Operation Condor (1991)

Operation Condor (1991): Dir: Jackie Chan / Cast: Jackie Chan, Carol Cheng, Eva Cobo De Garcia, Shoko Ikeda, Daniel Mintz: Two hours of stunts with little plot to be seen. It involves a hidden base that Jackie Chan is sent in search for gold. Equipped with a pass-way key he ventures to the desert accompanied by three women who cannot act. Predictable and dense with a screenplay where the heights of excitement is Chan kicking someone's face in. Chan is no better directing than he is acting. He is terrific at the stunts, which seem to be the point anyway. He has a likable sense of humour and an impressive physical disposition but the stunts are the norm. He seems to be in combat in nearly every scene but then again, people do not go into a Chan flick expecting dramatic payoff. Nonetheless the plot should be intriguing enough to be worthy the price of admission. The photography and production seem to be the only element that can cut in. He is joined by Carol Cheng, Eva Cobo De Garcia and Skoko Ikeda and they are an embarrassment. These three women give good indication as to why the divorce rate is so high. They overact to the max in every miserable scene we have to process. The purpose seems to be the stunts and how far Chan can slam his foot up someone's ass. It is an exercise in bad acting and three annoying women who should never be caught on film again. Score: 1 / 10

Also known as Operation Condor in America (while the first film in this series is called Operation Condor 2: The Armour of God...thanks for that confusion) Armour of God 2 is an attempt at making an Indiana Jones-esque adventure film but with Jackie Chan doing what he does best, kicking butt using martial arts.It's a hilarious film, one of his funnier ones, and also contains a lot of good slapstick action sequences. Jackie is hunting down a Nazi treasure with two girls who are both annoying, but provide for one of the best scenes in a Chan movie (the hilarious hotel scene). Along the way he fights Nazis and natives of the desert.The action of this film isn't as good as many of Chan's movies but it's a great movie for, as I said, the comedic aspect. This film is funny as hell. It's definitely an enjoyable way to spend an afternoon.Recommended.

There really isn't much that I can really say about this movie except that it has nothing to do with any Armour of God, but hey, why let the plot get in the way of a perfectly good sequel (quoted from Des Mangan). I really feel that when I come to discuss a Jackie Chan movie, everything I can say about it I have already said and cannot really add anything new. His movies follow a formulae namely because the formulae is successful. It is funny, has daring stunts in it which he does, and lots of action. The daring stunt in this movie was riding a motorbike off a pile of crates, jumping from it and onto a load being lifted by a crane. Jackie Chan play Jackie, an adventurer. At first he is in a secret amazon temple where the tribesmen welcome him to take the gems. The thing they don't want him to touch is the holy water, and by drinking that you must stay and marry the chief's daughter. This is not the plot though, but just the opener. Jackie travels to Europe where he is commissioned by the UN to find a lost cache of Nazi gold hidden in the desert. As such Jackie must negotiate Nazi's, slavers, angry tribesmen, and a hidden and trapped vault. All in the typical days work for your standard Indiana Jones. The weird thing about this movie is that Jackie's henchmen from the previous movie has gone but he now has three female companions. One would say that he is a lucky guy. I am one of them.

ARMOUR OF GOD II: OPERATION CONDOR (Fei Ying Ji Hua)Aspect ratio: 2.39:1 (Technovision)Sound format: MonoAsian Hawk (Jackie Chan) comes under fire from all sides whilst on a mission to retrieve Nazi treasure buried in the Sahara desert.One of the most popular films in Chan's extensive filmography, this superior sequel to ARMOUR OF GOD (1986) is clearly patterned after the success of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981), but Chan's movie celebrates its American influences whilst remaining defiantly Asian in concept and execution. It isn't perfect, by any means: The female characters are rendered almost entirely subordinate (Carol Cheng, Eva Cobo De Garcia and Shoko Ikeda give OK performances under the circumstances), and some of the Arab stereotypes are borderline offensive (prompting protests by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee when a re-edited version - OPERATION CONDOR - opened in US theaters), but viewers willing to overlook these conspicuous blunders will be treated to some of the most astonishing set-pieces of Chan's entire career.In fact, the entire movie is a showcase for world-class stuntwork, photographed in glorious widescreen by veteran cinematographer Arthur Wong. Chan is clearly doubled in a number of sequences (notably a car-and-motorcycle chase during the film's opening stretch), but there's no denying his participation in the show-stopping finale, where Good and Evil engage in mortal combat within a vast underground labyrinth, culminating in a spectacular wind-tunnel sequence which took *months* to film and sent the entire movie over-schedule and way over-budget. Released in the UK as OPERATION CONDOR: ARMOUR OF GOD II.(Cantonese dialogue)