"Police Story: Lockdown" (2013) is unfortunately more like "New Police Story" than I'd care to admit (stay tuned for a full-length review of "Lockdown"). It is however also one of the first films in a while that actually feels like a "Police Story" film, albeit one starring Old Man Jackie Chan. Chan still clearly admires police officers' sense of civic duty, and unsentimental at-all-costs attitude. And the action scenes in "Lockdown" are also more like street-brawling than the kind of mannered, balletic combat you'll find in Hong Kong action films directed by John Woo and Johnnie To. "Police Story: Lockdown" may be nowhere near as good as the films that Chan made in his prime, but it puts retiree-aged American action stars' recent vehicles to shame.
Chan Ka-kui, a Hong Kong police officer, was indirectly involved in the sale of nuclear warheads to Jackson and Gregor, and in the process was sent to Russia for medical treatment. When Chan woke up, he saw Gregor. Gregor invited Chan to meet with the FSB colonel and had him attend a meeting. The lead colonel asked Chan and Gregor to work together to find the missing Ukrainian nuclear warhead. Gregor first had Chan follow Jackson, then smuggled Chan to Brisbane, Australia, in a submarine. While Chan was arranged to stay at the hotel, Gregor was on a boat making phone calls to middle eastern businessmen to make deals.
At the funeral, Gregor first kidnaps Annie, then meets Jackson, but actually tries to kill him. Chan saves Annie, but Jackson can't Stop Gregor from escaping. Annie and Chan went to the aquarium where she worked to get the nuclear warhead hidden underwater, and Gregor's men arrived, and they fought a battle underwater. Gregor broke the glass at gunpoint to get Chan out, then he grabbed the warhead and held Chan off with water. But when Gregor tried to use the boat to escape, Chan managed to get outside and then hit his boat with his car, trapping him inside. The warhead was recaptured by Chan, Gregor was arrested by the police, and his plan was scuppered.
Being a Police Story movie it's not long before the plot needle's in the red and Chan is shuttling back and forth between Moscow, Hong Kong, the Ukraine and Australia trying to track down stolen plutonium for a boss (played by respected Russian actor, Yuri Batchov) who may or may not be the bad guy behind the plutonium-pilfering in the first place. Constantly getting lost, confused, humiliated and framed for murder you know that if Chan gets something nice in this movie (say, a spiffy suit) it's only so it can be taken away in the next reel (said suit torn to shreds by gigantic power lifter, Nathan Jones, performing here with a broken arm). Speaking of clothes, as Jackie's gotten older his wardrobe's gotten weirder, and in First Strike it's reached a zenith. By the time the movie's over he will have worn a seal hat, a live koala bear, a Nehru jacket ensemble, Koala bear undies, a big shark costume, a waterproof pair of yellow overalls, and a strange stilt-walker's costume. The man's got more clothes than Madonna, and they're weirder than Madonna's, too. This globe-trotting spy movie is directed by Stanley Tong (of Supercop and Rumble in the Bronx fame) who brought it in for $15 million with only 10 days of post-production. Rocketing down a mountain in an apocalyptic ski chase, crashing through the ice into subzero waters, balancing on the ledge of a hotel that looks to be about five miles high, crashing through the most kinetic ladder fight ever put on film, and climaxing in a twenty-minute underwater fight in an aquarium full of man-eating sharks every cent of this movie's budget is up on-screen making it the best James Bond movie James Bond never made. It's a far worthier spoof of the genre than the excruciating Casino Royale. This is post-95 Jackie at his best. by Grady Hendrix Read MoreCollapse View More Professional Reviews This original content has been created by or licensed to YesAsia.com, and cannot be copied or republished in any medium without the express written permission of YesAsia.com. Customer Review of "First Strike/Police story 4 (Korean Version)" Change Content Preferences Average Customer Rating for this Edition: Customer Review Rated Bad 10 - 10 out of 10(1)
