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: Mirror's Edge (2008)

There's not much else to first-person gaming besides shooting. Outside of a few experiments with the perspective in other genres (including my sentimental favorite, "First Person Football" from ESPN NFL 2K5), it's a technique that has stayed with bullets through thick and thin. While Mirror's Edge may not be a total departure from the FPS model, it's certainly the best first-person action game on PS3 to actively discourage gunfire. Your character doesn't even come equipped with weaponry: you have to pick one up from a disarmed governement thug. Instead, the focus is on parkour techniques, finding creative ways to navigate the urban landscape while outrunning or tracking down corruption.

You play as Faith, a "runner" in an unnamed but thoroughly dystopian city. The city is a bright, gleaming, sterile metropolis, and this facade hides a totalitarian state in total control of supposedly democratic elections. Faith is one of many runners actively working with an underground resistance group to expose the state and free its subjects. Most of this story is told through animated cinematics between missions, though in-game cutscenes occasionally push the plot forward as well. It's a fairly well paced plot, though there is often not enough emphasis placed on the narrative stakes to make actions seem meaningful. As a result, I often felt as though I was merely encountering the next urban jungle gym, not racing against time to rescue Faith's sister, for instance. A voiceover guide helps to stress certain story aspects as you run about the levels, and he is particularly useful in underlining the offscreen urgency of any situation, but it's not enough to sufficiently work in larger narrative consequences.

Thankfully, however,  Mirror's Edge makes up for the failings of its story with first-person parkour. The key here is an almost total immersion into the first-person view of Faith, even with in-game cutscenes, as when Faith is thrown off a roof by a former professional wrestler. In terms of presenting this perspective, Mirror's Edge makes a wise choice in completely eliminating any kind of on-screen display of your health, bullets remaining, objectives completed, or direction. You get the impression that you can only rely on your wits and athleticism, though there are ways that the game "cheats" this impression: on the normal difficulty setting, objects leading you through the levels will be colored red (this can be turned off on harder difficulties). Not only is the presentation clutter-free, there is a similar simplicity in terms of controls. Essentially, you rely on your jump button to get through virtually all obstacles, though you also need to maser a few other buttons to slide, roll, and so on. Thus, progression is more about timing, perception, and momentum than acquiring a powerful weapon. Speaking of which, as I alluded to earlier you can go hand-to-hand with your adversaries and fire weapons at them, but the game is designed to make this decision seem generally unwise. Instead, you're actively encouraged to run away from trouble. Running in this sense means navigating crowded urban environments as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, levels in Mirror's Edge are a bit hit-or-miss: many of the rooftop stages are bland in terms of obstacles and design, whereas the interior levels paradoxically provide more freedom in navigation as well as visual variety.

Any game that lets me recreate a stunt from Who Am I? makes me happy.

What Mirror's Edge gets right is a sense of movement as well as verticality, and does it better than just about any other game out there. Nothing else I have ever played has equaled the sensation I felt in leaping over a guardrail and onto a moving subway car. Too bad, then, that the game is so short. Thankfully, however, there's a slew of time trials to complete once the main game is over, and the additional difficulty settings add considerable challenge on a second or third pass through the game. Still, despite its short length and substandard storytelling, I can easily recommend the game on the strength of its more visceral moments.

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: 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.

Solid Gold Chan

It's not a real thing, but Time Life should get on it right away, don't you think? We did all the work for them.

Jackie Chan's action films have marvelled audiences for decades with spectacular stunts and virtuoso martial arts choreography, and justly so. But what often goes unnoticed is his commitment to providing catchy credits music to accompany us out of the theater. It's high time these diddies got some shine. Enjoy our small compilation of four punch-perfect pop hits, and do so without paying five easy installments of $29.95!

 

First up is Ash's infectious "Kung Fu," from Rumble in the Bronx:

 

Next we have "That One Song, Remember?" from Police Story:

 

We also have something of a rarity on this set. It's the appropriately bouncy "Let's Bounce" by Chic and Erick Sermon, whoever he is, from Rush Hour 2. Though the video below has a picture of the RH2 soundtrack CD, this gem is not on it. It's too bad, really.





