Thunderbolt (1995) Poster

(1995)

User Reviews

Review this title
35 Reviews
Sort by:
Filter by Rating:
6/10
OK Chan Film
imdb-2162220 September 2009
First off, I found the plot a bit problematic at times. Not atypical for a Chinese movie, no offense to the Chinese movie makers intended.

As a race fan, the auto racing scene did not look realistic to me much of the time. I read that they drove at slower speeds and sped up the film, which is exactly what it looks like. They are going way too fast for sports cars in some scenes.

Besides the excess speed, the cars are not smooth. Skilled race drivers are not driving all over the track - that would obviously cause you to lose time, and probably control :) Not a big deal maybe to a general audience, but people familiar with racing will notice it.

Some of the fighting scenes were pretty good, as expected. I did not feel my time was wasted. I just wish they had done the racing in a more realistic way.
5 out of 7 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
6/10
Not one of Chan's better movies
sk8monkey54011 April 2007
Don't get me wrong I enjoyed it, but I'd much rather watch a better Chan film, such as "Police Story" or "Legend of Drunken master." The Story was good, and the racing was an interesting Idea, but I don't think there were enough fights, and even when there were fights, bad camera work made it impossible to see what was going on. one good thing about the movie, there was one shootout scene, and it was awesome! This one is a good "Renter" but not a "Buyer." If your a fan of Jackie Chan, you need to see this movie, but don't buy it without seeing it first. This is one of the only Jackie Chan films I won't buy, unless I have a lot of money to spare, and i'm in a store with the DVD in front of me.
6 out of 10 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
6/10
Jackie Chan vehicle with nail-biting action and breathtaking car races
ma-cortes29 November 2011
This moving picture deals with Chan Foh To (Jackie Chan) who runs a small garage in Hong Kong along with his father and two sisters who are abducted and the only way Foh can get his sisters back is by racing cougar in Japan. Foh is an expert mechanic an in his spare time, he also helps the police out by checking vehicles that have been illegally upgraded. One night, heinous street racing driver named Warner Krugerman or Cougar (Nickel), speeds past Foh and the patrolmen . Foh gets into a car and stops Cougar heroically but later takes place the kidnapping his sisters by the psychotic nasty. In order to release his kidnapped sisters , sports car mechanic Jackie Chan has to beat a super-criminal street racer . He now must retrain himself in race car driving so he can be at his best to race Cougar .

Exciting film plenty of thrills , over-the-top action with impressive and interminable fights including Chan dangling and downing, ingenious stunts and stirring music . This thrilling movie is packed with adventure , intrigue , unstopped action , overwhelming stunt-work and lots of fights but with humor . Jackie Chan is top notch as one army man fighting a group of heinous hoodlums and as always he makes his own stunts like is well showed at the final stock-shots . Awesome , incredible stunts and brief comic touches , as usual ; the picture is well constructed as well as Chan's ulterior films . The lighting-paced storyline slows down at times , but frantic action sequences make up for it . Spotlights of the movie hold several spectacular races , Jackie jumping down and fighting ; including when the nasty Cougar lands in jail, but breaks out eventually on some breathtaking scenes . Furthermore , when Cougar gets revenge on Foh by trashing his garage , a breathtaking final race and other extraordinary action sequences in overwhelming style . This is an acceptable action movie distinguished by nicely cinematography of the spectacular sequences , and contains agreeable sense of humor such as previous entries . Jackie Chan usually forms couple to notorious actress as Maggie Chung and Michelle Yeoh . However in this outing Jackie teams up again to Chinese actress , Anita Yeun , Miss Hong Kong 1990 . This is a passable action movie distinguished by ferocious sequences , and packs silly sense of humor as well as Jackie's subsequent entries . The motion picture is professionally directed by Gordon Chan who filmed various Jackie Chan and Jet Li vehicles and several art-martial movies such as ¨Fist the legend¨, ¨Kung Fu master¨, ¨The king of fighters¨and ¨The medallion¨

