Showing posts with label jackie chan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jackie chan. Show all posts

Friday, 17 July 2026

Thunderbolt (1995)

I would never claim to be any expert on the films of Jackie Chan (although I can point you towards one or two friends who definitely are), but it's not often that I come across a star vehicle for him that I spent years being completely unaware of. Thunderbolt is a film that has Jackie and co. involved with lots of racing cars, which meant my expectations were high for some major vehicular carnage.

Thorsten Nickel plays a  criminal/racer nicknamed Cougar, and the police want nothing more than to be able to throw the book at him. They get the chance when he crosses paths with Jackie Chan (playing a talented mechanic/fighter/ex-racer named Chan). Unfortunately, Cougar isn't able to be held long enough to make the case against him. This leads to him terrorising Chan and his family, and ultimately challenging Chan to a race. Meanwhile, a tenacious reporter (Amy, played by Anita Yuen) keeps trying to get a big exclusive while the story is playing out.

Directed by Gordon Chan, who would also direct his star in one of his worst mainstream features (The Medallion), Thunderbolt is an enjoyable enough action flick, co-written by the director, Chan Hing-Kai, and Kwok Wai-Chung. It's slightly overlong, clocking in at about 110 minutes, and action movie fans might be slightly disappointed by the pacing, as well as the scope of the stuntwork, but there's still a hell of a lot to appreciate here, not least of which is an extended sequence in which our main villain attacks our unprepared hero via a hugely destructive shipping container being swung around on the end of a crane. You also get Jackie Chan singing the theme song, some decent car stunts (as you'd expect), and an absolutely superb fight in a Pachinko parlor.

Chan is as he is in so many other movies. He's super-skilled, very noble of heart, and eminently watchable throughout, whether behind the wheel or doing his best to avoid confrontation. Nickel is a fun villain, completely over the top and cocky, but also working with his own specific code as he engineers (no pun intended) a grand duel with a worthy opponent. Yuen has to be won over by our hero, of course, while eventually giving up on her career ambitions. It's not a great role, most female roles in these movies never are, but Yuen is always very watchable. Everyone else, whether they're a determined Interpol agent (Michael Wong) or members of Chan's family, does what is needed of them, but they remain sidelined for most of the action beats, unless being placed in danger and needing to be rescued.

Maybe my expectations were a bit too high when I pressed play on this. I wanted some insane car stunts, lots of crashes, and the kind of life-endangering antics that you don't get to see in action films from countries with pesky health & safety regulations and insurance terms. What I got was an entertaining racing film with three memorable set-pieces (and two of those didn't involve cars) and a very standard sports movie final act. But the more time I have spent thinking on what is actually here, especially the wild and crazy shipping container sequence, I appreciate what it actually is, compared to any negativity I was feeling about it not matching what I thought it might be.

There are better options for you if you want dazzling Jackie Chan fight choreography or fast car action, but this does well enough in blending those two elements to make it a fun time for action movie fans.

7/10

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Thursday, 9 July 2026

Jackie Chan's First Strike (1996)

AKA Jackie Chan's First Strike. AKA Police Story 4: First Strike.

If you ever wanted to see what a James Bond film would be like featuring Jackie Chan as 007 then First Strike is the film for you. It's also the fourth instalment in the Police Story film series, but there's no need to have seen the preceding films before you dive into this one.

Although it remains inferior to many of his better-known films, First Strike isn’t actually all that bad as an introduction to younger film viewers who may eventually become full-on fans of Chan. It’s not as slick and polished as the likes of Shanghai Noon or any of the Rush Hour movies, but it’s also not as overstuffed with CGI or weak set-pieces (such as The Tuxedo or The Medallion).

Chan plays Jackie, a cop who ends up helping a couple of different government agencies as he tracks down the whereabouts of a missing nuclear warhead. This leads to a shootout and an exciting chase down some snow-covered slopes. It's then up to Jackie to track down a villain, via his sister (played by Chen Chun Wu AKA Annie Wu), which leads to him facing off against multiple enemies, one or two big guys who look very much like Goombas from the '90s Super Mario Bros. movie, and a number of sharks.

Directed and co-written by Stanley Tong, this isn't actually too bad when it comes to the plotting. Tong was joined in the writing duties by Elliot Tong, Greg Mellott, and Nick Tramontane, and they work hard to get everyone where they need to be for every main story beat. It might never feel as if Chan is in any real danger, but that's inevitable when you know how skilled and strong he is.

