Xbox Review: Breakdown (2004)

Breakdown is a neat idea. It's mostly a first-person beat-'em-up, but also a first-person shooter, and even occasionally a first-person burger-eating and puking simulator. Everything unfolds for you through the eyes of Derrick, who wakes up in a lab just in time for war to break out between humans and some strangely buff aliens. There you meet Alex, your emo girl companion for the bulk of the game. The two of you then set off to unravel the mystery of these aliens, and your identity a la Jackie Chan's Who Am I? (1998), through some incredibly elliptical writing and absolutely maddening combat sequences.

Everything in Breakdown takes place in first-person view. At first blush, this is novel; you shoot, fight hand-to-hand, platform, fall out of windows, backflip, eat, puke, read, and more from Derrick's POV. This novelty quickly subsides, however, and the first-person perspective becomes alternatively disorienting, distracting, or downright difficult to handle. It's often impossible to keep track of your enemies, due partially to the game's inadequate lock-on targeting system, as well as larger problems with the first-person perspective itself. Since everything takes place in first-person, including when you get knocked down (and this happens often), recovering a proper perspective to launch a counterattack is frequently impossible when confronted with multiple enemies. Similarly, later stages in the game require a great deal of platforming, always a fun proposition from a first-person perspective. Other stages consist largely of empty hallways punctuated by frustrating enemy encounters.

The fun of recovering health by consuming stray sodas and hamburgers in a Streets of Rage fashion, or driving jeeps over caverns in first-person view, is largely overwhelmed by later levels in the game. In particular, there are two combat sequences near the conclusion of the game that are among the most aggravating I've ever played. You simply can't see the attacks coming your way, so instead you're treated to a kaleidoscope of images as your character is knocked around by mutants. Sure, perhaps this is a realistic representation of being beaten up by a crew of obscenely swoll alienmans, but it is emphatically not an enjoyable experience. I wanted to like Breakdown, and to its credit, there's very few games like it. And as it turns out, there's a pretty good reason why. Breakdown is a failed experiment; fascinating and educational in its own way, but deeply flawed.

PS3 Review: Sleeping Dogs (2012)

There's probably three quality martial arts video games out there on consoles: our beloved Rise to Honor is the best, while Jackie Chan's Stuntmaster is a distant third. Sleeping Dogs is second best, but it's a well-deserved second place.

Rise to Honor is still tops for martial arts video games, but Sleeping Dogs is a very close second. You play as an undercover cop named Wei Shen, tasked with infiltrating a Triad organization. Honestly, there's not much to say about the narrative. It's a pretty typical Hong Kong detective story, but it's solid and performed well. You won't be surprised by Wei Shen's moral dilemmas, his loyalty to the badge conflicting with his growing admiration for his fellow gangbangers. It's been done three thousand times before. You bet it's formulaic, but it works just the same. I felt the same way about Rise to Honor: the formulaic story is actually reassuring and convenient, because you don't have to do a lot of work to figure out what's going on, you just get to fight some fools and it all feels familiar. Unlike Rise, this one is much more of a sandbox kind of game. Certainly, narrative events frame everything you do, but there's a considerable amount of freedom between missions in which you can level up your kung fu, participate in some street races, buy clothes, gamble, and so on. Sleeping Dogs pushes you to complete the primary tasks in a number of ways, but there's always time made available to you for dating or swimming in the polluted waters of Hong Kong or whatever else you want to do.

Wei's Rumble in the Bronx uniform. Not pictured: the empty
Game Gear given to that dumb kid by Jackie.

Combat in Sleeping Dogs is very similar to combat in the Arkham Asylum series. It's fluid and intuitive, and the animations between moves are super smooth. It's no match for the rhythm of combat in Rise to Honor in terms of controls, but there's plenty to love about it nonetheless. You can throw suckas off roofs or chuck them into garbage bins, similar in many ways to the interactive environments in Jet's game. Dogs does have Rise beat in terms of gunplay, however, and driving around Hong Kong is equally solid. Honestly, I have no idea if Dogs is an accurate representation of the area, but it looks great and the different districts of the city are clearly distinguishable from each other. As usual with sandbox games, you're only left with a bunch of relatively meaningless tasks once you complete the main portion of the game, but you can unlock a bunch of outfits for Wei to wear from classic kung fu movies, and you can always play through the story again. If you groove on martial arts cinema, Sleeping Dogs is perfect for you.

Movie Review: Chinese Zodiac (2012)

In this sequel (sorta?) to the Armour of God series (1986 and 1991), Jackie Chan plays a treasure hunter, and together with his merry band of thieves he goes about swindling ancient Chinese statues that represent the 12 signs of the zodiac. Though Chan is initially sponsored by a multinational with an interest in selling the statues to private collectors, he becomes convinced that his true mission is to return the statues to China. Some other jerks are after the statues, and eventually (eventually...) they come into conflict. Now, there's two versions of the film out there: one is the original Chinese version released in 2012, and the other is an edited version released this year by Universal. Unfortunately, both are boring films.

