the film opens with black cat (jade leung), previously erica / catherine, going under the knife again. with the new "b2" chip, she seems to, pretty much, become something akin to a terminator although, the technology isn't quite ready for fieldwork.

however, when c.i.a. agent robin (robin shou) is nearly killed by terrorists who are part of a group intent on killing boris yeltsin, he is thrown together with black cat. forging an unlikely, and rather trouble-stricken, alliance, the two head around america and russia, trying to find the assassins, before they get to yeltsin...

if the first film was familiar, it was because it was a remake of 'la femme nikita'. if this film sounds ridiculous, that's because it is. still, it is ridiculous in the best possible way. from a few minutes in, i began to find myself chuckling away at various ideas, dialogue and action sequences that were presented; all of which were ludicrous or stupid, in their own way, but presented with an air of serious, which made them all the more (unintentionally) comedic.

as the film progresses, maintaining any kind of grounding in the plot seem to become less and less important; instead, it seems to be there, only to string together a selection of action sequences, chases and things that, you get the impression, which stephen shin decided that he wanted to put in his film. this results in scenes that have more wire-work than your standard wu xia flick and plenty of giggles as shin gets inventive in the silliest of ways...

pretty dreadful, but a highly enjoyable piece of crap as a result...