Unless he's accompanied by a couple of his main Peking opera school friends, it's often not mentioning the quality of other performances in a Jackie Chan film. Jackie Chan films are at their best when Jackie Chan is at the heart of any scene, and that is the case here. Wu has to spend the third act being a damsel in distress, Nathan Jones and Steve Morris are the memorable "Goombas", and Jackson Lou does well enough as the man who appears to be the main villain to be apprehended. Chan delivers his star power though, especially in the set-pieces that elevate the entire film. That snowy opening sequence has some great stunts in there, and is certainly meant to bring a classic Bond opener to mind, there are at least two impressive fights that allow Chan to showcase many of his skills, and those who have tried to participate in some swimming pool fitness classes should appreciate just how inventive and tough the underwater fight in the third act is.

There's a lot in this that I didn't love. Rewatching it had me fearing that it was worse than I remembered. That's a bit unfair though. There are actually enough really good moments here to make this well worth your time, even if you know that it's not close to the best Jackie Chan movies. And it certainly uses the second half to reward those who were patient throughout the first half.

7/10

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Wednesday, 17 June 2026

Prime Time: Wheels On Meals (1984)

I suspect it may have changed nowadays, considering some of his mainstream hits, but there was definitely a standard journey when it came to discovering Jackie Chan movies when I was young. You would hear about him, perhaps seeing some clips of his major stunts and set-pieces in a video or TV special (hosted by someone like Chuck Norris). Then you'd probably see the likes of Police Story and/or Project A, maybe even an Operation Condor film. You would think that you'd never seen this action movie star before, not necessarily realising that he had joined in with the self-satisfied fun of The Cannonball Run movies. Then you'd somehow find out about how well he worked with Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao. Which would lead you to the likes of this.

Wheels On Meals isn't a great movie, but it has enough great moments to make up for the many problems with the material. Chan and Biao play two friends who operate a food truck. Hung, who also directed the film, plays a private detective hired to find a beautiful young woman. That woman, Sylvia (Lola Forner), ends up staying with our two leads, at least until she can steal some money and a car to help get her somewhere safer. Meanwhile, some tough henchmen start to throw their weight around, leading to a third act that features the martial arts skills of our heroes, as well as some impressive movies from Benny Urquidez and Keith Vitali.

The comedy here isn't great, and nor are some of the attitudes on display. BUT, and this is all relative (of course, I think Wheels On Meals generally holds up better than a number of other martial arts films from this era. The comedy tends to focus on the friendship, and friendly competition, between the leading men, the treatment of female characters is done in a way that allows Biao and Chan, but particularly the former, to constantly aim for "white knight" status, and a couple of moments allowing Richard Ng and John Sham to cameo feel as if they could have been much worse. And saying "things could have been much worse" isn't necessarily the best thing to say about art, but it's also worth saying when you've sat through Jackie Chan movies littered with homophobia, including "jokes" about AIDS, and horrendous treatment of female characters.

Hung knows what he's doing when it comes to the direction, although I wish that he'd been allowed to throw a lot more action in here. The screenplay, written by Edward Tang and Gwing-Gai Lee, seems content to let Chan, Biao, and Hung play around onscreen while fans get to enjoy spending some more time in their company, but forgets how to make the most of them. As a fan though, I should say that I am one of those kept happy enough by the interplay and tom-foolery of the leads.

Whether skateboarding around to take food orders or struggling to fight back against Urquidez, Chan is on very good form here. Biao is slightly underserved, on the one hand, considering how I have seen him treated by other movies showcasing his acrobatic abilities, but it's good to see him sharing the screen while also being allowed to step forward as the main hero. Hung is aiming to be more comic relief than a proper third fighter, but he at least gets involved in the busy and impressive final round of fights. Both Urquidez and Vitali handle themselves capably, and Forner carries herself well through moments overstuffed with testosterone and lust.

If you want to enjoy these stars in a film with much better fight sequences then Dragons Forever is the film for you. This is a solid mix of action and fun though. It just doesn't hit the high bars set by these performers in many of their other respective star vehicles.

7/10

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Friday, 25 July 2025

Karate Kid: Legends (2025)

Really? We're at a stage now in the Karate Kid universe where Ralph Macchio is able to show a thing or two to Jackie Chan? If you can accept that then you might be able to have some fun with Karate Kid: Legends. I'll admit that the whole thing was a struggle for me.