I picked up the original, unedited version of Chinese Zodiac at my local Chinatown market a few years ago. I was not impressed by the film at all. It's 20-30 minutes of decent material stretched to two hours. Clearly, Chan is no longer capable of the same virtuoso fights he was capable of even 10 years ago, let alone 20 or 30 years ago. It's the law of the universe, this growing old business, but it's still disappointing. For about 20 minutes near the end of the film, though, Chan seems young again. He seems inspired. There's some decent choreography in a portrait studio and a lounge area, but the rest of the film is boring at best, and childish at worst. If this is Chan's last true action film, it's a depressing end to his career.

The edited American DVD release from this year is better simply because it's shorter. This version removes about 20 minutes of the meandering plot, and throws in some horrible (even by the standards of kung fu cinema) English dubbing, but it's not enough. Nonetheless, the edited version is your best option. There's even a career retrospective in the form of a highlight package that plays over the end credits. All it does is remind you of his older and much better Chan films.

Finest Fights: Gorgeous (1999)

Life has been busy for you pals at Code Redd Net. We apologize for our inattention and promise to be more prolific once the academic busywork winds down. In the meantime, please enjoy this fantastic fight scene from Jackie Chan's Gorgeous. It may not be our favorite Chan film, but this is certainly one of his best scenes.

Finest Fights: CZ12 (2012)

For over two years, Code Redd Net's Finest Fights series has brought you the very best of action cinema available on the web. For real, I mean it, we started this business over two years ago. Finest Fights rolls on this week with a selection from Jackie Chan's latest, and potentially his last, action film.

In limited release today is Jackie Chan's CZ12, aka Chinese Zodiac. Though I haven't seen the version being released to North America, I purchased a copy of the film on DVD from my local Chinatown market. It's not very good. There's about 20 minutes of quality material near the end of the film, but the rest of it is decidedly mediocre. It's not Tuxedo bad, but it's not far off from it either, and at least the Tuxedo was short. CZ12 is overlong, meandering, and childish. This is by far the best scene in the entire film, but it's not nearly enough to save the rest of the film. But I suppose that's what Finest Fights is for: bringing to you the best in action cinema, condensed and filtered for optimum enjoyment. Look for a full review of CZ12 soon.

Jackie Chan in... CZ12 (2012)

Here's the North American release trailer for Jackie Chan's latest film, CZ12 aka Chinese Zodiac. Might be better than The Tuxedo. We'll see.

Finest Fights: The Myth (2005)

It's been some time since we did one of these, but you know the drill: we bring you some of our favorite fight scenes from YouTube, like this weird one from The Myth.

Maybe not Jackie's best work, but it's the only scene worth remembering from that film, that's for sure.

DVDs We Love: Rush Hour 2 (2001)

This should be an easy transition: as you know, we've spent the last few weeks on Code Redd Net revisiting some Classic Chan films. Now we return with a new recurring feature, one that aims to spotlight some of the best, most valuable and most interesting DVDs/Blu-rays on the market. Too often films released for home viewing provide little incentive for purchase beyond the quality of the film it contains. Our purpose here is to draw your attention to those discs laden with special features, special features that make repeated viewings worthwhile, that keep the DVD/Blu-ray in question spinning in your player for years. To that end, we can find no better way to kick things off than by returning to Rush Hour 2. In addition to being a beloved CRN Awards winner and longtime site/blog staple, it's also one of our favorite DVDs ever released. Find out why below.

Ricky, you sly son of a gun, just look at you.

Rush Hour 2 is not the best Jackie Chan film. In fact, looking over the items chronicled in our recent Classic Chan series, arguably eight of those ten films feature better fights, better stunts, and overall a more competent use of Chan's physical abilities. What those films lack, though, is the sheen of Rush Hour 2, its efficiency of storytelling and style. Undeniably, Rush Hour 2 is lean Hollywood filmmaking, all its excesses contained in 90 minutes and rounded off by the credits. Hollywood is at its best when taking something mediocre and inflating it to the absolute limit, usually via astronomical production values. So while Chan's choreography is below average in this film, so much else around him is of a higher quality (everything from the lighting, the sets, the cameras, to the film stock itself) that we can temporarily forget the handcuffs put on our favorite action star. It's a decent enough compromise for the Chan enthusiast and the casual viewer, I suppose.

