Well, I guess it's time for this month's mandatory Wong Jing review. This time out, we have Lethal Angels, where Wong (via director Steve Cheng and screenwriter Angie Lam-Lam) revisits the bread-and-butter of his output: the "sexy chicks killing lots of people" flick (aka "girls with guns").

To call Lethal Angels derivative of Wong's past work is an obvious understatement. But, just in case you don't note this movie's lineage, the alternate title of Naked Avengers should clue you in to exactly what this movie's about.

Lethal Angels starts out cracking enough, with a heavy dose of sex and violence, until settling down into the movie's slim plot about a hired killer (Cherrie Ying) who has a crisis of conscience when she is targeted to kill an entire family, including a little girl.

The T&A and claret is handled well, fully garnering this movie's Category III rating. Lethal Angels has an almost gleeful use of the naughty bits. Obviously, Wong Jing knows his audience, and realizes that they're not looking for anything other than cheap thrills.

However, the exposition scenes are so leaden that they almost totally de-rail the proceedings. Most of the blame can be fully laid at the feet on Andy On, who is continuing to coast by on his good looks. His attempts (as a cop who falls for Cherrie ala Simon Yam's character in Naked Killer) at creating real emotion aren't even laughable -- they're just annoying.

At least Jordan Chan saves the movie somewhat. He seems to realize the inherent chessiness of a film like this, and so he goes over the top with his performance as Andy's grizzled and horny partner. He's obviously having a lot of fun (albeit in a total "beer money" role) and that feeling transfers on to the viewer.

At the end of the day, I think you know what to expect from Lethal Angels, and it delivers for the most part. Honestly, you're either a fan of movies like this, or you're not. Lethal Angels does most everything solidly, but it's not going to sway anyone to be an admirer of Wong Jing's oeuvre if they aren't already one.

It's a shame that this, like a lot of Wong Jing's recent output, doesn't have the balls-to-the-wall blitzkrieg style of his best exploitation work. But if you're getting tired of the over-glossed family-friendly PG-13 style Hong Kong film-makers seem to go for nowadays and are looking for an action film that doesn't pull any punches, Lethal Angels is a nice trip down memory lane.

[review from www.hkfilm.net]