Ben Wang plays Li Fong, a young man who movies to New York with his mother (Dr. Fong, played by Ming-Na Wen). Li has made a promise to his mother that means he cannot fight, but the rest of New York isn't aware of that. Things start to look up when Li meets Mia (Sadie Stanley) and her father, Victor (Joshua Jackson). He even starts training Victor for an upcoming boxing match, but gets on the wrong side of Mia's ex-boyfriend, Conor (Aramis Knight). Things soon go from bad to worse. If only there was some upcoming fighting competition that could let Li prove his skills, especially after some time spent being trained by Mr. Han (Chan) and Daniel LaRusso (Macchio).

What you have here is a mixtape with some visual accompanying the music. I really don't mean that as a compliment. Writer Rob Lieber doesn't have too many features under his belt, while director Jonathan Entwistle is making his cinematic directorial debut here, and it's clear that they have been asked to put together something absolutely formulaic that can be overstuffed with annoyingly uncatchy soundtrack choices. Seriously, this soundtrack, and how songs are used, is one of the worst I have experienced in some time. Not necessarily because of the song choices, but because of the inability to let most scenes play out in a less obnoxious manner.

I have seen people praise young Ben Wang for his performance in the lead role. Sorry, I disagree with the majority on this one. Wang has the physical prowess, and he's certainly not awful, but he didn't ever fully win me over. Jackson and Stanley are much better, with the latter a particularly good choice for a main supporting/co-lead role. Knight is a decent baddie, and Tim Rozon does well as the determined adult helping youngsters to make bad choices in service of a "strong" reputation, and both Chan and Macchio bring some fun by bringing along their legacies (all legacies being equal, but some legacies being more equal than others). Wen is wasted, sadly, but does what is asked of her.

There's nothing inherently wrong with films that work with a proven formula, and Karate Kid: Legends has some good moments. It just doesn't get the mix quite right. Having Li train Victor is a fun twist on things, compared to previous entries in the series, but the third act montage moments serve as a reminder of just what viewers tune in for. It feels like the kind of entertaining stretching of body and spirit that feels essential to the "root for the underdog" martial arts movie designed to be satisfying family entertainment. 

I would still recommend this to those after something light and easygoing, but it's not a patch on the originals. It's a bit more brash, a bit louder, and makes use of some videogame aesthetics in the final fight. None of those things actually make it a better film. They just make it feel as if it is constantly straining to connect with kids who can still find joy in the simple pleasures of a film that made everyone smile with the words "wax on, wax off". 

6/10

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Sunday, 3 September 2023

Netflix And Chill: Hidden Strike (2023)

What a combination we have here. The director of Need For Speed and the writer of Grace Of Monaco, working together to deliver an action comedy that pairs Jackie Chan with John Cena. What could possibly go wrong?

If you're assuming that my opening paragraph is dripping with sarcasm then you'd be right. Not that I want you to think that Hidden Strike is a complete waste of time. It's just that, knowing the people behind the camera, I can see why it feels like such an odd feature.

If I summarised the plot of Hidden Strike then I suspect it would make the whole thing sound either too complicated or too dull. Basically, John Cena plays someone who ends up working alongside Jackie Chan to take on an oil-thieving villain (Pilou Asbæk) in the desert environments of Iraq. Obvioiusly, Cena and Chan don't immediately trust one another, but their friendship grows as they work together against increasingly growing odds of mission success.

The second half of Hidden Strike is quite good. There are some enjoyable fights, although nothing comes close to the prime Jackie Chan work of yesteryear, and occasional moments in which the leads work well together. You have to get through the first half though, and that's a bit of a slog. There's a big action set-piece that takes place in an artificially-created sandstorm that isn't as thrilling or impressive as it should be, and the script isn't witty enough to help viewers warm naturally to Cena's character from the beginning. The lack of wit, or lack of great wit, remains a problem throughout the whole film, but it's easier to overlook when Cena and Chan are complementing one another in the busier fight sequences of the second half.

Aside from our leads, Asbæk is good value as the baddie. That's a relief, especially with nobody else making much of an impression. Chunrui Ma and Wenli Jiang are the two main females, both there to serve a script that wastes their presence, and everyone else is onscreen to be a generic fighter or placed in jeopardy. Okay, you get one other "boss level" opponent, but that is it.

