Thunderbolt: Ação Sobre Rodas

I saw a very brief summary of this in the paper and wasn't going to watch it because I assumed it was some crummy US tv movie. When I saw it was actually a subtitled hong kong actioner I perked up no end. All kinds of bizarre visions await you in this film including a pachinko parlour fight featuring twenty semi-naked tattooed men which ends with the place filling with pachinko balls, and Jackie Chan being beaten up by his room.

This is slick, expensive-looking stuff, especially the early street-racing scenes which are much more interesting than the standard track racing that dominates the rest of the film. I don't know if it was the effect of the subtitles, but it seemed as though all the english dialogue was really really badly acted, but all the chinese (and japanese?) dialogue was convincing.

However, the main reason for seeing this film must surely be that it's the only kung fu film featuring (former UK Conservative Party Chairman) Chris Patten's haircut.

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.

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.

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.

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+