"Deadly Angels" is an occasionally coherent mess, a combination of rank misogyny, horrible production values and badly choreographed fight scenes that, at least in the 1:24 Bonzai Media Corporation release we watched, offers no reason to watch it. While there may be some value in the six minutes or so that were cut it would be difficult to imagine based on what was on screen.

A gang that operates in Tokyo, Seoul and Hong Kong steals diamonds and smuggles them from one country to the othe, selling them on the black market. The female couriers are murdered after the gems are delivered. During a jewelry store robbery the gang gun down guards and managers and uses clubbed rifle butts on female customers. Since the forces of law and order are unable to deal with this gang, a multi-national, multi-ethnic group of policewomen is formed to infiltrate the gang, posing as potential gem smugglers. The group is treated to a slide show of naked young women who have been butchered and left for dead, all of them former smugglers. They are led by a new colleague from Scotland Yard, none other than Evelyn Kraft. Since the all the smugglers have been recruited from the ranks of showgirls, it is time for skimpy costumes with lots of feathers.

The three officers, one each from Hong Kong, Korea and Japan, are expert combat marksmen and extraordinarily skilled in unarmed combat. Each of them also has a small, secret weapon. One has a crossbow that fires small darts, another keeps, a spiked ball at the end of a chain in her purse and Dana has a high heeled shoe which converts to a slingshot. She uses it to throw high-explosive pellets which she always has nearby since they are molded into her earrings.

The middle of the picture simply drags along--the undercover cops are hired but none of them is trusted. This makes no sense because one of the constantly repeated issues is that the gem smugglers, the role the infiltrators are playing, are disposable and unimportant. If that is the case the gang leaders wouldn't hire anyone they couldn't be sure would carry out the only mission they get.

“Deadly Angels” is not convincing on any level. As a “girls with guns” (or in this case girls with a crossbow, a mace and an explosive slingshot) entry it fails because of the obvious deficiencies the female leads show in handling weapons. To show how evil she is the gang boss’s girlfriend keeps a deadly lizard in her office which is all too obviously a stuffed toy, particularly when she throws it at someone and it just spins through the air. A brick wall that was breached with a bomb wobbles when a bad guy walks past it. The battle to the death at the end of the movie between the gang and the police ends when Evelyn Kraft finally arrives with a firearm, something that no one had thought of using until then.

Future directors and actions directors abound among the extras, an embarrassment of riches: Corey Yuen Kwai, Yuen Biao, Wong Pau-Gei, Tang Tak-Cheung and many others. This could have been a real feast for action fans