Besides the quality of the film, the DVD for Rush Hour 2 really delivers the goods. As part of the abandoned Infinifilm brand of New Line, the Rush Hour 2 disc is loaded with stuff:

• Commentary with director Brett Ratner and writer Jeff Nathanson
• Featurettes: "Making Magic Out of Mire", "Fashion of Rush Hour 2", "Jackie Chan's Hong Kong Introduction", "Culture Clash: West Meets East", "Language Barrier", "Attaining International Stardom", "Kung Fu Choreography".
• Evolution of a Scene
• Visual Effects Deconstruction
• Deleted Scenes/Outtakes (with optional director/writer commentary)
• Theatrical Trailers
• Cast and Crew bios
• Fact Track
• DVD-rom with a script you can read alongside film
• as well as the usual plethora of language/subtitle options and chapter selection

This may not sound that impressive at first, but the DVD's Infinifilm option integrates almost every one of these elements into the film's presentation. Menus pop up onscreen, inviting you to watch short clips, snipped from the full featurettes listed above that deal directly with the scene.

In this example, the massage parlor fight is supplemented with material describing its construction. Play the clip and the disc returns you to the film at exactly the same point you were at before. Though the disc obviously needs a few seconds to gather up the selected data after you click an option, and a few more to get you back, it's nothing too jarring; and it helps that the clips are usually interesting and engage you more thoroughly with the film. Certainly the Infinifilm feature could become annoying for those watching the film for the first time, but it's not the default option on the disc. For those looking for a reason to watch it again, though, it's a perfect means to do so.

Outside of the Infinifilm, you can access all the supplemental material individually and in full. Though there's plenty of flatulent industry fluff, like "Fashion of Rush Hour 2" and "Making Magic Out of Mire", many of the other features are worth watching. Evolution of a Scene, essentially rehearsal footage of some of the more expensive/explosive scenes, is an interesting opportunity to see Jackie's method of choreography at work. I always appreciate the inclusion of deleted scenes, though in this case they were clearly deleted for a reason; same goes for the outtakes, really.

Brett Ratner and his screenwriter writer provide feature-length commentary and it's mostly banal stuff that gets regurgitated elsewhere on the disc. There's a bit too much gossip, and way too much Hollywood name-dropping, but on occasion they provide an insight or tow. One of the more intriguing special features is the Fact Track (above), an option that places a running stream of incidental notes on the lower part of the screen. These include useful biographical bits on Chan, Tucker, and the minor or incidental characters that surround them, as well as trivia regarding the scenery, shooting locations, and Snoopy's height relative to Tucker's racially-charged estimation of Chan's height. Like the Infinifilm option, though perhaps less exciting visually, Fact Track is yet another way to make a repeated viewing of the film seem novel. Strangely enough, it's possible to watch the film with the Fact Track, commentary, and Infinifilm features all running at the same time! It's a bit too much for the senses, I think, but it nonetheless proves that the disc is loaded not only with special features, but with a highly customizable engagement with them.

All things considered, the Rush Hour 2 Infinifilm DVD is one loaded with replay value. By my count, there's at least four-five different ways to watch the film: by itself, with Infinifilm, with commentary, with the fact track, and with some combination of the above options. This is in addition to the standalone full features accessible via the menu. It's too bad New Line gave up on the Infinifilm brand, because I wish all my DVDs/Blu-rays had this kind of depth.

Get the DVD on Amazon for $.01 right here (and make sure you follow the link to the Infinifilm product specifically, as there's another, stripped-down and feature-less version of the disc in circulation).

Classic Chan: The Accidental Spy (2001)

Classic Chan concludes today on a bit of a downbeat, as The Accidental Spy is not one of Chan's best. Regardless, it's been a real pleasure bringing you this series on one of our favorite performers. Chicken Man and I have enjoyed this chance to revisit some of the key films in our history, films that somehow escaped our critical eye. Stick around for more Chan coverage coming your way on Code Redd Net.

Even when Jackie Chan is at his most mediocre, he still brings the goods. To wit: though The Accidental Spy is pretty pedestrian stuff, there's an excellently choreographed fight in a Turkish* bath that saves the film from totally descending into Tuxedo territory. But first, the evergreen wacky plot: Jackie is an exercise equipment salesman who foils a robbery. Some strange old man then approaches Jackie about another strange old man, this one wealthy and on his deathbed. He sends Jackie off on a globetrotting quest for clues of some sort or another, all the while unknowingly working for a shadow American intelligence operation. By even the loosest narrative standards of the genre, The Accidental Spy makes no sense. Why Jackie goes to certain places, why certain clues are deemed important, and why certain characters show up at certain times and do certain things, barely any of it is adequately explained. I suppose it's a bit of a throwback to the oddball political affiliations Jackie dealt with in First Strike, but for all the James Bond-lite intrigue and exoticism of locales, it doesn't add up to anything substantial, let alone anything really comprehensible. Still, though, there's nothing like Chan acrobatics to distract you from the confusing story. The aforementioned Turkish bath bash is a true highlight, as Jackie not only defends himself from his assailants, but also defends the dignity of his naked body from exposure. It's a subtle technique of layering the choreography that Jackie is particularly adept at executing. He doesn't simply fight an opponent or a mob of opponents: often, he also has to contend with the elements, with the environment, with physical restraints (such as handcuffs or that odd rope apparatus in Mr. Nice Guy), with notions of decorum and cultural heritage (recall the complicated vase choreography in Shanghai Knights), and so on. Unfortunately, the dynamism of the Turkish scene isn't present in all the fights, as some of them are fairly bland and lack that trademark Chan structuring. If it's your kind of thing, there's plenty of vehicular stuntwork going on here, especially the impressive tanker sequence that concludes the film. Nevertheless, The Accidental Spy should be ranked fairly low in Chan's oeuvre. I recommend checking it out for the Turkish bath fight scene, but you can snooze through the rest and not miss anything important.

