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Directed by: Stanley Tong Starring: Jackie Chan, Jackson Liu, Annie Wu Yet again Jackie Chan goes globetrotting in 1996’s Jing cha gu shi IV: Jian dan ren wu, a film that also happens to be the fourth instalment of his successful Police Story franchise. In this case I will be reviewing the American cut titled Jackie Chan’s First Strike, which has apparently been excised of approximately some 20 minutes of footage. Anyhoo, in this film Jackie teams up with the CIA to locate a renegade agent thought to be in cahoots with terrorists that have stolen a nuclear warhead. Tracking them down to the Ukraine, he soon finds himself working for the Russian spy agency, issuing him with the same task and sending him down to Australia where the renegade agent’s sister resides. Unfortunately for Jackie, it soon becomes apparent that there’s some nasty goings on behind the scenes and that he’s being used by the very men he trusted… Although rather sparse throughout the film and missing the impact of his past action set pieces, First Strike still has some truly cool action sequences ranging from a lengthy and exciting snowboard chase to an entertaining fight against two towering Russian heavies. The confrontation that sees him wield a metal ladder against a group of thugs is also definitely the film’s highpoint. However, unlike the previous Police Story movies First Strike goes out with a whimper rather than a bang, culminating with a lame but at times humourous encounter with the bad guys and an animatronic shark in an aquarium, and a car stunt that serves to remind us that yes, Jackie has a contract with Mitsubishi Motors. The film also suffers from horrible dubbing (good job giving the Aussies super-pronounced accents) and some visual humour that comes off even more cheesy than usual. In the end Jackie Chan’s First Strike is a rather decent Jackie film, one that was obviously designed with international audiences in mind. Armed with some great action and top-notch stuntwork it still makes an entertaining watch. 3.5/5 PROS: A number of thrilling stunts and action sequences. CONS: Peters out at the end. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116704/ mrkillboy fucked around with this message at 12:49 on Aug 29, 2004 |
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Aug 29, 2004 12:43
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