San wa

Well, it almost feels like two separate movies. I liked the half of the movie that takes place in modern times, that has some vintage Jackie Chan moment, like the fight in the glue factory or the tomb raiding fight in India, these scenes alone bring us back to a younger Jackie Chan era like Projetc A and Mr. Canton and Lady Rose. But the other half of the film, the epic historical stuff, is very, very cheesy, even the fights, which a loaded with CG for this half of the film, don't spark any positive reaction, and Jackie trying to play a serious, melodramatic role doesn't quite cut the mustard either. However, Tong uses brilliant cinematography for the old era China part of the film and I must compliment the film for some of its use of music. Overall, the story doesn't hold up as being remotely plosible. But thanks to some great comedy and other funny moments (that I don't think were meant to be funny) the film is still enjoyable. It's not Jackie's best, but it is better than most things he's put out in recent years, with the exception of New Police Story--which I think is his best in a long time.

Ever since Jackie Chan's rendezvous with Hollywood in Cannonball Run (1981) (which incidentally was advertised in Hong Kong as Jackie "co-starring with Bert Reynolds"), he has been true to his unique brand of action – part comedy, part choreography, part acrobat – but never true martial arts such as what Jet Li delivers. (A remote analogy of the Sphinx – part woman, part beast, part god - but nothing of a man in it). And this went on for what seem like an eternity, both in local and Hollywood productions. Then, approaching mid-life, Chan started to try new things – e.g. pure romance in "Bo lei jun" (or "Glass bottle") (1999) and pathos in "New Police story" (2004).

In "The Myth", he takes things even further, by giving us both an old clowning around Jackie Chan and a new all serious Jackie Chan, in two parallel stories, present and ancient. Good intentions and efforts notwithstanding, Chan's portrayal of a general of woeful countenance in the ancient Qin dynasty is just not convincing, maybe because of things as a simple as his stature or that his face is too familiar. As a result, the love story on which obvious emphasis has been placed never quite gets off the ground. What we are left with then is pretty much the old Jackie Chan flick. Still, with the multi billion dollar (HK$) budget, an international cast and some pretty clever ideas (as the "rat glue factory scene" everybody mentioned), this movie IS entertaining. As well, although the "historical" portion is not exactly a resounding success, it does add another dimension to the movie.

One final note – at half-century point, Jackie Chan finally yields a bit on his resistance to wire work and CGI. While we are all proud of his steadfast determination to do all the dangerous stunts himself, the laws of nature dictate that there are things that you just can't go on doing forever.

It's worth seeing the movie just even for the rat glue factory scene. It's a wonderful Jackie Chan physical comedy combined with a really nice striptease from the super hot Indian actress. Sure to become a classic scene.

The rest of the movie constitutes of a historical "Hero" like war martial art action with some modern Jackie Chan slapstick. The plot is very tenuous and was probably written after someone wanted a story with Chinese history combined with a modern drive towards the nascent Chinese scientific and technological resurgence.

Jackie Chan plays an Indiana Jones like archaeologist which spirals into a Lara Croft style adventure of finding very strange but mindbogglingly powerful things. Meanwhile a very hazy parallel story runs of a concubine who falls for a general played by Jackie Chan a few hundreds years in the past. There is anti-gravity devices and immortality pills thrown in as well.

Though it does get really cheesy and maudlin at times, it's a really fun movie to watch.

Hong Kong action/historical/epic movie with full of over-the-top struggles , excitement , thrills , ingenious stunts , lots of brawls and brief touches of humor. This fun movie is plenty of intrigue , unstopped action , and overwhelming stunt-work with breathtaking ending images with the main characters flying here and there . Sympathetic archeologist Jack (Jackie Chan) keeps having reoccurring dreams of a past life, where he is the great general Meng Yi, who is sworn to protect a princess named Ok-Soo (Kim Hee-seon) . When a fellow scientist enlists his help locating the mausoleum of China's first emperor , Jack decides to go investigate everything with his friend William (Tony Ka Fai Leung) , assisted by the spirit of a noble princess .

This exciting movie is crammed of action-packed , fantasy ,overwhelming stunt-work and lots of fights .Amusing and colorful Jackie Chan entry in whic he takes on Chinese emperor and his army . It is a fantastic film with supernatural events in which the past collides surprisingly with the present . Jackie Chan is top-notch as a world-renowned archaeologist who has started discovering amazing visions and having mysterious dreams of a past life as a warrior in ancient China , as he becomes one army man fighting a group of heinous criminals and a lot of warriors and , of course , as always he makes his own stunts . Awesome , incredible stunts and brief comic touches , as usual ; the picture is better constructed than others directed by Stanley Tong . The lighting-paced storyline slows down at times , including some confusing and absurd lines in the script , but frantic action sequences make up for it . Spotlights movie include spectacular battle in which Jackie himself confronts an entire army and eliminates them all forming a mountain of bodies , among others . This is a phenomenal action/epic movie distinguished by nicely cinematography of the impressive sequences , shot on location in India, Xi'an, China and adding agreeable sense of humor.

The picture achieved big success in China and all around the world but in USA failed , similar to his American debut ,¨Battle creek brawl¨ that had a disastrous Box-office. Jackie Chan is a hard-working actor and director throughout his long and varied career . He went on playing ¨Cannoball¨ , ¨The protector¨ and "Rumble in the Bronx", until getting all American successes with ¨Shangai Knights¨ , ¨The tuxedo¨ , ¨Around the world in 80 days¨ and ¨Rush hour¨ trilogy , and the recent ¨Karate kid¨. Many of them Chan usually pays overt homage to two of his greatest influences as Charles Chaplin and Harold Lloyd . 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¨ . This picture ¨San wa¨or ¨The Myth¨ (2005) was lavishly produced by Jackie Chan himself , being compellingly directed by Stanley Tong and helped by Jackie Chan . Tong directed various Chan vehicles , such as : ¨Supercop I¨ , ¨Supercop II¨, ¨Rumble in the Bronx¨, ¨Vanguard¨ and ¨Kung Fu Yoga¨ . 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 Chan , stunningly accompanied by Tony Ka Fai Leung , Kim Hee-seon and Mallika Sherawat . It's a perfect action film for enthusiasts of the genre and especially for Jackie fans .

It's worth seeing the movie just even for the rat glue factory scene. It's a wonderful Jackie Chan physical comedy. Sure to become a classic scene.

The rest of the movie constitutes of a historical "Hero" like war martial art action with some modern Jackie Chan slapstick. The plot is very tenuous and was probably written after someone wanted a story with Chinese history combined with a modern drive towards the nascent Chinese scientific and technological resurgence.

Jackie Chan plays an Indiana Jones like archaeologist which spirals into a Lara Croft style adventure of finding very strange but mindbogglingly powerful things. Meanwhile a very hazy parallel story runs of a concubine who falls for a general played by Jackie Chan a few hundreds years in the past. There is anti-gravity devices and immortality pills thrown in as well.

Though it does get really cheesy and maudlin at times, it's a really fun movie to watch.