Arash Amel's script seems to think that viewers will want time spent alongside Cena trying to be funny (emphasis on the word "trying" there). This isn't the right approach, but nobody figured out how to improve the material. Scott Waugh's direction is competent enough, even when making use of some wildly varying CGI, but nobody here is at their best.

Fans of Jackie Chan will already have a dozen films they know they can rewatch ahead of this, but it's worth noting that this IS a film boosted by his presence. He may not get to deliver the kind of hijinks he used to, due to a flat script, as well as his advanced age (the man is one year away from turning 70), but he is still an undeniable star when given even the briefest opportunity to shine. It's because of Chan that I didn't hate this, but almost everything else here ensured that I didn't love it either.

5/10

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Sunday, 14 March 2021

Netflix And Chill: The Spy Next Door (2010)

Putting Jackie Chan in more family-friendly fare that should appeal to a mass American audience has rarely been a good thing, With a few notable exceptions, the results have been quite turgid. They also often make the huge mistake of covering up any Chan antics with special effects, which obfuscates their best special effect (Jackie Chan himself).

So I didn't head into The Spy Next Door with any great expectations. It's all about a retiring special agent named Bob Ho (Chan) who is dating a lovely woman (Gillian, played by Amber Valletta) and ends up looking after her three kids for a few days. The children are, in descending age order, Farren (Madeline Carroll), Ian (Will Shadley), and Nora (Alina Foley). Unaware of what Bob actually did for a living, the kids are soon surprised when they encounter a number of villains who are out to get him.

Director Brian Levant may have quite a few family features under his belt (including BOTH of The Flintstones movies and Jingle All The Way), and the writing team of Jonathan Bernstein and James Greer, joined here by Gregory Poirier, also have experience of aiming at younger viewers (the first two having also written Lindsay Lohan vehicle, Just My Luck). Which is all well and good, yet nobody knows how best to use Chan, once again.

Having said that, nobody here wanders into the outright awful mistreatment of Chan as we saw in the likes of The Medallion and The Tuxedo. While this is a less stunt-packed movie, some of the fight scenes aren't too bad, and there are some mildly amusing set-pieces. It's just a shame that, inevitably, fans of the star will have seen him do stuff like this with much better results. 

The cast are a very mixed bag. The three kids do quite well though. Carroll is the moody teen, Shadley is the young bright spark, and Foley is the cute youngest one. And Chan is Chan, which means he's pretty wonderful in pretty much anything he does. Valletta is sidelined for a lot of the film, but she's perfectly fine. Magnûs Scheving is the main villain, and there's an amusing running joke about people bringing him back unsuitable clothing from the shops. Alongside Katherine Boecher (playing Creel, his right-hand woman), Scheving is required to play his role without any real sense of threat or menace. That's a shame, because it makes everything seem much more inconsequential. Lucas Till is enjoyable in a small role, which is more than I can say for Billy Ray Cyrus (who plays Colton James, a colleague of Bob). And you have George Lopez in the role of Glaze, with him trying his best in a role that takes the most predictable turn you expect once the plot starts to kick into gear.

Taken by itself, this is far from a terrible movie. It's not a great one either. It's just a passable bit of family fare. But Chan fans have so many other films to compare it to, and that's when it starts to look worse and worse. MAYBE a decent introduction to the superstar for younger viewers, I'd certainly ask you to consider it ahead of the other two titles mentioned just above (although I have a bit more of a soft spot for The Tuxedo nowadays, thanks to the cast).

4/10




Wednesday, 2 September 2020

Prime Time: City Hunter (1993)

I had somehow not seen City Hunter, despite being a big Jackie Chan fan, and despite being aware of it as "the one in which Jackie Chan appears in one scene as Chun Li". Having now seen it, I now know why I never got around to it. It's not really worth bothering with, and is really built up from all of the worst parts of Jackie Chan movies (horrible jokes, worse dialogue, and not enough action).

Chan plays Ryu Saeba, a cocky detective who spends his time chasing women and trying to look cool. He also looks after a relative of his dead partner, and regrets the promise that he made to not hit on her. Ryu is hired to track down Shizuko Imamura (Kumiko Goto), the daughter of a wealthy businessman, and ends up on a cruise ship that's about to be taken over by terrorists (headed up by Richard Norton).