*"Oi, did someone say Turkish? One of me many names it is."

Classic Chan: Shanghai Noon (2000)

Coming to the last review by Chicken Man in our Classic Chan series, we take a look at one of Jackie's distinctly American films, Shanghai Noon. Thrasher will bring the series to a close with Accidental Spy. But fret not, we will looking at more Chan favorites in the future.

Shanghai Noon is undoubtedly one of Jackie's best American films. It is perhaps the best film with which to introduce Jackie to a Western audience (no pun intended). The plot is quite simple: the princess of the Forbidden City (Lucy Liu) is kidnapped and held for ransom in the American West. Chon Wang (Jackie) is an imperial guard who is sent to pay her ransom and ensure her return. Along the way, he runs into screw-up outlaw Roy O'Bannon (Owen Wilson) and they become reluctant buddies. The action scenes are also tailored to fit the typical American movie-goer in that they are much shorter than the ones in Jackie's Hong Kong films. Interestingly enough, Jackie's skills as an action star shine through even without forcing some anachronism to do car chases, underwater stunts, helicopter hijacking, or destroy drug dealer's houses with large machinery. The focus is primarily upon his martial arts abilities, one of the highlights being his turning a horseshoe and rope into an effective medium-range melee weapon. He is also involved in a bar fight scene that is easily within the top ten bar fight scenes shown on film. And, as if he were a contestant on The Deadliest Warrior, Jackie tests his mettle against Native American warriors. Every fight scene advances the story (unlike the entertaining, but ultimately pointless, skirmishes between Jackie and Mr. Lo's henchmen), which keeps things fast-paced and moving along. And despite Owen Wilson's presence in it, Shanghai Noon is actually quite funny. It's really hard to point at any single thing and say that it is a flaw (besides the fact that it doesn't have a game like Shanghai Knights does). It defines the Martial Arts Western Action Comedy genre (however big that is), and is simply a solid film. This is truly a Chan classic.

[P.S. Shanghai Noon is also a loaded DVD and will be featured in our upcoming DVD review series, which will highlight some of our favorite DVDs, back from when they used to put worthwhile special features on them.]

Classic Chan: Gorgeous (1999)

Welcome back Chanphiles for another installment of Classic Chan. This time we have Thrasher's review of the supremely weird Gorgeous, an often baffling film, but not one without some show-stealing numbers that make it worthwhile. Better get ready for next time, as Chicken Man will take you all back to the year 2000 with a review of the always enjoyable Shanghai Noon.

Gorgeous is a silly film, and one that's all over the map; it moves from sappy sub-Disney Channel romance to mature martial arts exhibition like that. It's like zapping through your cable channels only to find Jackie Chan featured on every network, even the weird ones you never watch. Consequently, of all the films we've covered thus far in the Classic Chan series, this one is the hardest to pin down, to fit within the general trajectory of his career. Part of that stems from the odd premise: Jackie Chan is C. N. Chan, a billionaire trash tycoon and indolent playboy content to own expensive things and be cool. It's only when Chan's business rival hires a professional martial artist to humiliate him that things get interesting. The rest of the film follows the childish infatuations of Bu, a little Lolita played by Shu Qi, who heads to Hong Kong to find the author of a weepy love letter, and from there she becomes entangled in Chan's love life. Sad to say, but the scenes not involving Chan (and there are a good many of them) can be quite boring for all their saccharine flavor. At times it can be difficult to make sense of the extraordinarily cheesy music as well as the odd dubbing, but there are times when Gorgeous can be genuinely charming (I particularly like the banter between the anonymous thugs Chan dispatches, characters we do not typically think of as having other lives, let alone hot dates to pick up). Like most Chan outings, however, any deficiency in plotting is more than made up for with a few fights. Gorgeous is a bit different in this regard, as Chan's character has no urgent need that makes him fight. He's not an ordinary guy made to do extraordinary things here, he's not a cop out to clear his name or a chef seeking to rescue his kidnapped girlfriend. Instead, he's a rich Wall Street trader who fights because he wants to, not because he has to, and that subtle difference gives the fights of Gorgeous a unique register. As such, the contests between Chan and the professional fighter have an official quality to them at odds with the usually desperate situations Chan accidentally walks into. It's a subtle move that lends a high degree of novelty to the brawls, which are right up there with his best choreography. Unfortunately, there's too few of them to make Gorgeous a truly noteworthy Chan film. As it stands, Gorgeous is an strange entry that our fellow Chanphiles will undoubtedly appreciate, but it's one that ultimately lacks enough of the good stuff.

Classic Chan: Who Am I? (1998)

I hope everyone enjoyed the last review in this series, Mr. Nice Guy, provided in a delicious video format by Thrasher. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly encourage you to give your eyes and ears some much needed nourishment. And not only that, in the next installment of Classic Chan, Thrasher will be thoroughly reviewing one of Jackie's sillier episodes, Gorgeous.

Crazy Legs

One of the outstanding things about Who Am I? is that I feel more of an emotional connection with the struggle of Jackie than I can with most of his other films. In Police Story, we aren't shown the evils committed by the drug traffickers; we are just to assume that they are bad people. The same largely goes for Supercop. Yet, in Who Am I?, Jackie is affronted personally by the villain, a CIA operative who betrayed him and his team of special operators. He is the only survivor of the team and loses his memory in the process. This gives me more of a reason to cheer Jackie on. I want to see him regain his memory and defeat the traitor, whereas I'm left rather indifferent to whether he catches bad guys in the previously mentioned films. But just like before, Jackie provides a variety of action scenes so none of them feel stale or boring. Beyond his amazing martial arts skills, he entertains in an early scene where he displays MacGyver-like qualities, as well as his non-vocal comedy, in treating wounds, creating an IV, and repairing a rallycar. During an interrogation, he escapes with the extra handicap of being handcuffed. And though the car-chase may be an overused situation in the action genre, Jackie uses it sparingly and when he does, it can be a treat. Also of note in this scene is how Jackie's persona has somewhat changed for the American audience. In films like Police Story or Supercop, Jackie wasn't a stranger to firearms and killing people with them. We can see the contrast here when he helps his pursuers when their car is about to drop off the side of a building. Likewise, earlier in the movie the special ops guys used a gun that shot a net. How compassionate and kid-friendly! Overall, the pacing is friendly and it never feels like an action scene is overdue. The tension can be felt mounting, culminating in what is easily one of Jackie's finest fights (shown below). In sum, I feel like Who Am I? is one of Jackie's more memorable efforts, plagued only by some awkward scenes (such as Jackie's shouting of "Who am I?" into the distance) and revelations that make little sense in terms of the plot ("Oh by the way, I work for the CIA."). But Jackie Chan has never been known for dramatic effects. Regardless, Who Am I? excellently demonstrates what he is known for and is a very solid action movie.

Classic Chan: Mr. Nice Guy (1998) Video Review

Classic Chan continues this week with something new for Code Redd Net: a video review! It's a key part of our strategy to provide you with increasingly dynamic content across our various platforms. In this pilot test, Thrasher pays tribute to Mr. Nice Guy, one of our favorite action films and undoubtedly the spark for our lengthy Chan-o-philia. Also, look out for Chicken Man's upcoming review of Who Am I?, yet another classic Chan flick with some history for us.

As soon as Jackie starts asking questions, things explode.
Must be frustrating.

Classic Chan: Jackie Chan's First Strike (1996)

Jackie Chan fights for 'Murica! Perhaps even more exciting is the upcoming review of one of Jackie's works that is nearest and dearest to our hearts: Mr. Nice Guy! Thrasher will demonstrate just why we're really good at cuttin' things off.

