Since I would cheerfully walk over a bed of hot coals in order to watch the extremely attractive and monstrously talented Carina Lau do anything--recite the Shanghai Municipal Code in Slobvian, cross the street, breathe--I ignored all the usual indicators of a bad movie: almost universally bad reviews; exploding toilets; Wong Jing. “Cop Shop Babes” stuffs as many dumb jokes and beautiful women, some scantily clad, as possible into 90 minutes. While the ratio of hits to misses can be quite low and still make for a funny movie, they must do better than here. Too many scenes, including all of them with Cheung Tat-Ming as Eggplant/Eggy drag by on leaden feet.

It is the story of two losers, a buddy film about misfit cops who are assigned to a squad of attractive but naive female detectives. In the manner of many Hong Kong pictures the officers take time out from fighting crime—sometimes literally so—to fall in and out of love. They take time to figure out if Detective Beer has been dating both Babe Peggy and Babe Boney instead of chasing a fleeing villain who had been trying to kill them all. Just another day at the office (or in this case the ice factory) for the Hong Kong police.

Carina Lau’s efforts aren’t really wasted in this movie. She projects grace and class even when playing opposite Wong Jing who is doing a not at all funny imitation of Anthony Hopkins in “Silence of the Lambs”. While flogging that franchise to death—a joke that doesn’t work once can be forgotten quickly but if it pops up every ten minutes the audience begins to cringe—Aman Chang also takes time to refer to the “Lethal Weapon” movies much more often than appropriate. An appropriate number would be zero.

There are a few rewards for those who sit through this movie. Lee See-San is gorgeous with a face the camera loves. The hair and make-up people did a great job with her although her natural beauty made their job easy. The sight of Lam Wai-Ling in a soaked white shirt with her arms stretched (tied) above her head is not one I will forget soon. Cathy Tsui Chi-Kei and Lillian Ho are supposed to act cute and they do, while Rachel Fu does a lot with a winning smile. Kingdom Yeun plays the ugly duckling a role that she often gets.

Unfortunately the really atrocious parts of this movie far outnumber the ones that are simply not bad. And “not bad” is as good as “Cop Shop Babes” gets and only for a few short flashes.

Not recommended