China Strike Force (2000)

The hit-making director of RUMBLE IN THE BRONX and JACKIE CHAN'S FIRST STRIKE, Stanley Tong, now brings you a fast-paced, high-octane adventure where extortion, murder, and drugs fuel the action for exciting star Mark Dacascos (CRADLE 2 THE GRAVE) and hip-hop headliner Coolio! A renegade cop with his own rough-edged way of fighting crime, Darren Tong, is on a mission to take out the vicious and greedy local mobster Tony Lau (Dacascos) and his cutthroat ring of drug smugglers. But if he hopes to bring down Lau and cripple his notorious crime syndicate, Tong must team up with a sexy undercover agent and infiltrate the bloodthirsty gang! If you're an action fan who demands adrenaline-pumping excitement, nothing hits harder than CHINA STIRKE FORCE!

Fast paced action with great cast

I love Mark Dacascos and Aaron Kwok. As a fan of Hong Kong action films, this is a great film. The film was shot in China and cinematography is beautiful. An imperial palace is part of the background setting and also the cosmopolitan city of Shanghai. Two handsome and talented actors both with martial arts skills and a gorgeous Japanese leading lady whom can kick butt. What else could you ask for? Dacascos is the real star here and gets to play an evil villain. Coolio is a good pick to play a drug dealer and he gets in on the action too. The plot is pretty standard, but the actors and action keep you hooked until the end. May 24, 2008

I dont have a dog

I caught most of this movie on spike tv one night and from what i saw i decided to purchase it. I personaly think coolio and Mark Dacasscos have some solid scenes together. "Dats 1,500 dollars a bottle Toney". "I'll send you a case". I mean stuff like this is great. Some more fights scenes from AAron Kwok and i give it 5 stars. March 7, 2007

Aaron Kwok gives a great performance in this silly cop movie.

Kwok is on fire in this movie with maybe his best physical performance ever. He looks like a pop star but his acting is actually very good. Unfortunately, his performance is completely wasted in a movie this bad. I won't explain the story, it is cops vs. drug dealers. There is a beautiful fighting female, good car chases, big name stars, and good fights. How did this movie go wrong? Well, Stanley Tong is a decent director, but he is an action dierctor at heart. He tries to make this an American movie but he disregards everything that gives feeling to movies. I cracked a smile more than a few times but this is the most mindless modern day film I have seen in a long time. Usually, I am able to get past all of this since I am a sucker for good fight scenes, and this movie does have a few. Highlights to watch for are Ken Lo vs. Marc Dacoscos and Dacoscos vs. everyone in the final fight. The thing that ruins this movie is that the real final fight never finishes, but instead it moves on to a totally ridiculous fight to finish off the movie. 'Cradle to the Grave' has a better end fight! Stanley Tong must have been out of his mind because in the finale, Coolio ends up as the main opponent. Not Ken Lo who is the leg fighter that faces Jackie Chan at the end of 'Drunken Master 2', and not Marc Dacoscos who is one of the very best modern day martial arts actors, but Coolio.

I honestly thought this was a good cheesy movie, but the final fight sequence is just horrible. Stanley Tong comes up with a great idea having the actors fighting on a huge piece of glass hundreds of feet in the air and they have to keep their balance while they fight. It is just too bad Coolio had to ruin it. 2.5/5

DVD from Dimension Home Video has good sound and picture quality. No special features except the outtakes in the credits which was a much more satisfying end to the movie. February 20, 2007

Mark Dacascos is the real star

Although the other actors make a decent effort, it's obvious that Mark Dacascos is the one who really knows what he's doing. While the others use wires to make themselves look good, Mark doesn't, and he still looks better.

Disecting the story would be pretty pointless. It's standard fare and offers nothing revolutionary, but as with all martial arts movies it's what you come to expect. Kind of a shame really, but anytime I can watch Mark is ok with me.

There is a rather touching performance dealing with the death of a character and the girls are lovely. Again, if you're looking for something deep this isn't the movie for you. February 24, 2004

Above Average Action from Director of "Rumbles in the Bronx"

This is an average Hong kong actioner with its cast from diverse countries. From Hong Kong, upcoming star Arron Kwok appears as a special agent in Shanghai while America provides Coolio as a drug lord and Mark Dacascos as a gangster hungry for money and power (rare case for him to play a bad guy). Plus from Taiwan you get singer Leehom Wang as Kwok's hot-shot sidekick, and Japan also sends its popular actress Norika Fujiwara as a mysterious spy. It is obvious that "China Strike Force" (in Japan where I saw it, it was called "Spy_N") is made for international market, and whether it succeeds or not, I don't know, but as an action film it fares better than many other outings from Hong Kong, where you can see no longer Jackie, Chow, or maestro Woo constantly.

And the story is about a Chinese police team of Arron Kwok and Leehom Wang, who must stall some plot of a joint force of Chinese crime syndicate (Dacascos) and American gangster (Coolio), about some drug deal, but it is just a usual excuse to carry on 90 minutes of exciting actions and dull dialogues. Just wait till the film kicks off its action scenes, which are quite impressive.

There are two things that you might be interested. Director Stanley Tong is famous for Jackie Chan films, especially "First Strike" and "Rumbles in the Bronx" (the latter reaching the No. 1 box-office hit in US), and ... (embarrasing silence) ... Lesley Nelsen's "Mr. Magoo." His first Holywood film was surely a bomb. But he went back to his roots, real Hong-Kong actioner, and made a pretty good one, even though it sometimes goes to far, showing too much superflous viloence.

Another thing is that the location is not in Hong-Kong, but in Shanghai, and that may add some value to the film. This means it was shot in China, not in a rather crowded city of Hong Kong, so the actions are done with a larger scale as a result, and especailly the following two -- a "Driven"-like car chase sequence, and the final action using helicopter carrying a car and a glass panel held at the deadly height -- is very exciting. July 26, 2002

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