 I'm a bit confused why this movie is called Jackie Chan's First Strike. The cover of my DVD says, "The world's most explosive action star fights for America for the first time," yet none of the movie takes place in the US and he worked with the DEA in Supercop. Also confusing is the plot itself. Even Jackie asks, "Why does the CIA need me? They have so many people." Yet, for some reason, a Hong Kong police officer is sent to track a woman to the Ukraine. That is supposed to be the extent of Jackie's involvement, yet he inevitably finds himself tangled in stopping a scheme to sell uranium to the Russian Mafia. He then is somehow working for the Russian Federal Security Bureau ("the new and improved KGB") rather than the CIA, only to find out that the FSB is involved in trying to secure the uranium and have blackmailed a CIA agent to do their bidding. It seems to be a mystery why a CIA agent would have a greater ability to obtain uranium from a former Soviet satellite than the FSB and Russian Mafia would. But, thankfully, an intricate plot is not why we like to watch Jackie Chan. He is an action-movie star and I think First Strike demonstrates his visionary choreography ability as well as any of his other films. He seems to be perfectly comfortable in any environment, whether it's in the Ukrainian snow or on stilts in Chinatown. It was exactly this that struck me most: the variety of action scenes in which we get to see Jackie perform. He seems to be a very capable snowboarder (though the cuts seem a bit sketchy where he will be riding goofy-footed in one shot and then regular-footed when he is cut back to), shows off his impressive capability in bearing the cold, has one of his most iconic fight scenes involving a ladder (I surely hope that The North Face paid handsomely for the best product placement that a pair of winter overalls have ever received), creatively demonstrates how to fight with stilts, and has an underwater fight scene almost as epic as Thunderball (though maybe not quite). Viewing it is a very quick 85 minutes. To me, this is because of Jackie's wide range of talent. He really pushes the boundary of what an action star can be. Can a Steven Seagal do half of what Jackie can? Would you consider Sylvester Stallone athletic? In comparison, he is simply a guy who carries big guns and flexes and has a speech impediment. Not nearly as entertaining. Not nearly as funny, either. I now feel a bit silly in pointing out the light-heartedness of Police Story. First Strike is definitely one of Jackie's most cartoony movies in terms of the humor (though City Hunter takes the cake). He sings while being stripped-down to his koala bear undies. He plays made-you-look in a shark tank. And so, yet again, I think this also demonstrates the wide array of emotions Jackie can elicit. He can be silly and he can be serious. He can be a secret agent and a cook. This is why he was able to perform in scores of films without becoming stale. Though I wouldn't consider First Strike one of his best films overall, it definitely has one of the top ten fight scenes and makes us unable to see step ladders in the same way ever again.

Classic Chan: Rumble in the Bronx (1996)

Classic Chan rolls on with Rumble in the Bronx/Vancouver, also known as Rumble in Vancouver or Rumble in the Vancouver Bronx around these parts. Take your pick; Thrasher thinks it's a fine action film any way you slice it. Next time around Chicken Man takes up Jackie Chan's First Strike, so get your ladders ready now.

As Chicken Man hinted at in the introduction to his review of the always super Supercop, we affectionately refer to this film as Rumble in Vancouver primarily because of the charmingly discordant NYC skyline:

The awe-inspiring and majestic beauty of the Bronx Mountains.

There's plenty of other equally wacky aberrations spread throughout Rumble in the Bronx, including our favorite high-strung, cushion-loving Sega Game Gear enthusiast, Danny, and his unstoppable, perpetually cheerful magic-out-of-mire disposition:

He's got no game, but at least he saves a lot of money on batteries.
"It's powered by my imagination!" says the stupid, positive child.

These "goofs", to speak like IMDb, become something more to us Chanphiles. They become markers of our fascination with his cinematic exploits, the attention to (and eventually love for) these mistakes an unmistakable result of repeated viewings.

Like many others new to Chan, Rumble was one of our key introductory texts. It has since become one of the yardsticks used to judge the success/failure of subsequent films. It's not his best film, not even close, really, but it's everything you could possibly want or expect from a film of this kind. Jackie plays Keung, visiting the Bronx nee Vancouver to help his Uncle Bill sell a supermarket. Keung hangs around to help out its new owner, Elaine, while Uncle Bill goes off on his honeymoon. Soon enough, Keung runs afoul with a local gang and from then on it's on. The admittedly poor dubbing adds another layer of humor to the film, and at least Jackie dubs himself rather than letting some other doofus do it. Sappy as the story may be, it takes us where we need to go, often hilarious so: supposedly hardcore gangsters turn over a new leaf following a lukewarm moral browbeating from Jackie; yokels easily fall for the old "I'm with the FBI because I'm wearing a nicely-tailored suit and have the build of an ex-pro wrestler" bit; and wholesale destruction of both public and private property in the name of justice is, well, justifiable (aesthetically if nothing else). Yet, as always, it's the stunts that matter most. Rumble scores fairly high in this regard, though few stand out as especially noteworthy. I suppose the pool-pinball fight would make a career highlight package, but everything else is merely serviceable, particularly in comparison with the showstealing numbers that make First Strike and Who Am I? truly memorable. That said, there's nothing at all wrong with Rumble. In fact, it has a rightful spot among his most significant, solid, and truly enjoyable films.

Classic Chan: Supercop (1992)

We continue our exploration of some of Jackie's famous Police Story film series, today joined by the lovely Michelle Yeoh. Next time, Thrasher will re-visit the cult-classic, Rumble in Vancouver. I know I'm excited.