The picture achieved success in China and around the world . However , Jackie Chan's failed at Box-office in his American debut ,¨Battle creek brawl¨ . Chan is a fine action star in their own right , he is a hard-working actor and director throughout his long and varied career . Chan usually pays overt homage to two of his greatest influences as Charles Chaplin and Harold Lloyd . He went on playing ¨Cannoball¨ , ¨The protector¨ and "Rumble in the Bronx", until getting all American success with ¨Shangai Knights¨ , ¨The tuxedo¨ , ¨Around the world in 80 days¨ and ¨Rush hour¨ trilogy , and the recent ¨Karate kid¨. Of course , his biggest hits were ¨The Police story¨ series that won the Golden Horse Award, a Chinese version of the Oscar , the first was titled ¨Police story(1985)¨ directed by the same Chan , it was a perfect action film for enthusiastic of the genre ; the following was ¨Police story 2(1988)¨also pretty violent and with abundant humor touches. It's followed by ¨Supercop¨ or ¨Police story 3¨ and finally, ¨Police story IV : Crime story . Rating : Acceptable and passable , the picture has its sensational moments here and there , but also with abundant humor touches mostly provided by its agile star , the super Jackie . It's a perfect action film for enthusiast of the genre though only for Jackie fans .
3 out of 4 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Great set-pieces ruined by direction
sagacity_15 April 2001
One of the most important things in a Jackie Chan movie is the direction. It is important for us, the viewer, to be able to clearly see what's going on. If we can't then we might've just rented a generic Steven Seagal-type martial arts movie because the fights in those movies are completely incomprehensible as well.

So then. This movie has some great car-chases and relevant crashes, it has some amazing fight-scenes and a few really cool stunts. Most of it is completely lost due to crap direction. We get slow-motion photography at totally inappropriate moments (in one case even during the middle of a fight) and occasionally we even get an effect that shows 6 frames per second instead of 24. The fact that the camera is always about 5 inches away from the action doesn't help matters.

All in all, it would've been a great movie if it was possible to figure out what was happening on-screen. Pity.
15 out of 15 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
6/10
Wild action thump from Jackie Chan!
OllieSuave-0075 June 2015
This is another action-packed movie starring Jackie Chan, where he plays expert mechanic Chan Foh To who runs a small business in Hong Kong with his father and two sisters. He also helps the police weed out cars that were illegally upgraded, including one driven by street racer Warner Krugerman (Thorsten Nickel). After escaping jail, Krugerman seeks revenge on Foh by trashing his business and kidnapping his sisters, betting to race with Foh.

The acting was OK and the movie features an all-star cast, including cameo appearances by Coren Yuen, Collin Chau, Fui-On Shing and Kar-Lok Chin. Anita Yuen plays a great leading lady opposite Jackie Chan and Chan himself did some of his wildest and adrenaline-pumping martial arts moves, taking on one bad guy after the other. The most wild, and what I thought overkill, action scene is when Krugerman and his goons literally upends Foh's business while he and his father and sisters are caught in the mayhem. Lots of action follow afterward, including a long and somewhat drawn-out race car scenes.

There a little chemistry between Chan and Yuen, but it wasn't elaborated upon much. There are some drama here and there about Chan struggles in trying to overcoming the odds in defeating the villain and getting his sisters back.

Despite much of the exciting action sequences, overall, there isn't much of a suspenseful plot in the film and the story is somewhat predictable.

Grade C+
4 out of 7 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
6/10
Delivers nothing new, but the action is brilliant
JerusalemFace15 April 2001
Jackie Chan goes back to his roots in this exciting, martial arts, car racing drama. I was kept interested by the film throughout and I rarely got bored due to the adrenaline pumping fight scenes and fairly captivating plot.

Jackie Foh's (Jackie Chan) sister's are kidnapped by a criminal racing driver and Jackie must beat him in a race to get them back. What the plot lacks is intelligence and justification of the ideas. Why did the racing driver kidnap the sister's in the first place? Why does he want to race Jackie? These are things that are never really developed and don't really make much sense. However, what the plot lacks in intricacies it makes up for in intensity and entices the audiences with 'Rocky-esque', uplifting scenes where we see Jackie train to become the best racer there is. It is done in a typical, feel-good way and gets the viewer behind Jackie throughout.