Finally, our personal favorite, the always radio-ready theme from Who Am I?, which for years we referred to succinctly as "WHATCHANNANIIIYOOOOOOOO". Turns out it's actually titled "Who Am I (Cantonese Theme)". Makes sense, even though we still prefer our more colloquial expression.



Our Third Podcast, Still On iTunes!

This week we bring you the third episode of the CRN Podcast, embedded below for you convience, and subtitled "Rumble in Vancouver," for our own amusement.

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Movie Review: Twin Dragons (1992)

I normally trust websites like Rotten Tomatoes, but in this case my confidence has been shaken. Right now Twin Dragons has a paltry 45% "rotten" rating, while another film in the Jackie Chan oeuvre, Rumble in the Bronx, has a very respectable 79% "fresh" score. Both are fun action films, so what might account for this disparity? In the grand generic tradition of all Chan action films, Twin Dragons is built upon a combination of both action and comedy, but this one certainly has more of the latter than the former. In fact, this film is quite unique in that its narrative compares favorably to classic screwball comedies such as Bringing Up Baby (1938), the kind of film that demands supreme physical talents from its actors and clear staging by its director. Like most screwball comedies, Twin Dragons has an unbelievable story that gets progressively more unbelievable as it goes on, and it all starts with the usual case of mistaken identity between two brothers seperated at both and raised in different social strata. It's in this way that, like most screwball comedies, Twin Dragons supports a modicum of safe, sanitized social critique. Boomer, played by Chan, is a hood who inadvertently crosses paths with John Ma, a famous classical musician. You can about imagine all the hijinks that ensue, and though they're typical, they're tried and true. Of course, the whole thing's fairly banal, but that's the point, and that's the charm of a Jackie Chan movie. As hackneyed as the premise may sound, it's used rather cleverly to draw out the differences in attitude and ability between Jackie's two roles. Simplistic, straight-forward, time-tested techniques such as intercutting bring together, for instance, a shootout and a classical concert, one of the many highlights of the film. Still, though, Jackie's stunt work is tops. His fight inside a car manufacturing plant is almost as virtuosic as his award-winning rooftop symphony in Who Am I?. Like many of Chan's films, this one was picked up and dubbed to English after he got his first real mainstream exposure in the original Rush Hour, so the dialogue can often be, I imagine unintentionally, funny. No outtakes in this one, I'm afraid, and that's probably the only Jackie Chan trademark missing here. Otherwise this is probably one of the leanest, most perfect and quintessentially "Jackie" martial arts movies ever made.

Code Redd Net Awards: Best Jackie Chan Movie

Our next award is for Best Jackie Chan Movie. And the nominees are...

Rush Hour 2 (2001)
Jackie Chan's Who Am I? (1998)
Jackie Chan's First Strike (1996)
Mr. Nice Guy (1997)
Shanghai Noon (2000)

And the winner is...

Jackie Chan's Who Am I?

Code Redd Net Awards: Finest Fight

Our next award is for Finest Fight. Nominees consist of our favorite fight scenes from the action cinema of Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Jason Statham, and others. It is important to note that only the indicated fight scene is up for the award, and not the film itself. And the nominees are...

Ladder Fight from Jackie Chan's First Strike (1996):



Rooftop Fight (featuring Crazy Legs) from Jackie Chan's Who Am I? (1998):



Twins Fight from Kiss of the Dragon (2001):



James Bond/Red Grant throwdown from From Russia With Love (1963):



Garage Fight from Transporter 2 (2005):



And the winner is...

Rooftop Fight (featuring Crazy Legs) from Jackie Chan's Who Am I?

Finest Fights: Who Am I? (1998)

Bringing you the best fight scenes available on YouTube, every Tuesday afternoon.

This week we bring you another excellent Jackie Chan encounter: