Anjos de Aço 3

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.

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.

'Iron Angels III: The Return of the Iron Angels' (1989) - Teresa Woo.

The indomitable iron-fisted trio of Kung Fu fabulous crime fighters once again display their pugilistic prowess in exotic Thailand, forcefully tackling yet another bloodthirsty despot. These preternaturally agile screen heroes are uncommonly likable characters, with Moon Lee being a personal favourite. She is a devilishly cute, fiendishly gifted screen-fighter, a charismatic,incredibly versatile actor who is never less than a delight to behold! Moon Lee fans can rejoice as Iron Angels 3's thrilling opening act gives the luminous Moon plenty of room to shine as she infiltrates said terrorist cabal, assuming the covert identity of a notorious Japanese assassin! The gorgeously sun-dappled Thai locations are quite lovely, our super-athletic agents prove more than a match for the boggle-eyed villainy, and Moon Lee's dazzlingly quicksilver fights are spectacular! This is another top notch installment of the hugely entertaining HK action franchise, highlights include Alex Fong's hard-won battle with ferocious Thai Kick-boxing legend (Panna Rittikrai), and the kinetic, wildly OTT,motocross riding, jet-pack jetting, bullet-shredded climax is sublimely hectic!

I had higher expectations for this film after reading some of the good reviews, unfortunately it was a big letdown for me.

For those of you, like me, that like classic fu movies, you probably won't especially like this. I should have paid more attention to some of the other reviewers comments about "scenes taken from Bond movies" and "jetpacks with endless ammo machine guns".

Surprising to me, this movie has a higher rating than Lady Whirlwind and other female lead role fu films. I would rather watch The Lady Constables...

I would give this 3 stars just for making it all the way through. Then again... I doubt I would ever watch it again. I found it boring.

A third world terrorist group plan to put a stop to Thailand's rapid economic growth. Special agents The Angels are assigned to prevent them from doing so.

The premise for Iron Angels 3 is about as formulaic as it gets, but that doesn't deter director Stanley Tong from pulling out all the stops to entertain his audience, his film packed from start to finish with amazing fight scenes and incredible ballistic action.

The lovely Moon Lee returns as agent Moon, who goes undercover to get to a knife-wielding, croc-stroking villainess, while Alex Fong as Alex Fong (the film gets no prizes for original character names) immerses himself in the Muay Thai boxing scene, for reasons that I can't remember (not that it matters, this plot-line existing solely to allow for a hard-hitting match between Alex and a very tough opponent).

After loads of well choreographed and expertly executed martial arts scenes in which our heroes square up against countless bad guys, the film closes with a rollicking finale that sees Alex and comedy sidekick Kwai (Ralph Chen) take to the sky on jetpacks with mounted machine guns to mow down scores of henchmen, while Moon battles the villainess to the death.

Also adding to the fun is the silly Bond-style computer expert called-you guessed it-Computer (played by Mark Steinborn), whose high-tech gadgetry is hilarious (check out his impressive bank of diode-blinking computers and the silly mini-bomb detector), an African despot who harshly punishes his inept henchmen (and who goes unapprehended by the end of the film), plus quite a lot of bloodshed, including countless bullet squibs, a spurting knife wound, and a juicy gunshot to the head.

7.5/10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.