What a waste of my time!!!

Very disappointed :(

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

IN THE LINE OF DUTY III: FORCE OF THE DRAGON is the third of an excellent series of Hong Kong action films about female cops kicking ass in the city. The first two had Michelle Yeoh as lead actress, but for this instalment she was replaced by the great Cynthia Khan, who would stay on for the rest of the series. Khan is very much Yeoh's equal in the high-kicking action stakes, and she's a fine actress too.FORCE OF THE DRAGON is a high point in a series packed full of them. In fact, the first four films of this series are simply great, and this one has more intense action scenes than in many a rival Hollywood flick from the time. Khan and her allies (including Hiroshi Fujioka as an imported Sonny Chiba-alike, complete with '70s hair do) go after a couple of Japanese jewel thieves who have nefarious plans to smuggle arms to Japan's Red Army.It's pretty much wall to wall action here from beginning to end, and it's expertly choreographed by Brandy Yuen, one of Yuen Woo-ping's brothers. Although the action is near non-stop, none of it ever feels tiresome or repetitive, and instead it remains electrifying throughout. The fights are incredibly hard-hitting and the use of wirework to show characters being tossed around like rag dolls is very effective.Fans of Hong Kong cinema will spot plenty of familiar faces here, including Melvin Wong and cameos from three of the LUCKY STARS performers, but best of the lot is Dick Wei in another villain performance. Wei is the most intense and violent I've seen him yet in the fighting stakes, leading to an incredible climax that has to be seen to be believed.

This is a series of Hong Kong action movies staring Cynthia Khan, a fairly famous Hong Kong actress. As with many Hong Kong movies, it is not the plot or the theme that matters, but rather the action. This is a typical movie, except the leading character is a woman, and this makes things interesting. The woman is promoted to the detective department and her uncle, who is also her guardian, runs it. As such he decides to keep her safe, even though it has been shown that she can seriously handle herself in dangerous situations.The bad guys in this movie are three members of the Red Army from Japan. They make a deal with a Japanese jewellery king and rob one of his exhibitions. During the flight, the partner of a cop is killed, and he vowels vengeance. They flee to Hong Kong, but discover that the jewellery is fake, and vowel vengeance on the jewellery king. The cop also travels to Hong Kong to deal with these terrorist.Once again, this seems to follow a theme of Hong Kong movies: the police are very friendly to each other, to the point of incompetence: all except for Cynthia Kahn, who simply wants to be on the team. In a nutshell, this is a fairly good movie - the action, martial arts and everything else is there, but it is quite standard. I still enjoyed it, but thought Naked Killer was a billion times better.

Hong Kong action films of the Eighties were so bloody tough and so beautifully made, especially films that had budgets (like this one).Against the bland, CGI-driven Hollywood action flicks of the Noughties, a film like IN THE LINE OF DUTY 3 looks like an artifact from another planet.Everything you see was done for real. Every sequence was staged by stunties who risked their lives.There is an amazing relationship between two Japanese lovers (Michiko Nishiwaki and Stuart Ong) in this mind-blowing film. Ong is dying of leukeamia, and in one scene, they make love while Ong's hair comes off in Nishiwaki's hand. Later, after Ong is killed, Nishiwaki vows a brutal revenge that we clearly understand because we've been intimate with them.It is this kind of attention to nuance that lifts this Arthur Wong-Brandy Yuen-directed pic to classic status.Cynthia Khan, debuting as D & B Films' replacement for Michaelle Khan, does a terrific job as a cop assaulted at ever juncture by the murderous villains.A sequence involving a jewellery heist is one of the best of its kind and possesses a kineticism rarely seen in any films these days.Ditto an incredibly violent and realistic fight sequence between genre stalwart Dick Wei and Hiroshi Fujioka's hardcore cop.Relentless, operatic and explosive.

After the first two "In the Line Of Duty" movies, I was very pleased on how well the series was doing. It keeps getting better!!! Cynthia Khan did a fantastic job taking over for Michelle Yeoh. In my opinion, she's better than Michelle Yeoh, and executes her martial arts skills more aggressively. The casting of Dick Wei and Michiko Nishiwaki as the villains were great. You need baddies like these to give the hero more of a challenge. Look out for cameos by Melvin Wong, Robin Shou, Eric Tsang, and Richard Ng. Some of the cameos were for comedy purposes, and some actually had a purpose for the plot of the movie.The plot of the movie was okay. It wasn't too simple or complicated. Cynthia Khan's training as a police officer justifies her entry into the "In The Line Of Duty" series. There really isn't a strong supporting cast except the Japanese cop that helped her trail the baddies. Great comedy supported the movie and her crazy overprotected uncle was stupid funny.The action scenes for the movie were choreographed by Brandy Yuen, who is Yuen Woo Ping's sister. When I found that out, I was sure that the movie was going to have some hardcore action scenes in them. The warehouse boat fight scene was raw and gritty. The Japanese cop and the Japanese fugitive duked it out like stone cold street fighters. As the movie progresses and gets deeper, the action gets better. Cynthia Khan versus the baddies, a fight to the death!! Watch the movie and find out who inflicts devastating injuries.Overall, great entry for Cynthia Khan into the series. In my opinion, the 2nd best in the series. I wish Cynthia would make more action movies these days, but the industry is saturated with too many fake action stars (Matrix AARGGHH!!).Final Judgement: ****/****