is a pastiche of cliches. Worth a look if you're a hardcore fan of the genre, otherwise avoid.

MIDNITE ANGELS 3, aka IRON ANGELS 3, is the third title in the popular girls with guns series made in Hong Kong. This one sees a returning Moon Lee teaming up with a bunch of new guys in order to tackle a terrorist threat in Thailand. It's definitely cheaper and more slapdash than the previous entries in the series, although the direction by popular Jackie Chan director Stanley Fong remains fresh and invigorating.

The film kicks off with an expertly-staged assassination scene before moving through various cheap and cheesy situations. There's a random fight on a train which is quite poorly played out and seems to have been included as a homage to FROM Russia WITH LOVE! Moon Lee goes undercover in the terrorist organisation and then the film slows down for half an hour with a bizarre interlude involving Muay Thai boxing and other, uninteresting characters.

Thankfully things pick up for a bizarre, action-focused climax which has to be seen to be believed. These guys really go in for the overkill with a blitz of violence involving a huge body count and a guy on a jet pack going around machine-gunning an army of bad guys! There are martial arts bouts too, although the badly-acting villains are undistinguished and only Lee stands out amid the performers. The two things that spoiled this film for me were the awful dubbing and the full-screen print which cuts off much of the action on either side of the screen; I can only hope that I get to see a widescreen subtitled print one day at which point I'm sure my enjoyment of the film would increase.

Moon Lee plays a secret agent who joins an assassins' organization in Thailand under cover. Her boss is a lady in black with a pet crocodile. When Moon's transmitter has to be left behind, she loses contact with the Iron Angels team. They don't seem to worry much about her, though. In the middle part of the film, Moon is not on screen for 30 minutes while her colleagues attend a somewhat distracting boxing championship. Fortunately, she returns with a great fight against countless enemies, and there is a bit more ammo spent later on, so the movie doesn't forget what it is about (girls'n'guns).

"Iron Angels 3" is not the best one of the trilogy. Part 1 had the best cast (including Yukari Oshima) and part 2 the best story. Part 3, also without Elaine Lui now, brings in new guys which are rather annoying: the young man assisting Fong and an American nerd called Computer (ouch). I voted 7/7/6 for the trilogy. Note: there is a movie marketed as "Iron Angels 4" in some countries, but that one is not connected to the Iron Angels trilogy, except that Moon Lee is accidentally in it, too. You'll find it under "Jin pai shi jie"/"Princess Madam" here.

In this third installment of Teresa Woo's seminal Girls with Guns franchise, only Moon Lee, Alex Fong and Kharina Sa return from the previous film (with only the former two having starred in all three films) as the titular 'Angels', an elite task force that rids the world of assassins, dictators and terrorists. This time, Moon has to infiltrate a terrorist organization bent on starting a war between Thailand and Vietnam. She succeeds but has to leave her tracking device behind, so that Alex & Kharina, assisted by Thai agent Kwai (Ralph Chen) and a bony gweilo nicknamed Computer, are left running across Bangkok trying to locate her.

Moon Lee is oddly sidelined in this sequel, but with whatever scenes there are of her, she lays waste to countless machete or fan-dab sword-wielding opponents with her bare hands or a nunchaku. She's a particularly fast-mover, and Alex Fong is no slouch in that score - there's an arresting yet protracted Muay Thai fight in the ring. The plot itself is simple, a little weak, and it's not too engaging, but it's still passable enough. Check out the finale, it's really OTT with so much carnage and the heroes coming down via jet pack indicates it's oddness.