The acting is actually very good and Jackie Chan, Michael Wong and Kar Lok Chin are particularly impressive in their roles as Jackie Foh, Steve Cannon the attorney, and Jackie's racing trainer respectively. However, as usual in Hong Kong films, the Western actors are pretty poor, most notably Cougar (the kidnapper) played by Thorsten Nickel.

As far as the action goes, we see a familiar style reminiscent of Jackie's 'Police Story' days, with some of the best fight scenes you are ever likely to witness, especially a scene where Jackie uses a sledgehammer to fend off his adversaries. The action is presented in such a way where the viewer can actually 'see' what is happening, as a result of clever camera-work, so it is made that more exciting because we know it is real. This is where Chan films always excel; we feel the danger for the character, because we know the stunts are real and not computer generated effects; this adds so much to the exhilaration.

There is not much character development, plot depth or originality, but it achieves to entertain the audience and even at times 'move' them. Definitely a 'must-see' for all Jackie Chan fans and worth taking a look at for those even slightly interested.

A good, exciting, film.

7/10
3 out of 5 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
6/10
Are you new? Oh, my mistake
TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews15 November 2009
This is one of the only pre-Hollywood flicks with Jackie that I've seen, so forgive me if I comment on anything that is a staple of them. Whilst offering absolutely nothing new to the genre, this does manage to, in spite of some rather abusive use of slow-motion, a lot of really cool and, at times surprising, action. As is Chan's usual style, props are used, and there is a general comedic tone to the well-choreographed martial arts sequences. The plot is fine. I can't say I got into it all that much, perhaps because I'm just not that big on looking at cars driving. Even if they do go by fast and make that vroom-noise. It does not appeal that much to me. I'm not a race-ist, though. OK, granted, that was a terrible pun. I'm giving myself a time-out. For anyone still reading this, however... with a couple of questionable angles and edits being all that stand out to the way this is shot and cut together, this simply does not have a lot to offer other than the shoot-outs, chases, and of course, especially, fights. This is in at least two languages, but all of it is subtitled. Well, the version I saw, anyway. There is violence in this. I recommend this to fans of the star. 6/10
1 out of 3 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
6/10
Jackie races cars and fights un-clothed yakuza
AwesomeWolf28 November 2004
Version: Cantonese VCD, with English Subtitles

Jackie Chan + yakuza + cars + evil white guys... 'Thunderbolt' should equal pure brilliance. It doesn't. Jackie Chan plays (according to the subtitles) Jackie Chan, a mechanic working with the police. Jackie gets on the bad side of the obligatory-evil-white-guy: In this case, he is Cougar, a race-driver and all-round evil dude. Cougar kills a bunch of policemen, and kidnaps Jackie's sisters, threatening to kill them if Jackie doesn't race him.

'Thunderbolt' is more serious, and darker than a lot of Jackie's movies. Unfortunately, a lot of Jackie's movies are better than 'Thunderbolt', even the other serious ones. Cougar tends to shout a fair bit - he is played by Thorsten Nickel, and I'd be lying if I said he was the most talented actor ever. I'd even be lying if I called him an actor. At least his acting ability provides some much needed comedic relief. On the other hand, the action scenes range from awesome to boring. The fights are generally pretty good, even though there is some obvious doubling and wirework. The final scene, however, is boring, and the speed-up obvious.

6/10.
1 out of 3 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
8/10
First the bad news....
rutt13-120 June 2001
I read somewher that Jackie was still recovering from injuries during this film's shooting, and it's blatantly obvious he is doubled extensively in the fight scenes--the great garage fight features a closeup of this guy's face! You can tell it's not quite him in the pachinko parlor sequence, too. Also, not much chemistry in my opinion between Jackie and Anita Yuen. Fortunately this doesn't hurt too much.

