Follow up to fresh and funny Fight Back to School is less fresh and less funny. Stephen Chow returns as ace undercover Chow Sing-Sing, who gets demoted to traffic cop when he cheeses off one of his superiors. Even though he's been barred from the case, he decides to go undercover at a local international high school to stop evil terrorists bent on terrorizing people. Problem is: the cops don’t want him there but he does it anyway. Also, he briefly romances Athena Chu (which does nothing for his engagement to Cheung Man) and beats up boss Ng Man-Tat in every other scene.

Like any Stephen Chow movie, the quality of the film pretty much rests on his performance. In that, he carries the picture extremely well. His deadpan delivery and winning comic acting have saved many a movie, and this one is no exception. Besides Chow and his antics, the film really doesn't have much else going for it. There are the occasional creative moments, like Chow’s cha-cha with Athena Chu during a judo match, but too often the film relies on unnecessary movie parodies (Ng Man-Tat does a Terminator 2 riff for no apparent reason) and semi-serious action. The strict action ending is director Gordon Chan’s specialty, but it reduces the film from being a "Stephen Chow movie" to being a "movie with Stephen Chow in it". His ample charisma and comedic talents do not drive the picture, and as a result we get something that's a little less than we might like. (Kozo 1996)

16th Annual Hong Kong Film Awards
• Nomination - Best Supporting Actress (Deannie Yip Tak-Han)
• Nomination - Best New Artist (Athena Chu Yan)

image courtesy of Mei Ah Laser Disc Co., Ltd.