Watching this at 2 a.m. might not have been the best plan, but Alex needed something to watch and it wasn't like I had to keep track of an intricate plot.
Jackie Chan is Dragon Luo, head of an elite mercenary team hired to retrieve some big oil company's employees from a refinery is some ill-defined Middle East country. John Cena plays a guy named Chris, himself a former mercenary who dropped out of that life to be a helpful guy around a village in the ill-defined Middle East country. Chris' brother is hired to take someone from the convoy Dragon's leading and Chris signs on because the money could really help the village, and the person they're abducting is supposed to be a scumbag.
Surprise! The "scumbag" is actually just the person with control over the refinery's pumps, because the guy Chris is working for wants to steal half a billion gallons of oil. Chris bows out (after completing the abduction) and eventually reluctantly teams up with Dragon and Dragon's estranged daughter Mei (played by Chunrui Ma).
Like I said, the plot is just barely there. The mastermind - played by someone Alex described as playing some asshole on Game of Thrones, which hardly narrows it down (it's Pilou Asbaek) - kills Chris' brother after Chris leaves for not getting Chris to stick around (I think) and tells the rest of his goon squad to make it look like Dragon's team did it for payback. I assume partially to cover his tracks, but also to get Chris to go after Dragon, keeping both of them off his back.
Except it doesn't work. Chris and Dragon do fight - Cena's willingness to look silly works well with Jackie Chan's brand of fight scenes, plus Cena's a big guy who can look impressive throwing Chan around - but at no point does Chris seem to think the Chinese mercs are responsible. They're both just angry and talking past each other and punching.
Also, Mei being angry with her father not being there when her mother died doesn't really come off much after the first time it's brought up. Dragon keeps assuring her he'll protect her, or he'll come back, and I guess you could read her strained smiles and quiet nods as her not quite buying it or not allowing herself to buy in, but the overt hostility falls away.
But the movie is mostly relying on Chan and Cena's interactions as an enemies to friends scenario, and that works pretty well. Cena's solid at comedy and willing to look foolish, so they get some mileage from Dragon and Mei each independently reacting to Chris' tendency to name his trucks and be protective of them. Or Chris digging himself a hole telling Dragon about how hot he thinks Mei is, not realizing he's speaking to her dad.
Although the well they go to the most is miscommunication, but not really the language barrier stuff like in Rush Hour. Turns out Chris speaks Chinese (mostly), and Dragon knows one word in French (which seems to be less than Jackie Chan knows in real life), but since it's hard to discuss plans during shootouts they keep trying to use hand signals and it keeps going awry. Dragon's version of "six o'clock" looks more like a surfer doing a "gnarly" gesture (the thumb and pinky extended the other fingers closed).
In conclusion, plot's weak, some of the character beats are underdeveloped, but there's at least a few funny lines or scenes and some of the action sequences are solid and make good use of the leads skills.
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