As you watch
this movie, you keep getting the feeling that something is missing. Then, when
you finally put your finger on it, you start to wonder why Jackie didn’t just
restrict the movie to Hong Kong like he did in the first three films.
In those films,
he was a Hong Kong cop whom trouble followed everywhere he went. Here, his base
is moved from Hong Kong to various locations across Europe. This international
version of Police Story lacks the intensity of the previous three films, and
the movie falls into the category of those Jackie films that are just average.
The plot has
Jackie being asked to work with the CIA. It’s supposed to be a quick task,
which also serves as a sort of vacation for Jackie. His assignment is to follow
a girl believed to be the lover of a person of interest. This leads Jackie to
Russia, where he’s then working with Russian intelligence while still tracing
the person of interest.
He enjoys the
new assignment because it also takes him to Australia. So all this travel is
good for him, and he sees his assignment as fun. Everything changes when the
person of interest, a nuclear scientist, catches Jackie and tells him that he’s
way over his head and that there’s more to this case than he knows.
Now Jackie is
torn and wants to leave, to go back to Hong Kong. But his newly gained
knowledge puts his life in danger. Jackie must now survive and also resolve the
case.
I think one
thing I missed in this movie was Jackie being paired up with someone. In Police
Story 1, Jackie was introduced as the slightly crazy cop, but he had
his girlfriend, played by Maggie Cheung. In Police
Story 2, she was also a main part of the plot. But Police
Story 3: Supercop introduced Michelle Yeoh, who was like a partner and
just as good at martial arts as Jackie. This gave us twice the power, fun, and
action. Plus, we had Maggie Cheung as his girlfriend, who added the comic
element needed.
So Jackie being
on his own in foreign soil just felt odd and didn’t fit the formula they had
crafted and that worked in the first three movies.
Like Police
Story 3: Supercop, this movie was not directed by Jackie Chan (as the
first two films were), but by Stanley Tong. Also, this movie is the first not
written by Jackie (as he co-wrote the first three).
Now, this is an
okay movie to see, but I can tell you now that you may be disappointed by the
plot and the way the screenplay is crafted.
0 comments:
Post a Comment