Now the good: Doubled or not, the fight scenes are absolutely great! I almost prefer the earlier garage fight though. They're serious and pretty tough, with the great choreography you'd expect. The serious tone of the film is great, too, you can see Jackie act, and do something different, and I think he pulls it off very well, as usual in his less comedic films. And Michael Wong is just the coolest! I love this guy, he's suave, funny, and good with the action scenes. Always a pleasure to see him, even in trash like "Knock off." I like the villain, too though he's unintentionally funny from time to time. This one's got a darker edge, and a good pace, with the fight scenes i mentioned. One of my favorites, actually.
10 out of 14 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
7/10
Dramatic Jackie Chan Hong Kong Movie
bikutoru22 January 2003
This movie has it's strong points and weak points. The strong points is the high speed car chase scenes and the martial art fighting scenes. The car chase scenes are very fast paced, especially the first one, but i think it could have been better if the dialogue between Jackie Chan and Anita Yuen weren't in it. Though the car chases are filmed that it looks like remote controlled toy-cars, it still looks very good and i like them. Then there is the fight scenes. These are also very fast paced, with Jackie taking on several enemies at once. I especially like the fight in the japanese pachinko-parlor with the Yakuza, in my opinion it's the best fight i have ever seen (I even compare it to "The Matrix" kung-fu fights (!)). It is very very long and is extremely fast, with good choreography, and with heavy cutting though complained about in my opinion very Hong Kong-ish. The blurry slow-motion is forgivable. Dramatic movie, though it is not genial, it is touching and gives Jackie Chan a big chance to act, it is not much comedy in it.
0 out of 3 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
3/10
Uncharacteristically bad
kcdl23 November 2005
Warning: Spoilers
I normally love Jackie Chan movies but this one was terrible. There are only 2 or 3 fight scenes all of which are up to normal standard more or less. The bad thing about this movie is it focuses a lot on car chasing/racing. The car chase isn't so bad (though not as exciting as fighting) but the car racing at the end is exceptionally boring. Basically it takes all of things that make a Jackie Chan film a Jackie Chan film and leaves out everything except Jackie Chan. Even the traditional outtakes at the end lack their usual humour.

I suppose to a certain extent it was made worse by the fact I saw one of those horrible dubbed versions. I usually try to see the subtitled version...I wish I could understand Chinese.

I've only seen one Jackie film worse that this one and that was one of his early forays into Hollywood films that didn't turn out so well.

Avoid unless really curious or a lover of motor sports.
5 out of 7 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
10/10
Good to watch... great Fun
t-square26 November 1999
It maybe be the best, it might not even make sense. But the point here is FUN and that's what u get. Lots of nice car crashing around, and the fight as usual is great. A bit too obvious that this film is advertising for Mitusibishi.. but still a good show well presented. Had it on DVD, VCd, VHS and I think i watched it 5 times.. and everytime watching it still give me the trill that sent me holding tight to the corner of my seat
2 out of 4 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
7/10
Entertaining action and racing
action-66 June 2000
Jackie Chan is the mechanic, who helps the police on his spare-time. He soon meets the psychotic drugdealer Cougar, who by chance also likes racing.... Action and racing is what Thunderball is all about. Great old-fashioned, predictable fun! 8/10
0 out of 3 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
4/10
A slightly disappointing racing thriller from Jackie Chan
Leofwine_draca14 November 2016
Warning: Spoilers
An atypical Jackie Chan production in that it features substantially less of the martial arts and comedy that we have come to expect from the Chinese star. Instead this feels like more of a Stallone film, as a sports mechanic must prove himself against a criminal on the track in a life or death race to the finish. The production is a lot more serious than most Chan movies and the comedy is kept to a bare minimum, so consequently some scenes do drag and appear a little dry.

Another change is that for the fight scenes, Chan mainly uses a double rather than fighting himself. The reason being that due to injuries he was unable to do the required moves. Although this does detract from the realism of the production it certainly doesn't detract from the realism of the fights, which are as fast and frenetic as usual. My favourite occurs when Jackie goes mad with a sledgehammer in a pinball arcade, fighting through and on top of the machines and acrobatics. The finale of this sequence involves a huge cascade of metal ball bearings which makes for a nice spectacle.