Written and directed by Wong Jing, based on the popular manga, City Hunter aims to be a light and enjoyable bit of entertainment from the very beginning, with Chan explaining some backstory and his character directly to the camera. Perhaps if they'd decided to keep that style throughout then this would have been a better film, but things move into more traditional narrative style, although you often get punchlines to moments that feel like an obvious wink or smile to viewers.

Chan is saddled with the worst character he has ever played onscreen, in my experience of his filmography anyway, and cannot do enough to overcome the general cloak of douchebaggery that he has to wear throughout. It's still great to watch him when he fights, which doesn't happen often enough, but his dialogue is even more cringe-inducing than usual, with most of his sentences either being sexist, creepy, just outright irritating, or horribly homophobic. I get it. The humour is different. It should still make people laugh though, and I really don't see how anything here would do that.

Joey Wong has to pout and stamp her feet as Kaori Makimura, the young woman who was essentially raised by Ryu after the death of his partner (yes, there's extra creepiness in their relationship that we're just supposed to ignore), but Goto gets to do a little bit more with her role. Norton is a scenery-chewing villain, as you want in these movies, and Gary Daniels gets to enjoy a couple of good moments as his main henchman. Leon Lai plays a gambler on the cruise ship who has exceptional skill with playing cards, and both Chingmy Yau and Carol Wan add to the complement of beautiful women given rather thankless roles in the film.

There ARE a few good fight sequences, including one that has Jackie emulating a set-piece from Game Of Death as that film plays on a big screen behind him, but not enough to warrant sitting through the worst parts of this film. The plotting is awful, there's never a feeling that anything is really at stake, the humour falls flat, and I cannot recall the last time I watched a film with such an unlikeable central character. I did enjoy that Street Fighter sequence though, even if I knew I'd end up seeing Chan as Chun Li.

4/10

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Monday, 12 February 2018

The Lego Ninjago Movie (2017)

Let me be upfront from the very beginning here, if LEGO did a version of one of the movies I hate most (e.g. Elephant by Gus Van Sant) then I would watch it, I would enjoy it, and it would be something I would buy. I grew up with tubs of mismatched LEGO, I continue to look on eagerly if I see LEGO sets being built by small children I might be able to bump out of the way and hold back while I work with the bricks, and I have been mightily impressed by the almost all of the LEGO movies I have seen so far, both the cinema releases and the smaller titles (they have been doing better DC films than the proper DC moviemakers for a few years now).

I didn't really know what Ninjago was, and I'm still not sure. Basically, it seems to be some kids who turn into ninjas when they need to battle evil. It's also the name of the city in which they live. That city keeps coming under threat from a villain named Garmadon (voiced by Justin Theroux), which keeps Green Ninja (voiced by Dave Franco) and the rest of the good ninja group very busy. Green Ninja is also known as Lloyd, when not hidden in his suit, and Lloyd is actually the son of Garmadon. Uh oh.

Directed by Charlie Bean, Paul Fisher, and Bob Logan, The LEGO Ninjago Movie keeps the fun and laughs coming thick and fast throughout, with one or two inventive action sequences doing enough to keep the main characters in peril as they learn some life lessons. Everyone involved in the LEGO movie universe seems to understand the universal appeal of it, and how to make the most of it for that brick-centric visual style and the many brilliant gags. The script here, written by Logan, Fisher, William and Tom Wheeler, Jared Stern, and John Whittington, makes the most of the strained father-son relationship at the centre of everything, while also utilising the tropes of martial arts movies (Jackie Chan is a lot of fun as the wise old master).

All of the voice cast do well, although some are immediately more recognisable than others. The leads, obviously, and Kumail Nanjiani and Michael Pena were the ones I already knew, as well as Olivia Munn, (as Koko, Lloyd's mother) but Fred Armisen, Abbi Jacobson, and Zach Woods also lend their voices to some of the main characters, and all are good in their roles.

Once again mixing in some live-action elements with the main animated section of the film, this might not be as good as The LEGO Movie, and might even fall short of the level of fun of The LEGO Batman Movie, but that is just a reminder of how great those two films were. This one is very good, and manages to be very good without any one main identifier (e.g. Benny wanting his spaceship in The LEGO Movie, and, well, Batman in the The LEGO Batman Movie).

I am not sure, as of this moment, what we can expect next from the world of LEGO movies. I am only sure of one thing; If they build it, I will watch.

8/10

Pick up the disc here.
Americans can buy it here.


