Supercop 2

Former Miss Malaysia and current butt-kicking Hong Kong action star Michelle Yeoh leaped to international attention costarring alongside Jackie Chan in Supercop. The film was actually the third installment of Chan's successful Police Story series, but that didn't stop cagey producers from turning out Supercop 2 as a solo vehicle for the lean, lithe Yeoh. She travels from mainland China to Hong Kong to "advise" local cops on a Chinese drug lord and discovers Rong Guang Yu (from Iron Monkey and Rock and Roll Cop), her former lover and now the leader of a militia-style gang in partnership with her quarry. Yeoh is in fine form, kicking off the picture with a thrilling close-quarters battle in a high-rise hotel, but the complicated plot of high tech crime, double crosses, and conflicted loyalties strangles the action and slows the film despite such action highlights as an impressive three-man raid on a well-armed criminal den. (Jackie Chan's jokey cameo as a cop in drag doesn't really help matters.) The film finally regains its energy in an explosive free-for-all bank heist climax, in which the painful English dubbing becomes all but unnoticeable as bullets fly, bodies crunch, and balletic Michelle Yeoh moves like a dynamo. --Sean Axmaker