Armour Of God II - Operation Condor (HK 1991)

Rating: ****
Director: Jackie Chan
Cast: Jackie Chan, Carol Cheng

An excellent sequel with a big budget, and not bogged down by the annoying characters of the first film - even Chan's "Asian Hawk" cockiness is played down, thankfully. This time, Jackie is on a mission to recover some gold that the Nazis hid in the Sahara Desert at the end of World War II. Unfortunately, he's not the only one looking for it, and he runs into several rival groups that try to bump him off. Jackie also takes on three female companions - a blonde German girl named Elsa, a desert expert (Carol Cheng), and an adorably cute Japanese street vender named Momoko. Sure, it's an Indiana Jones rip-off, but it's a lot of fun, even if the "three women sharing one brain" gag gets a little tiresome. Lots of great action and fighting, elaborate sets, and exotic locales make this a winner. See the original Hong Kong version if you can, because the American release brutally butchers the film and destroys the continuity.