Average Customer Rating for All Editions of this Product: Customer Review Rated Bad 9 - 9 out of 10(2)
jasmine
See all my reviews
May 27, 2007
This customer review refers to Jackie Chan's First Strike (US Version) First Strike Customer Review Rated Bad 8 - 8 out of 10 Director Stanley Tong always like foreign locations for his movies. No exception here cause Jackie's in Ukraine and Aust. The other reviewer rubbished Jackie's english but this is only one of his earlier western movie and I thought he did pretty good. Good stunt work with Jackie on ice and and stilts (scene in Chinatown). Not easy to balance on those things. Pity they haven't got an audio cantonese version. Still very watchable! Did you find this review helpful? Yes(Report This) Anonymous
October 9, 2003
FIRST STRIKE AKA POLICE STORY 4 Customer Review Rated Bad 10 - 10 out of 10 I SAW THIS MOVIE BACK IN 1997 AND IT BLEW ME AWAY. THE PLOT IS KIND OF SMOOTH TO FOLLOW. JACKIE IS SENT ON MISSION TO ASSIST A WOMAN TO ANOTHER COUNTRY. SOON AFTER THE FLIGHT, JACKIE LOST TRACK OF THE WOMAN WHICH TO THE RUSSIAN MEN THAT SHE WAS KIDNAPPED. JACKIE SOON FINDS OUT HE IS GIVING A TASK TO COMPLETE. HIS JOB IS FIND OUT EVERYTHING THAT IS GOING. DEFINETLY IT COMES WITH CONSEQUENCES AND JACKIE HAD TO FIGHT THEM WITH EVERYTHING. THERE WAS A LEGENDARY FIGHT WITH THE GUYS. HERE JACKIE AMAZINGLY USES A LADDER STAIR CASE TO FIGHT THEM. IT IS PURE AMAZING STUFF. THE WAY HE CONTROLS THE STAIR AROUND HIS BODY IS AWESOME. AND THEN CAME ALSO THE LEGENDARY FIGHT UNDER THE WATER. THEY HE MOVES UNDER THE WATER IS JUST STUNNING. I DO NOT THINK JET LI COULD HAVE HANLED SUCH FIGHT SCENE UNDER WATER. JACKIE IS JUST THE BEST. DEFINETELY A MUST SEE. MIND YOU I HAVE SEEN THE U.S VERSION THOUGH. I AM PLANNING TO GET THE HONG KONG VERSION. PEACE OUT Did you find this review helpful? Yes(Report This) View all customer reviews Write a review and share your thoughts Browse Other Related Categories
The first strike came in Kandahar, three Americans killed last night in a car bombing and gunfight at an Afghan police headquarters, then, this morning, four more U.S. troops killed in a roadside bombing elsewhere in the south, and a fifth shot dead. And three British soldiers died Tuesday, when an Afghan soldier attacked them with gunfire and a rocket-propelled grenade in Helmand Province.
According to ABC 7, which was first to report on the incident, the man tried to sexually assault the woman as he was trying to steal her car. But a police spokeswoman said there was no mention of attempted sexual assault in the police report.
Earlier in the day, riot police fired tear gas to force about 100 striking workers out of the station on the fifth day of a subway strike that has thrown Sao Paulo's normally congested traffic into chaos.
It's the first strike for actors from film and television shows since 1980, and it's the first time two major Hollywood unions have been on strike at the same time since 1960, when Ronald Reagan was the actors guild president.
In this issue of The Workers' Advocate we report on the strikes against wage cuts and job insecurity that have broken out this past month. While the big liar in the White House shouts about how good the workers have it, the workers have answered by going on strike despite the high unemployment, the reactionary police forces mobilized to crush the strikes, and the labor bureaucrats who tell the workers to make concessions. Bitter strikes are being waged by the Teamster car haulers and at Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel, at the Chicago Tribune, at Bath Iron Works in Maine, at Western Union, and elsewhere; the workers are fighting against the arrogant demands of the capitalists that the workers should be squeezed to the wall to pay for the three martini lunches of the executives. As yet, this still represents only a small section of the working class. But it shows that the decline in activity of the workers' movement of the last few years, with the working class stunned by the huge layoffs and disorganized by the labor hacks, is gradually coming to an end. A new round of struggle is being prepared.
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