Project S (1996)

Review: I rented this movie, expecting it to be Police Story 3: Supercop but it turned out to be a movie that had 3 different names, which I found really confusing. Its known as either Supercop, Supercop 2 or Project S so if you have seen any of those movies, it's the same one. I think the confusion is because they named the third Police Story, Supercop as well. Anyway, this movie is based around an high ranked cop, Jessica Yang (Michelle Yeoh), who risks her life in China, to fight against crime. After being awarded a medal for her accomplishments in the force, her boyfriend tells her that he wants to move to Hong Kong to make some serious money because the army doesn't pay him well, so he leaves her in China to pursue his dreams to become a millionaire. Jessica then gets a call from the police force in Hong Kong because they need her to solve a case about a group of gun tooting criminals who have held up a bank and stolen important documents, so she heads to Hong Kong, only to find out that the head of the group of criminals is her boyfriend. With the help of her new friends in the Hong Kong force, they tackle the criminals who are plotting to steal loads of cash from a heavily guarded bank. The action wasn't bad in this film and the storyline was half decent but I kept on wondering when Chan was going to pop up. He has a small sketch, dressed up as a woman but apart from that, he isn't in the movie at all. I've always been a fan of Michelle Yeoh because of her no fuss acting style and her unique kicking Kung Fu. Her acting in this film was quite good, along with the rest of the cast and I'm glad that the director didn't over complicate the storyline. It did look a bit low budget in parts and the music was awful but the action scenes were impressive. There isn't any of those silly comedic scenes throughout the movie, until Chan does his little sketch, so there is a sense of intensity throughout. For entertainment it does tick all of the boxes and they even added a romantic element which made this movie watchable and enjoyable in parts. Round-Up: Although I was expecting a Jackie Chan movie when I rented this film, I actually was surprised that I enjoyed it. It was directed by the highly rated Stanley Tong who also made Swordsman II, Police Story: Supercop, which I thought this movie was, Rumble in the Bronx, First Strike, Mr. Magoo, Martial Law (Series) and the Myth with Jackie Chan. He didn't really have a big budget to make this movie but it done well with the money that he had. Its obvious that you need a big star like Chan, to get the big budgets because your usually guaranteed your money back but Michelle Yeoh, 53, is definitely worth the investment now, because she has starred in some big movies like Tomorrow Never Dies, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Memoirs of a Geisha, Fearless with Jet Li, Danny Boyles Sunshine, Babylon A.D. with Vin Diesel, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, the Lady and Kung Fu Panda 2. She has definitely proved that she is a versatile actor who always puts in good performances and she was amazing as Aung San Suu Kyi in the Lady. Budget: $900,000 Worldwide Gross: $16.2millionI recommend this movie to people who are into their action/crime/martial arts/comedies starring Michelle Yeoh, Rongguang Yu, Emil Chau and a special appearance by Jackie Chan. 4/10

When i saw this movie i was really mad because i had bought it on DVD, thinking it was a great movie... Well i was wrong. This is not a great movie... at all. What could have been a great hong kong action movie is in reality a low budget "american action movie" with Asians playing all the roles. The hong kong movies i love in the martial arts genre is the ones where the action is clear, fight scenes are shot at a wide angle and with few cuts so you get pretty long sequences where you see everything the fighters do. In this movie however, they use closeups and fast cuts, usually seen in movies where they are trying to hide the fact that the actors can't fight. But we all know Michelle Yeoh can fight so why they have done this is beyond me. The lousy fight scenes ruined the entire movie for me i am a afraid. I rate this movie 4/10

Don't let the name "Supercop 2" sucker you into thinking that this has anything to do with that fine Jackie Chan film "Supercop". Jackie only appears for a few minutes. The rest of the film is a lackluster Michelle Yeoh flic. They ran this on a major network around the time that "Tuxedo" appeared in theaters, presumably to hype that Jackie Chan film. But a Jackie Chan film this ain't... which doesn't bode well for "Tuxedo". A waste of time.

Apart from some fight scenes near the end during the bank heist, the movie was, sadly, run-of-the-mill. Although Michelle Yeoh is billed as the lead, it feels more like an ensemble movie. She had more to do in "Heroic Trio" and she shared top billing with two other women in that film. Go watch that or "Wing Chun" instead.