New Police Story. (15.)
Directed by Benny Chan.
Starring Jackie Chan, Nicholas Tse, Charlene Choi, Charlie Young, Daniel Wu. Subtitled 124 mins
As Tony Hancock once observed “A good punch up the bracket never hurt anyone,” and there is something thoroughly restorative about watching people knock seven shades of sunshine out of each other in this latest Jacky Chan romp.
Now that he’s turned fifty, it’s understandable that Jackie has got a boy in (Tse) to help him with the brawls, stunts and falling off of buildings in his latest Hong Kong action extravaganza. Indeed going in I was expecting this to be the movie when Jacky passed on the flame to a new generation but a quick consultation with Google reveals that since this one, completed in 2004, he’s made another two movies and is busy on two more (including, God help us, another Rush Hour sequel.) So there’s no sign of any respite yet for his numerous broken bones and aching limbs.
Despite the English title, I don’t think this is meant to be another in his long running (4 so far) Police Story series. The plot’s routine – over confident cop gets his entire squad killed; hits the bottle (some very unconvincing drunk acting from Chan) before a young rookie straightens him out. The villains though are quite novel – a bunch of spoilt rich kids who steal for fun, award each other points for shooting coppers and turn their crimes into computer games.
I remember Jacky Chan films being quite cheap and cheerful but New Police Story is lavishly mounted and the Hong Kong locations look stunning. There’s probably not as much martial arts as the die hards would like, but there’s plenty of top notch shoot outs, stunts and explosions to make up for it. By common consent the best bits are a massive punch up in a Lego shop and a sequence with him stuck on the top of a driverless Double Decker as it careers through the city.
It concludes with a chase over the roof of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre and, apologies for the globedropping, if you’ve ever been to Hong Kong you’ll be taken aback by the locations Chan gets to film in. It was great big deal when Bond got to bounce around on the Millennium Dome but such is the esteem that HK’s favourite son is held in, he seems to have the run of the whole place.
Directed by Benny Chan.
Starring Jackie Chan, Nicholas Tse, Charlene Choi, Charlie Young, Daniel Wu. Subtitled 124 mins
As Tony Hancock once observed “A good punch up the bracket never hurt anyone,” and there is something thoroughly restorative about watching people knock seven shades of sunshine out of each other in this latest Jacky Chan romp.
Now that he’s turned fifty, it’s understandable that Jackie has got a boy in (Tse) to help him with the brawls, stunts and falling off of buildings in his latest Hong Kong action extravaganza. Indeed going in I was expecting this to be the movie when Jacky passed on the flame to a new generation but a quick consultation with Google reveals that since this one, completed in 2004, he’s made another two movies and is busy on two more (including, God help us, another Rush Hour sequel.) So there’s no sign of any respite yet for his numerous broken bones and aching limbs.
Despite the English title, I don’t think this is meant to be another in his long running (4 so far) Police Story series. The plot’s routine – over confident cop gets his entire squad killed; hits the bottle (some very unconvincing drunk acting from Chan) before a young rookie straightens him out. The villains though are quite novel – a bunch of spoilt rich kids who steal for fun, award each other points for shooting coppers and turn their crimes into computer games.
I remember Jacky Chan films being quite cheap and cheerful but New Police Story is lavishly mounted and the Hong Kong locations look stunning. There’s probably not as much martial arts as the die hards would like, but there’s plenty of top notch shoot outs, stunts and explosions to make up for it. By common consent the best bits are a massive punch up in a Lego shop and a sequence with him stuck on the top of a driverless Double Decker as it careers through the city.
It concludes with a chase over the roof of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre and, apologies for the globedropping, if you’ve ever been to Hong Kong you’ll be taken aback by the locations Chan gets to film in. It was great big deal when Bond got to bounce around on the Millennium Dome but such is the esteem that HK’s favourite son is held in, he seems to have the run of the whole place.