Thursday, 13 March 2014

Project A (1983)

Jackie Chan stars as a member of the Hong Kong Marine Police in a coastal town that has been trying to deal with a looming pirate problem, with the villains led by San-Po (Dick Wei). Unfortunately, the Marine Police seems to spend most of its time fighting with the standard Police Force, pitting our hero against the great Yuen Biao during the early moments of the film. It's not long, however, until Chan and Biao end up teaming up in their attempt to defeat the pirates, joined by Sammo Hung (playing a good-hearted thief who wants to help out while not getting himself killed).

Project A is one of those Jackie Chan movies that his fans love, mainly because it allows him to do what he does best - demonstrate some amazing moves in a number of action sequences that showcase just what a brilliant physical performer he is. Add in Sammo and Yuen and you have the dream team (Yuen Biao has been a favourite of mine since he blew me away in the finale of Dragons Forever).

It's pretty great, I can't deny that. It's just personal preference that leads to me rating this slightly lower than most people might, because I have other Jackie Chan movies that I prefer to this one (including the aforementioned Dragons Forever).

With moments that pay homage to Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, set-pieces that will make you wince while keeping a smile on your face, a riveting grand finale, and the presence of the lovely Isabella Wong turning the heads of the male leads, Project A has plenty to recommend it. If you've seen any documentaries or TV shows that used clips from Jackie Chan movies then the chances are that you've seen some excerpts from this one, be it the wonderful bicycle chase sequence or that daredevil clock tower stunt.

Chan also wrote and directed this movie, allowing him to create the best, and most creative, sequences for himself and his co-stars. While I like some of his other movies more than this, there's no denying that Project A deserves a place on the movie shelf of any self-respecting action movie fan.

8/10

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Wednesday, 22 August 2012

The Legend Of Drunken Master (1994)

As the years have crept up on him, Jackie Chan has slowed down slightly (though he could still kick my ass in any physical competition without breaking a sweat) and has tried to get involved with different films that don't make quite so many demands on his body. Yet there are many times when you just wish that time would stop and allow Jackie Chan to jump and whirl and punch and kick forever, especially when you catch one of his many, many excellent action movies from his extensive filmography. Movies like Project A, Dragons Forever and Wheels On Meals and many, many others.

Even the earlier Drunken Master is a prime example of Jackie Chan doing what he can do best. Later movies, including those just mentioned above, pile on the stunts and physical prowess to an even greater degree but any one of his earlier films can easily stand as a testament to one of the great physical performers of the last century. Easily.

This movie sees Jackie Chan starring as Wong Fei-Hung, a young man who is skilled in the drunken style of fighting. Basically, as soon as he gets a taste of alcohol he becomes a staggering, sozzled, fighting machine. His skill increases tenfold and he's practically invincible. Unfortunately, this is something frowned upon by his father and so whenever Wong Fei-Hung drinks and kicks ass he gets himself in trouble and brings shame upon the family name. Ling, his stepmother, sees things slightly differently. She thinks that Wong Fei-Hung might just be able to save the day. Even if he has a hangover the day after.

As is usually the case with the better Jackie Chan movies, a lot of the stunts and choreographed fight work here will make your eyes pop out. They are incredible. There's an argument to be made that, before the advancement of the CGI we have today, Jackie Chan was the best special effect available onscreen and it's harder and harder to dismiss that observation as a joke when you see him go through as many acrobatic motions as he does here.

There are others who get to impress with their moves - such as Lung Ti, Anita Mui, Felix Wong, etc - but the best moments come from Jackie Chan, whether they're pure incredible action or great bits of physical comedy.

The screenplay comes from Edward Tang, Man-Ming Tong and Gai Chi Yuen and it does what it needs to do - Chan and co. are placed in peril when they accidentally find themselves in possession of something that doesn't belong to them that is wanted by other people who don't have any real right to it either. Direction comes from Chia-Liang Liu and an uncredited Jackie Chan (who directed the final fight scene after Liu left the film) and hits every beat perfectly. This comes so close to being a perfect action movie, SO close, but the fact that it falls just short of perfection, in my eyes, is a testament to how many great films there are to pick from in this genre.

If you're a fan of martial arts movies then you MUST get this, it's that simple really. Yet another essential viewing choice from the filmography of Mr. Jackie Chan.

9/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Legend-Drunken-Master-Blu-ray/dp/B007BL6316/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1345558747&sr=1-2