Unfortunately the few other fight sequences ring a little false, and some are filmed in some rubbish artistic slow-motion so you can't see what the heck is going on. Being a film primarily about fast cars, there are the requisite number of passable car chases, the best occurring at the finale where lots of vehicles crash, explode and fly through the air in style. Also watch out for a moment where Jackie gets a rude awakening after his bedroom is hoisted into the air with a crane! Only in Hong Kong. The acting from Chan and his co-star Anita Yuen is strong but less so from the other cast members, particularly Thorsten Nickel as the laughable European bad guy Cougar, although this may be a result of the English dubbing rather than a problem with the actor himself.

Sadly the lack of comedy, decent Chan martial arts and the sudden seriousness (a bloody shoot-out is fairly decent but doesn't sit well within the film's 'family' template) with dollops of morality and sentimentalising make this one of the star's less entertaining productions. For slicker and generally better films check out either RUMBLE IN THE BRONX or FIRST STRIKE from the same period.
2 out of 2 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Daft plot, daft dialogue great fighting and driving scenes, but not one of Jackie's better all round films
bob the moo24 October 2002
Jackie Loh Chan is a motor mechanic whose father helps the police identify illegally modified vehicles to confiscate them from boy racers plaguing the area. During one such confiscation Chan witnesses a car evade capture and almost kill a policeman. The police are after this car as the driver is suspected to be criminal and speed freak Cougar – wanted across the world by several different Governments. Chan gets involved in a high-speed chase that results in the capture of Cougar but when he escapes he targets Chan for a violent second race.

Jackie Chan movies are never the best place to look if you're after strong plotting and well written dialogue and this is no different. The plot itself is very basic and quite full of holes – it's even pretty thin in explaining how Chan gets mixed up in the police business originally. But like I said plotting is never his main thin and only occasionally does the weakness of the plot become annoying – mainly when the drama is played out in words exchanged.

At these points the weaknesses of the script are exposed – the dialogue is unconvincing and, sadly, totally lacking in humour, preferring a more hard edged approach. It's a shame cause Chan's better films mix his trademark humour and his amazing stunt work – this has him at his toughest and, while the stunts etc are all great, it's not a good look for him.

While the fighting and driving are all very enjoyable the director occasionally works hard to spoil them – he doesn't do a good job here. Basically all I wanted him to do was set up two cameras and point them at the action. However instead he uses far too many edits and fast cuts to make some fight scenes almost unwatchable. I think specifically to the great scene in the games place. It starts as a tough scene with great martial arts action but the director first edits too quickly and then slows it down in some weird slowmo that blurs everything badly.

The action is all good though – the main car chase on Hong Kong streets is good and most of the fight scenes show off Chan's ability and not just his willingness to put himself at risk. Chan is OK as an actor but the intense emotion required by his hard boiled character is not really him. He seems different without his usual comedy material and is at a stretch several times. Nickel is god-awful as Cougar – he looks like an 80's throwback (think Airwolf with long hair!) and delivers every line with all the character of a stapler. Yuen is better as Amy Yip and is good-looking and natural despite not having a lot in the way of lines. I was pleased to see Wong in the cast and he gets a chance to show off his John Woo credentials in a few scenes. A cheeky bit of casting has Chris Patten (not really him of course) getting blasted by Jackie's car – he was Governor of Hong Kong at the time.

