Police Story: Lockdown

I think this is the fourth of Jackie Chan's Police Story films, released in 2013. This one deals with Jackie's Inspector Zhong Wen getting trapped inside a nightclub with a bunch of hostages (including his estranged daughter), by the club's owner, Wu Jiang (Ye Liu). Not all of the hostages, including Zhong Wen, are there by chance, because the club owner has a very specific demand.

First off, Jackie Chan with close-cropped hair looks weird. Second and more relevantly, I figured initially this was going to be "Jackie Chan's Die Hard," which you have to admit, sound fucking awesome. It's not that, though, as there's only a little bit of Jackie sneaking around and trying to ambush the goons. Just enough for him to pick up a few clues to hint towards what Wu is after. But the movie is honest about that, because Wu knows Zhong is a cop, and that his daughter is there (because he's dating her), so any idiot would know to use her as a hostage to force Zhong to surrender, and Wu's not an idiot.

So the movie becomes more of a slow mystery/thriller, where you're trying to figure out what Wu is after, why he wants to speak with this one particular prisoner. And at the same time, there's a battle of wills between Zhong and Wu. Wu is constantly testing how serious Zhong is about trying to save people, and how badly he wants to protect his daughter. Zhong in turn is trying to tease apart what Wu is after, and resolve the situation without anyone dying, while the SWAT teams are getting ready to bust in. Lots of talking, where Wu usually seems to be trying for a weak point, and Zhong is just staying on course.

The film does this thing where Zhong will consider a course of action in his mind, and we see it play out, then the camera cuts back to him and he ends up doing something different. Kind of like in the Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes movies, where he'd visualize and narrate a fight sequence in slow motion first, then actually do it. Except this movie doesn't narrate it or slow it down, so you the first time, I got very confused about what just happened. The movie doesn't really do anything to tell you "this is in his imagination," which is a little annoying.

The end of the movie, when Wu gets his answers is kind of interesting, because the movie presents the story from multiple perspectives, with different people remembering different things, and of course trying to make themselves look better in their version. But I feel like there's also one more "surprise!" moment than the film really needs. I guess you could argue the film's been hinting there's something up with that character the whole time, but it feels like a contrivance to wrap the explanation up neatly.

Still, even if it wasn't "Die Hard, but with Jackie Chan," a pretty solid movie.