Also known as Police Story III in Asia, Supercop builds upon the adventures of Jackie/Kevin Chan, who is now officially recognized as being a "supercop." As such, he is sent to partner with Jessica Yang (played by Michelle Yeoh), a member of the mainland Chinese police, in a dangerous undercover assignment that involves breaking a convict out of a labor camp in order to infiltrate his older brother's drug cartel. Jackie brings the same brand of lovable yet lethal goofball who is not afraid to slap a woman if she gets too sassy. He still has the same lovely, though perhaps under-appreciated, girlfriend from the previous films, but is now joined by a woman who slaps back. And this is my favorite thing about this film: it is one of the few times where Jackie has a true female counterpart (unless, of course, you want to count Jennifer Love Hewitt in The Medallion) who can rival his ability to provide spectacle through stunts. She is a pleasure to watch, whereas watching Scarlett Johannson (or most other actresses put in an action-fighting role) often requires the suspension of disbelief. Indeed, she does all of her own stunts, too, of which there are quite a few to be found. And I find that this can make for a better martial arts film. In contrast, there are some cases where Jackie has very impressive fight scenes but a story that is hard to sit through or follow, causing me to have the desire to simply save the parts of these movies I do like and make an action compilation. Supercop does not have this problem at all; action scenes happen often and always further the plot. It all culminates in a stunning visual climax involving stunts with a helicopter, dirt bike, and train. What is unfortunate is that I found certain problems about the scene that distracted me from enjoying it in all its glory. The largest is the method by which Chaibat, being pursued by Chan who is hanging on the rope ladder of his helicopter, tries to stop him. Chaibat has his pilot run Chan into some of the more iconic spires in Kuala Lumpur, which fails, and eventually into an oncoming train, which catches the rope ladder and forces the helicopter to land on it. I typically dislike when villains leave the protagonist in some elaborate trap and leave, allowing him or her to escape. The feeling I get from that is quite the same I get here. Chaibat is carrying a large assault rifle in the helicopter and there ought to have been some explanation as to why he wouldn't use it to get Chan off his rope ladder (something like he ran out of ammo or it dropped out of the chopper). Also puzzling is why they don't just cut the rope ladder (and the excuse that they didn't have a knife is belied by the fact that one of the men on the helicopter pulls out a huge bowie knife to attack Jackie). The ending also left me puzzling why Chaibat's wife would assist in rescuing Jackie and Jessica, since she had previously been sentenced to death by the Malaysian government for conspiracy against the state. Some explanation about how they could extradite her to Hong Kong for leniency in providing the numbers to the Swiss bank accounts would have been welcomed. These three seemingly small quibbles caused disproportionately large problems in my enjoyment of what otherwise is a fantastic action scene. But please don't let my spending half of the review talking about some problems give you the impression that this movie was anything less than one of Jackie's best outings. It is, in fact, my personal favorite of the Police Story series.

 

Classic Chan: Digging Around in the Archives

Seems a bit impractical, Jackie, but impressive nonetheless.

If you haven't had a look yet at our ongoing Classic Chan review series, we implore you to do so by checking out our reviews of Police Story and Police Story 2. Keep an eye out for more reviews in the coming weeks. In the meantime, though, you should know that there's a wealth of Jackie Chan content already awaiting you on Code Redd Net. Here's what you may be missing:

Reviews:

Jackie Chan's Stuntmaster
The Forbidden Kingdom
The Medallion
Rush Hour
Rush Hour 2
Rush Hour 3
Shanghai Knights
The Tuxedo
Twin Dragons

Code Redd Net Awards:

Best Jackie Chan Movie
Finest Fight

From our Finest Fights series (featuring spectacular embedded videos!):

Police Story
Jackie Chan's Thunderball
Jackie Chan's First Strike
Rumble in the [Vancouver] Bronx
Who Am I?

and, of course, there's always the golden Time Life CD box set Solid Gold Chan.

Danny should upgrade to a PS Vita. A higher resolution screen
would be much better for playing those games which Jackie always
forgets to give him.

Classic Chan: Police Story 2 (1988)

It's axiomatic: for every good action movie, there bound to be a sequel or three. In that vein, join Thrasher as he follows Chicken Man's lead with a look back at Police Story 2. Keep checking in with Code Redd Net for more Classic Chan.

