They kind of oversell Jackie Chan in this movie. He gets described as a "supercop" a half-dozen times in the first 15 minutes. He seemed a lot cooler and more capable in Armour of God. His sporadic lack of attention to detail is definitely troubling, for example.
Which I imagine is the point, make him appear underwhelming until the critical moments, when he suddenly is completely awesome. The only problem being, since this is Jackie Chan, I already know he's going to doing ridiculous stuff at some point, so I'd rather they just get to it. I demand instant gratification!
On the plus side, the boat they use to try and sneak into Hong Kong, had another, smaller boat hidden inside it, just like Jackie's car in Armour of God. I had jokingly suggested it when the border patrols caught up to them, and then they actually did it. Alex and I couldn't stop laughing about that
I did like how the plot seemed to continue to escalate. Help this drug smuggler escape prison. Start working for his brother, who is a big-time drug lord. Accompany him to a meeting of a bunch of big-time drug lords and their Malaysian general supplier. When Chaibat, the drug lord, says he's going to go discuss his actions with the Triad, I thought the story was just going to keep going higher up the halls of power. Like Black Dynamite, it would eventually lead all the way to the White House, or an equivalent seat of political power.
Michelle Yeoh plays Inspector Yang, Jackie's partner. She gets stuck as the more serious, stuffy half of the partnership for most of the time. Which can be a thankless role sometimes, being the responsible one, or the straight man. Fortunately, the folks making this are smart enough to make sure Inspector Yang gets to show off her skills, and Jackie's more than able to play the straight man for her. Let her make him look foolish when he gets cocky or lazy.
And Yeoh can keep up with him on the slick fighting moves, or the crazy stunts, which isn't for the female lead in most Jackie Chan movies I've seen. Sure, just fly off the back off a moving van into the windshield of some little roadster.
3 comments:
Yeah, the "supercop" title is a bit difficult to take seriously, even more so if you've watched the first two Police Story films, where Jackie plays the character as more comedic and hapless.
Oh, this is a continuation of that series of movies? I was thinking maybe it was Police Story I wanted to see, but then I saw Supercop available and was like, "No, maybe that's the one I was thinking of."
Yeah, it's Police Story 3: Supercop but it's not called that in every territory, and the continuity is tenuous. Technically Jackie is playing the same character but you wouldn't know it.
There's a sequel to this one with Yeoh as the main character, and then First Strike is sometimes called Police Story 4, but again it depends on the territory and translation, and that one veers even further into JamesBondery.
Then the series gets rebooted twice in 2004 and 2013. The 2004 one is a grim and gritty thing that seems like a pointless use of the franchise name. I haven't seen the 2013 one.
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