CHEETAH ON FIRE (1992) is a by-the-numbers thriller about government agentstracking down an errant arms dealer, culminating in a raid on the armsdealer's outpost in the southeast Asian jungle. The action is mostlygunplaybut is enlivened by some solid kung fu action performed by hero Donnie Yenand a quartet of memorable villains led by Gordon Liu and including Ken Loand western martial artists Michael Woods and John Salvitti. The highlightis a fight between Donnie and Gordon (of MASTER KILLER fame and tons ofold-school kung fu films), representing two generations of kung fu stars.Also on hand are Carrie Ng and Cheung Man, who are very good at lookingpretty, but not so good at fighting. (Carrie's red lipstick lights up thejungle in every scene she's in.) Donnie Yen plays an American, whichpromptsthe others on his team to call him `Foreigner,' one of the few times hisactual nationality is acknowledged in a Hong Kong film.

The producers of "Cheetah on Fire" probably got together and said "Let'smake a movie with Donnie Yen, a lot action and fight scenes, and some sex;all we need now is a plot and some music to go with it". The result is anawfully bad movie. Of course, one should not expect a lot of realism fromthe fighting scenes of HK action movies, but the ones in this movie were sogratuitous, confusing, and boring that even fans of the genre will bedisappointed.