Overall this has sufficient good action to justify watching. However the direction is iffy and it lacks the trademark Chan humour. Still enjoyable to watch for the action but this isn't one of Chan's better efforts.
10 out of 12 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
8/10
a very good jackie chan movie, shame its so hard to find
daworldismine21 May 2012
Warning: Spoilers
this jackie chan movie is a little darker than the usual fare, while still having some of the usaul chan humour, there are some great fight scenes and stunts, even though jackie chan is clearly doubled for some of them thanks to injures, while making 'rumble in the bronx' but thats minor, this is still a great jackie chan movie and it was very enjoyable, i caught it late night on channel 4 years ago, found it really good, but I've never seem it anywhere since. a shame as id love it in my chan collection. as far as jackie chan movies go, this is a great addition to the cannon, and it delivers its fair share of chans trademark action and stunts, whats not to like, also the version i saw was a subttiled version.
1 out of 2 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
4/10
Unusually lame Jackie entry.
gridoon26 February 2004
"Thunderbolt" is probably Jackie Chan's worst movie since "The Protector" in 1985. Yes, I know that nobody watches his movies for their stories, but the plotting of this one is unusually lame, even by his standards, and while the fight choreography IS up to his standards, the fight scenes (the whole two of them) are ruined, as others have mentioned, by the frenetic, distracting camerawork. Even the most serious Jackie Chan fans shouldn't really bother with this offensively haphazard, stunt-and-plug-filled garbage. Anita Yuen's cute and perky performance is one of the few redeeming virtues. For a good "serious Jackie" movie, I recommend "Crime Story". (*1/2)
5 out of 10 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
10/10
Chan is the man
lc-421 October 1998
This is not your regular comedic chan flick. Jackie showcases his serious side throughout the movie. This is not to say that the movie not funny, but that you will probably find yourself cheering for Jackie more than usual while watching this one. His fighting scenes are as imaginative as ever and include Jackie showing off his "sledge-hammer fu." This is another must see for any Chan fans out there.
1 out of 3 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
5/10
Hong Kong Got Too Small For Another Jackie Chan Movie
ebiros226 September 2012
At this point Hong Kong might be getting too small for a Jackie Chan movie. Small time mechanic doesn't do him any justice, and Hong Kong can't provide the right stars.

Lack of interesting settings also didn't help to put humor into his action, and the movie became like a rehash of Police Story 2.

Maybe only Jacke Chan didn't know how big he really was getting.

This was more like just another Hong Kong movie, and wasn't a real Jackie Chan movie. But he quickly changes pace with his following movies, before breaking big in Hollywood.

So take this movie as a transitional Jackie Chan. The movie proves to me that Jackie Chan really is a Super Star, and wouldn't fit into a regular movie star role.

Even then, it would be hard to envision another actor who can play the role he's played in this movie.
3 out of 5 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
One of Jackie's worst
Monkey Bastard2 February 2000
I'm a die hard Jackie Chan fan, but "Thunderbolt" is, along with "Battle Creek Brawl/The Big Brawl" and "Cannonball Run" the worst of Jackie Chan's movies.

When you sit down to watch a Jackie Chan movie, what do you expect? Cunning stunts, cool fighting scenes, slapstick, silly comedy etc etc. There are two, maybe three fighting scenes in "Thunderbolt" and they're pretty good. But the stunts aren't much to cheer for, the only thing we get is crashing cars and car chases. Which I totally despise. And there aren't a lot of comedy either. The lack of comedy, that I can live with. Because after all, this is more of a serious film, which isn't a bad thing at all, since Jackie gets a chance to prove to everyone that he really can act and that he's not just a Cantonese Buster Keaton clone with a big nose.

The second thing I have a big problem with the directing and the camera work. Gordon Chan (a relative?) does a pretty bad job directing, using lots of close ups and fast cuts, which makes it hard to get a grip of what's really happening. He should take a close look at what Jackie did as a director, especially in "The Armour Of God" and "Operation Condor". Also, trying to make slow motion sequences by simply slowing down 24 frames/sec footage... Not a good idea. It'll look like crap, to be blunt. It would have looked a lot better with at least 48 frames per second.

