Total Risk

I can't say it better myself. This movie rocks, HARD! It's filled with non-stop comedy and action sequences and is never boring.

Jet Li is a police officer who is asked to fill in for a stunt-man, who is a Jackie Chan-persona, one fine day. The next couple of days, the cop's supposed to be a bodyguard for the spoiled star who's to meet with his managers a couple of business partners in a huge rich, business building with a lot of people.

All of a sudden, the party is crashed by some jewel thieves who have been wanted for various terrorist acts in Hong Kong, including one where a bus armed w/ explosives & had a ton of hostages on it was blown to pieces. Included was Li's wife and child so the film is part- revenge flick as well.

The movie starts out explosive, has funny in-between moments and has the last couple of minutes be all about kung fu, more explosions, gun-fights, people using random objects as weapons, more gun-fights, snakes (!) and a helicopter crash along with another random fight.

It never gets old!

This movie heavily throws shade on Jackie Chan and is a violent tornado. It's got some Good fight scenes it has a decent soundtrack and the dubbing is borderline ridiculous but in a good way overall the movie does quite well.

This movie makes the cardinal sin of trying to mix light, slapstick comedy with extremely graphic, gory, brutal violence. It is merely a rip off of the Die Hard movie with an element of any Jerry Lewis movie thrown in for kicks. The plot revolves around the Jet-Li character who lost his wife to the diabolical mad bomber known as "The Doctor". He becomes employed as a bodyguard to a Jackie Chan type Action Movie Star who is a drunken, lazy bum. At one time, the movie states he had real skills, but lost them with fame. Anyhow they all get trapped by the terrorists in a skyscraper and that is when you get Jet Li taking on the terrorists with the aid of a nerdy looking cop, a plucky female newscaster, and the Jacky character and his dad. My favorite villian is the Valerie Chow character who is this super sexy, karate kicking, weapon toting ultra vixen who makes the other beautiful actresses look like naked human turds. The movie is not very good. Lots of gunfire, explosions, gruesome killings, and noise. I have seen better Jet Li movies.

After failing to save his wife from the Doctor, Kit Li is working as a bodyguard and secret stunt double for the cowardly martial arts film star Frankie Lane. Frankie attends an exhibition of the crown jewels of Russia at a Hong Kong hotel, and when the Doctor's gang take over the building in attempt to steal them, Kit is the only thing standing in their way.

The film is a parody of some of Hollywood's most influential action films, such as "Die Hard" and "Speed". It also gained controversy for spoofing Jackie Chan, who was, in turn, offended by the satire. From what I can tell, he was offended specifically because he had a falling out with the director. I don't see anything that is offensive here... sure, it might vaguely imply that Chan is a fake, but only vaguely -- satire is what happens when you reach the success of Chan.

Overall, this is a strong action film with a fun plot. Purists can watch it with subtitles, but those who prefer dubbing will especially enjoy the sweet voice of Daran Norris as the Doctor.

Violence runs rampant throughout `Meltdown'. If you're not a fan of gore there's a good chance you won't like this movie. Bouncing Betty mines, time bombs, impaling, electrocution, dismemberment by helicopter blades, graphic gunshot wounds and death are among the dark and gruesome violence that balance out the comedic spoof this film is.

`Meltdown' itself is a spoof on both Die Hard 1 and 2 (Ironically it came out the same year as Die Hard 3). Terrorists dressed exactly like those in Die hard 2, right down to the urban fatigues (and trademark sunglasses for the evil military leader) Take over a high rise building, the plot of the original Die Hard. The geeky black computer hacker is replaced in this film by an equally geeky Indian computer hacker. Fans of the Die Hard trilogy will certainly enjoy the parallels `Meltdown' makes to the `Die Hard' trilogy.

`Meltdown' goes beyond a simple movie spoof. The semi-protagonist of the film `Freddie' is a composite spoof of Chinese martial arts movie legends Bruce Li and Jackie Chan. Freddie takes Chan's zaniness and silliness to extreme farcical levels, while wearing the yellow jumpsuit and uttering the kung fu sounds that Bruce Lee will always be remembered for.

The Kung Fu in this movie is average at best. It's not one of Jet Li's best performances, but then again it isn't bad. What the movie lacks in kung fu, it makes up for with the aforementioned gratuitous violence. The parody is what makes this film worthwhile. 6/9 stars.