Police Story 2 is something of a lost classic, at least in North America, as it lacks both the critical sway of the original and the mainstream theatrical release afforded to the subsequent entries in the series Supercop and Jackie Chan's First Strike. It's a pity, as PS2 features some fine stunt work. In this one Chan plays the same cop as before, only this time he's been demoted to highway patrol duty as a result of his propensity for property damage. His obligations as a police officer and as a boyfriend are challenged when the mob boss he put behind bars in the previous film returns, determined to draw out the subdued Chan. Cornered, Chan retaliates and consequently resigns from the force, only to be reinstated when his former colleagues realize just what kind of results he's capable of producing. In something of a strange move, the film begins by recapping the most spectacular moments from the original before beginning this story in the proper manner. In a certain sense it works to set up expectations which this film seeks to supersede, but in another sense it doesn't work because it's a pretty high bar to meet. Nevertheless, Jackie continues to perfect here the action-comedy formula that has served him well throughout his career. As Chicken Man noted in his review of PS1, in these pre-watershed, pre-Rush Hour films, Chan does indeed get to play goofier characters that more effectively underline his immense talent for physical comedy as well as, and often totally in step with, his peerless athletic prowess. The choreography here is splendid, especially one of my all-time favorite fights, that being the playground brawl between Chan and a bunch of thugs. If, as Chicken Man suggests, the original's fight scenes impressed because they were "nearly believeable," PS2 is a bit of a lateral, pushing towards the ridiculous but not really going there. Jackie's films have a history of walking a narrow tightrope between the possible/probable and the pull of spectacle, and for the most part Police Story 2 keeps its balance.

Classic Chan: Police Story (1985)

Welcome to the first installment of our ten part series taking a look at some of the better known  Jackie Chan films. We are big fans of Jackie, in terms of what he did to the genre of martial arts films, his impact on global cinema, and because he is just plain fun to watch. We start here with Police Story. Tune in next time to see Thrasher analyze Police Story II.

 

To be perfectly honest, I hadn't seen all of Police Story until preparing for this review and it was quite fascinating to compare it with some of Jackie's later works. One thing that was a bit surprising is how tongue-in-cheek it was, even for Jackie. Police Story is not at all similar to the demeanor of Crime Story. It is actually more reminiscent of Spy Next Door in that Jackie starts out somewhat like a glorified babysitter when he is assigned to protect a mob boss' girlfriend as a witness. He plays tricks on her in order to convince her that she needs his protection, which eventually backfires in several ways. This demonstrates that when Jackie works solo he tends to be the competent policeman who doesn't take his superiors too seriously. But when paired up with a Westerner, the latter takes the part of the screw-up and Jackie is the serious one. Both styles definitely work, but I think that I prefer to see Jackie be the goofball, as he can be very funny. And this is not only in terms of his ability to do physical comedy, but also, in this case, in his chauvinistic treatment of his girlfriend and the witness he's protecting. Another interesting thing in Police Story is that it has a bit less fighting than we've come to expect from Jackie. In fact, the marquee scene from it (if the special features of the Mr. Nice Guy DVD are any indication) is Jackie driving a car through a shantytown built on the side of a hill. I can really only recall two major fight scenes from this movie. The thing that struck me most about them is that they didn't seem ridiculous (like in some martial arts movies) but nearly believable. Jackie didn't engage legions of opponents; the most at once he fought, I believe, was maybe three, and he took a lot of hits doing so. The most enjoyable action scene for me was in the climax where Jackie shows off his athleticism and daring in the confines of a large mall. The biggest drawback might be the plot, which revolves around convicting a drug lord. After witnessing the danger the police put the residents of the shantytown in during their shoot-out and subsequent vehicular pursuit to apprehend him, it's hard to be convinced that the police's war on drugs is making Hong Kong safer. But overall, it offers some good (if far between) action scenes and laughs. 

Movie Review: The Forbidden Kingdom (2008)

I feel the same way.

Unfortunately, The Forbidden Kingdom was released 10 years too late, at best; in both physical capabilities and star power, Jackie Chan and Jet Li have noticeably deteriorated in the interim. What comes out of their first onscreen pairing then is a mediocre kung fu epic, a celebrity all-star game, built upon a rickety foundation of reputation in which the name value lent by the masters is more important than their former abilities. Too bad, because a Jackie/Jet rumble in the 90s was the stuff of our grade school daydreams. Kingdom's got an inane premise, sure, and though that's a virtual prerequisite for the martial arts genre, it's not even inane enough to set up some spectacular fights. See, this kid named Jason loves Hong Kong action cinema, and on his latest trip to a mysterious pawn shop, he runs afoul with a band of malcontents his age. They rough him up so bad that he is magically whisked away to feudal times where he now has to hone his skills, at the behest of Jackie and Jet, so that he can return a staff to its proper place, fulfilling a destiny, you get it. There's many problems with this story, not the least of which is the shoehorning in of a white guy to be our unnecessary, emotional Orientalist tour guide, but the principle sin is unquestionably the all-too-brief fight between Jackie and Jet. It's fine for what it is, but it's not fine because of what it could've been. Technically, the choreography is clean, the cinematography is unobtrusive, and even the editing is a-ok, but there's little interesting about the whole thing and there should be when the team-up involves these two. Instead, Kingdom's stars are simply there to give the rub to others, most notably our intrepid white boy hero, and his acting is awful even by kung fu film standards. All Kingdom can do is send us back to our other DVDs.