This might seem very pedantic, but I'm afraid these little details ruined the movie for me, although the all the actors did great jobs. Sorry.
7 out of 9 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
10/10
Chan is the man
lc-425 October 1998
Jackie's role in this one is more serious than most of his other works, but does not fail to deliver. There's plenty of action, humor and an incredible display of "sledge-hammer fu" by Jackie himself. For all you car fans, there are also some excellent car-chases.
1 out of 3 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
3/10
Not the best from Chan! 3/10
leonblackwood23 October 2015
Review: Is there anything that Jackie Chan can't do? Maybe a decent comedy! Anyway, he now turns his death-defying abilities to drag racing were he plays a former racing car champion, fighting to put a stop to an illegal drag racing driver, Cougar (Thorsten Nickel) who has the cops in his pocket and a group of killers behind him. Jackie Chans life becomes in danger when he goes to the police to tell them about Cougars illegal racing and when Cougar is freed from jail, he targets Chan and his family for putting him in jail. He kidnaps 2 of Chans sisters because he wants to challenge Chan to a race, so with the help of a journalist and a wealthy sponsor, Chan puts together a team to build a perfect car for the race. With freeing his sisters in his mind, Chan prepares for the race which will prove whose the best, even with Cougars life threatening tactics and they hit the track for the final showdown. It's not the greatest of story lines but there are some decent action scenes. I'm not one for watching drag racing because I find it quite boring, so the showdown at the end wasn't that amazing either. The mixture of subtitles and English language, also made it a bit hard to concentrate on the plot but it's not over complicated like a lot of Jackie Chans movies that were made for a Western audience. The epic scenes with the containers were impressive, along with the stunts in the cars but from an entertainment point of view, I have seen much better movies from Jackie Chan. Average!

Round-Up: This big budget movie from Gordon Chan, who brought you the Medallion, which also starred Chan and Fist of Legend which starred Jet Li, wasn't bad for an unknown movie from Chan but the guy who played the villain, Thorsten Nickel, was terrible. Chans acting wasn't bad, especially in that dramatic scene when he was in hospital but the whole drag racing concept became uninteresting after a while. On the whole, it's a watchable movie which hasn't got the unfunny comedy scenes which I have grown to dislike from Chan in the latter part of his career but he won't be remembered for it.

Budget: $30million Worldwide Gross: N/A

I recommend this movie to people who are into their action/comedy/drama/martial arts movies starring Jackie Chan, Anita Yuen and Michael Wong. 3/10
2 out of 3 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
10/10
This movie is better then Nowadays car movies !!!
rahulsingh-5816318 July 2023
So... Here we are!!

This is the last movie of Jackie Chan have seen today 18-7-23 More than 60 movies watched till now of Jackie Chan.

This was not available in hindi language, so I kept it for last.

English dubbing is not best as hindi but it was GOOD (Understandable) This movie is phenomenal.

I think F&F COPIED THIS MOVIE GTR'S, SUPRA'S , MITSUBISHI'S, BMW'S AND MANY MORE THE Storyline is farrrr... Better than LAST 2 F&F MOVIES BELIVE ME.(FAST 9 AND FAST X) CGI, VFX ....... I MEAN WHAT'S THAT IN JACKIE CHAN'S MOVIE.

MOVIE IS ABOUT SPEED, CARS, RACES, FAMILY.

AND IT'S full of actions.

MOVIE IS ABOUT ONE MISTAKE CAN CHANGE EVERY THING.

I WISH JACKIE CHAN MAKE MORE CAR MOVIES.

Play the character of smokey nagata .

So that's the end of Jackie Chan's movies now .

Amazing guy Jackie Chan.
1 out of 3 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
1/10
A completely disgusting waste of time and money.
Alien-506 July 1999
I just cant see what everyone sees in this movie. The acting is just awful, the choice of music is, mildly putting it, peculiar, there arent enough fighting scenes, the plot is non-existent and whatever small entertainment one could get from this film is ruined by the annoying way some of the movie is filmed and gives you a splitting headace.
3 out of 6 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Weak (or maybe the weakest) Chan movie
KaneFriessner10 April 2019
As review title says, this is one of Jackie Chan's weak movies if not the weakest. Nowhere near to the legendary Police Story 1-2! The action scenes are weak, characters are not complex enough, story is poor, etc. Race scenes are very mixed. Some scenes are very good, but others are very poor. Especially those 2x-3x speed scenes make the movie not so good. And there is a fight scene with a very bad effect (some kind of slow-mo, but looks awfull). I'm sad to say this, I like a lot of Chan movies, but this one is a must-skip.
2 out of 2 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
An error has occured. Please try again.

See also

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews


Recently Viewed