Opération Condor

Jackie Chan is crazy. I don't mean like he'll kill someone crazy, but like this guy does some insane stunts crazy.

"Operation Condor" is one of the earliest displays of Jackie Chan's innovative fight and stunt coordinating. He was doing things that other actors could only do through the help of movie magic. It's true that he would have to do more than one take sometimes, but still he was really doing the stunts.

In "Operation Condor" he was an agent trying to track down some hidden gold. He was accompanied by two women, one German woman who was the granddaughter of the man who hid the gold, and one Asian woman who was assigned to help him. The three of them were hilarious to watch. They fought, shot, and stumbled their way along trying to get to their final destination. Jackie Chan provided the athleticism while the two women played supporting extras. "Operation Condor" was athletic and it was a riot: an athletic riot.

This movie is about impressing stunts. Period. That is all it is, and it does it well. Chan is amazingly skilled in both performing great stunts as well as coming up with ones you haven't seen before.

Great stunts also lay a solid foundation for action comedy. Many action scenes are really, really fun, mixing the stunts with fun situations. In particular, I found the car chase scene make me think "just when I thought there were no fun Bond-style chases left to make, Chan proves that there are". The only thing missing would be to play "The Ride of the Valkyries" at some appropriate times.

One more point in the favor of the movie is Chan's charm. He really has good screen presence.

So far, this is good. But let me mention what the movie does NOT have. It has no interesting plot to speak of. It has rather awful storytelling at times, moving from one scene to another with minimal or no motivation. There are even scenes with obvious remains from cut parts. Finally, the three female leads are all young, pretty and stupid. One "silly girl" would be fine but three of them? This makes them embarrassingly similar. It wouldn't hurt with one woman who were, for example, middle aged and with a professional attitude, or just not exactly the same personality as the others. I guess this is a cultural difference, in movies from the western world we are plagued with over-professional arrogant women instead, which is just as much cliché. Maybe we could get something in between, like an interesting character?

So, forget about the plot. Enjoy the stunts instead! They make me wonder one thing: How dangerous was this movie to make? How many times did Chan go to hospital?

10/10 for stunts. 8/10 for fun and action. 2/10 for story.

When reviewing a Jackie Chan movie, one must realize that it must be reviewed in a category of its own. Jackie Chan is an icon of modern cinema, and quite frankly in a class of his own at this point. So a Jackie Chan movie can only really be compared with other Jackie Chan movies!

I really like Operation Condor, because of some scenes which are so refreshing in this world of rehashed Hollywood. The wind tunnel scene has already been mentioned in other reviews, but it really is amazing to watch.

I do miss the desert scene in the original version that was cut out of the US version, with the water bag and tube. You get a glimpse of it in the outtakes at the end. I thought the US version was very streamlined and definately flowed much better than the original version, and the dialogue was vastly superior. However, for the sake of originality, it's always nice to have all the scenes intact.

It really is too bad the Spanish actress Eva Cobo De Garcia doesn't have more roles in other movies - I quite enjoyed her presence in the movie.

For lovers of adventure, this movie is a must. It captures the thrill of travel and adventure much better than a James Bond movie, because somehow the adventuristic ambience is more strongly felt if that makes any sense. I feel it captures it better than even an Indiana Jones movie. The reason being that unlike a Bond story, or Indiana Jones story - you really do get a feeling that Jackie is on a "free and easy", whereas Bond/Jones is a "package tour" if you know what I mean. All the whacky random stuff that happens in a Chan film helps to contribute to the "free and easy" feel.

Armour of God 2 destroys anything Indiana Jones ever did as it is the most accomplished action adventure film I have ever seen and I am not joking. This has everything from bad villains, female leads, well three actually, great action, great adventure, plenty of explosions and some of the most funniest scenes you will ever see in adventure film like this. Apart from Rush Hour you wouldn't usually associate Jackie Chan with doing much comedy only martial arts but he does it like a pro and it doesn't stop till the very end. I can go on and on for years and years watching this and you never ever get bored as there is so much to take in and not enough time. As soon as it is finished you'll be dying to go back for more and watch it on repeat viewings.

Jackie Chan has made some of the best kick ass films in the world. I rate his films much better than Bruce Lee's and if you want to challenge that then all you have to do is watch this, the first Amour of God and Project A and you will see how accomplished his films really are.

...but I've only got 1000 words, so I'll keep it brief. Okay, so some of the early exposition scenes are a little boring and some other parts are a little dumb, but otherwise, this is Chan...and he is DA MAN! Wild, crazy, and ever-inventive martial arts and action sequences more than make up for the fact that the plot is only semi-existent. The opening "Indiana Jones" parody...the innkeeper...the incompetent terrorists...the motorcycle chase...the "native dance"...the wind tunnel fight...and without a doubt the coolest car door ever seen (you'll know what I mean)...in summary, if you're a fan of slapstick humor mixed perfectly with Jackie's trademark martial arts, you can't go wrong with this film!