Typical of Director Godfrey Ho who once again used an existing movie and edited in fresh footage. . Usually these movies are terrible but in the case of Mission Thunderbolt the original movie was pretty good and the fresh footage vignette's are better then most of Ho's film's which adds up to a borderline recommendation from me. One of the better new footage scenes involve a guy in a pig mask chasing leading lady Summer Dora as (Cherry) though town with a meat cleaver. She is rescued by leading man Steve Daw (Agent Scott) They quickly hook up in what should have been a nice romantic scene with good lighting and nice cinematography but Summer is not the most buxom lady and no one will ever confuse Daw with Brad Pitt. I don't mean to be too harsh because there is a lot of action and at least it wasn't depressing like so many "Z" war movies were in the 80's. I watched it twice but decided the action sequence were worth a watch even if the plot is totally confusing with burn barrels and crab traps for good measure.

With the name Godfrey Ho attached to the project, those people who are fans of these raw Kung-Fu cheapies should know what they are getting themselves into. Entertainment… that's just bonkers. Complete bonkers, where nothing makes all much sense as there is gut-busting beat-ups with dynamic sound FX, out of sync dubbing topped off by dubious dialogs and a patchwork of plot threads going on. Mainly thanks to there being two separate films edited together. Oh it's a rush and a mess, but an entertaining one. Two underground Hong Kong gangs, the Scorpions and the Serpents find themselves in a war where members of their groups end up being killed, thinking that it's each other. However there is a secretive third party and a traitor (and this guy really loves to chuckle) within the ranks who has hired three international assassins to wipe them out. Interpol learns of it and sends in their best agent to stop these assassins. Meanwhile Alison, who saw her friend get killed, goes about seeking revenge by becoming a member of the Scorpions and in doing so she becomes a key suspect for the Hong Kong police. It's a shamble and sometimes tough to make out what's actually going, but it's so random with its outlandish action onslaught. Our assassins are an interesting trio (especially the delectably lethal blonde with long legs and a samurai sword),but you can't go past our Interpol agent and his moustache. Who puts his assignment on hold; as he loves pumping iron (we get constant shots of it) or finds time to romance some lady who he just happened to rescue from some fat, rubber mask wearing wacko with a meat clever in a busy street!? "Always glad to help a lady in distress". But nothing can go pass the way he gathered information from one of those assassins. Oil drum, rat and cat… it worked. But that's topped off by the constant male beatings Alison encounters, but she still manages to look good and kick ass. Where else can you see some combat over shoe shinning territory and kung fu action in blue and white sailor stripe shirts? Then it comes to its hackneyed climax… talk about oddball (love the suits and choice of weapons) and quite disjointed. One final blow. The End… the end? Choppy as hell, but nonetheless cheap tatty fun.

"I'm not taking any chances. Everybody is a suspect."

Hmmmm, ostensibly those fine upstanding cinematic gentry's *cough!* Godfrey Ho and Joseph Lai have some sort of strange fascination for inserting the word Thunderbolt into as many of their film titles as possible. Just look at the evidence: Majestic Thunderbolt, Scorpion Thunderbolt, Inferno Thunderbolt, Ninja Thunderbolt, Ninja Operation 4:Thunderbolt Angels and prior to all the aforementioned, this cut and paste effort, Mission Thunderbolt.

The plot? OK bear with me on this….it's a bit muddled (as is very usually the case with these films!)

Basically, from what I could fathom, the story centres on two gangs, The Scorpions headed by the rather foxy looking Phoenix and the Serpents run by a chap called Hercules. The two gangs seem to respect one another's turf until that is, a shady outside party called The White Tycoon (played by regular IFD bad guy Phillip Ko) hires three assassins (including fellow perennial bad dude John Ladalski) to polish off a few select members of the Serpent gang (which they do with great gusto!) Naturally, the killings are attributed to the Scorpions – this being The White Tycoon's intention; the two gangs will engage in all out war and wipe each other out, thus leaving him as the beneficiary. Unbeknown to him though, Interpol gets wind of the situation and sends in an agent (who is shown to have a keen predilection for pumping iron thus reassuring us, the viewers that he's a real macho man!) to straighten matters out.

Sounds straight forward enough so far? Well, this is where matters become more complex…..

A young woman called Alison witnesses her sister Rose (who is a member of the Scorpions) being murdered by a guy wearing sunglasses. Subsequently Alison herself is initiated into the gang as Phoenix's assistant (Alison's underlying motive is to find and exact revenge upon her sister's murderer obviously) Also around about this time in a seemingly completely random scene, we witness a terrified woman running through a busy street pursued by a machete wielding lunatic in a zombie mask whilst the crowd around her doesn't even bat an eyelid!!!! Luckily our Interpol agent is on hand and saves the day and in addition immediately befriends (intimately!) the damsel in distress. Wow – quick romances eh?! Anyway, to cut a long story short, the woman just happens to be the girlfriend of Hercules! Not only that but she is subsequently kidnapped by one of the three hired assassins who proceeds to drag her around the beach in a lobster trap(eh?!!!) Fear not, our hero turns up to save her and kills the miscreant, although sadly his new found girlfriend dies of her (non-existant!) injuries. Perhaps she actually died from the humiliation and embarrassment. Anyway, back to Alison who discovers her sister's murderer…it is none other than Panther! Hold on! – Who in the hell is Panther?! Ah, well he's the second in command in the Scorpions and is trying to take over the gang for himself (boooooo!!!!)

Our Interpol agent meanwhile takes on the two remaining assassins and manages to kill John Ladalski's character off. This leaves only the very sexy female assassin who promptly sets about attacking him with a samurai sword. No matter, out hero beats her easily and resolves to coax some info from her in exchange for her life. Despite this fairly equitable sounding deal, she is initially unwilling to participate in said trade however. Seeing this to be the case, our hero determines to utilise his ingenious torture methods to gain requisite info. In this instance he places her head first into an oil drum and drops firstly a live rat, then a cat into it with her! Ouch!!!

Back to the other story and Panther is finally exposed as the traitor, whereupon during an altercation, he is shot by Alison who herself apparently receives a fatal wound - we don't get to see the outcome though due to an abrupt editing cut whereby we next find our intrepid Interpol hero squaring off with The White Tycoon (who has previously busied himself with sacrificing a chicken!) atop a dam.

Needless to say, after a brief scuffle our macho, gym addicted hero manages to apprehend his adversary whereupon the film very suddenly ends(!)

Phew! Yes, this is a fairly typical Godfrey Ho/Joseph Lai cut & paste outing complete with all the requisite bad dubbing/voice over work and goofy action scenes to please all fellow bad movie lovers.

Quite a hard title to find nowadays but certainly well worth a look if you can obtain a copy (and enjoy crappy movies of course!)