Fora do Rumo

'SKIPTRACE': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

The new Chinese-American action-comedy buddy film, starring Jackie Chan and Johnny Knoxville. It was directed by Renny Harlin, and written by Jay Longino, BenDavid Grabinski and Wen-Chia Chang. The film tells the story of a Hong Kong detective, that's forced to team up with an American gambler; in order to stop a Chinese crime boss. The movie also costars Bingbing Fan (a popular Chinese actress and pop singer), Eve Torres (a popular WWE wrestler, model and a Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighter) and Eric Tsang. The movie received mostly poor reviews from critics, but it was a blockbuster at the Chinese Box Office. I enjoyed it.

Bennie Chan (Chan) is a Hong Kong detective, that's been pursuing a Chinese crime boss, known as 'Matador', for many years. He became obsessive about the case, when the notorious criminal killed his partner, Yung (Tsang). Bennie believes that a businessman, named Victor Wong (Winston Chao), is the 'Matador', but he doesn't have the evidence he needs to prove it. When Yung's daughter (Fan) gets in trouble with the crime boss, for letting an American gambler, named Connor Watts (Knoxville), steal from her, Bennie must track the gambler down in order to help her. Bennie and Connor then reluctantly team up, and of course bond on their new adventure.

The movie is everything you'd expect from a Jackie Chan buddy movie; it's reminiscent of 'RUSH HOUR' and 'SHANGHAI NOON', but not quite as good. Knoxville is great playing the comic relief, in action buddy flicks like this (he also did it in 2004's 'WALKING TALL', and 2013's 'THE LAST STAND'), and he and Chan have great chemistry together; it would have been interesting to see Sean William Scott in the role too though (who Knoxville replaced). Renny Harlin is of course very qualified to direct this type of movie as well, and he does a good job. It's a fun movie; not great, but fun.

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Hong Kong police detective Bennie Chan (Jackie Chan) loses his partner Yung in a deadly bombing. He suspects that businessman Victor Wong is criminal Matador responsible for the death. He's been investigating for 9 years to no avail. World-traveling thief Connor Watts (Johnny Knoxville) is on the run from the Russian mob after sleeping with the daughter of the boss. In Macau, he gets involved with Yung's daughter Samantha who is infiltrating a casino connected to Victor Wong. He steals her card to access a private floor where he witnesses Esther Yee's murder. He escapes by getting taken by the Russians. The casino accuses him of stealing money and Samantha asks Bennie to track him down.

This is classic Jackie Chan. The action is still there and so is his sense of humor. His fights still have that pep and his fights with Eve Torres are actually funny. It's nothing new except this time's guilo is Knoxville. I expected better chemistry but the two deliver enough comedy. The story doesn't really work and the movie tries very hard to make it into a muddle. The guys end up in the Mongolian desert for no particularly good reason other than it's exotic cool. It's great to see Jackie staying in fighting shape but it's not much better than that.

Skiptrace finds Jackie Chan trying that odd Chinese-American combination yet again, but unfortunately he fails miserably this time. Johnny Knoxville fails to fire up that natural flair of comedy that Owen Wilson had so effortlessly aced in the Shanghai franchise. Unfortunately the movie falls like dominoes owing to a bland plot and an unvarying disconnect that rips apart whatever Skiptrace was trying to walk upon.

DIRECTION OF SKIPTRACE

The direction of Skiptrace is absolutely pathetic. Renny Harlin isn't really sure what he wishes to show. You can see that confusion in his frames. Or maybe that element of clarity is missing from his head that clouds his judgment. Editing will compel you to shake your head. It is that bad.

Humour is quite confined, always acting contrary to our expectations. With Johnny Knoxville in the vanguard to stay as the primary entertainer of Skiptrace, expectations naturally shot up high. But Johnny made it all mediocre. You keep waiting for something funny, but then the wait becomes punishing.

The plot is forced upon to entertain a deliberate road trip. You feel the emptiness of it all when you see nothing substantial emanate from any corner. We are always heading towards something, so that's kind of good.

Chan and Knoxville create an okay chemistry though it is hard to compare their pairing up with the likes of what you have seen over the years.

NOSTALGIC OLD TIMES

Gone are those days when Jackie used to be young, and his fight scenes used to be the ogling kind. It always sends me back in time, when I try to remember all of his arresting fight sequences from the likes of Project A series, Who Am I, City Hunter, Armour of God and Police Story franchise. He still manages to entertain us nevertheless, but the quantum of combat bits in his movies has seen a gradual decline over the years. Maybe old age is doing that to him. It is in a way sad, because even when his movies didn't bank on a good storyline, he used to still uplift them with his jaw-dropping brawls. We miss that profusely.

Now that I think of it every Jackie Chan movie is ending up like that. Maybe for a change he should use a stunt double so that he doesn't hurt himself delivering those parkour like stunts, as is quite evident from his end credit scenes.

THE FINAL VERDICT

Skiptrace makes for a passable watch, preferable when you are fine with your brain taking a holiday for a change. You cannot help but think, it is time Jackie Chan amp up his entertaining quotient, by partnering up with either Owen Wilson or Tucker again. At least that magic was working for him.

It's always a crap shoot whenever a Hollywood film tries to bring martial arts into mainstream North America. Jackie Chan has for the most part bridged that gap successfully while integrating comedy. Unlike with his past comedic partners in crime from Owen Wilson and Chris Tucker. Johnny Knoxville fails miserably. It's not entirely his fault. It's the film itself. It seems to me Renny Harlin is trying to mash bits of Shanghai Noon with Rush Hour with a dab of Supercop. The film doesn't gel at all. The flow is all over the place and scenes are too implausible. Each scene, seems to be a gag. There's conversation/joke/story line implied then at the end of the scene, the punchline. Then it moves on. Action scenes are obvious Chan-born, which sometimes do not feel unique unlike his past Hollywood films. Feels too contrived, not original enough. I am a big fan of Jackie Chan - Johnny Knoxville is coming along trying to be taken seriously, but Renny can't seems to improve either actors and that shows in this outing. His last decent film, Long Kiss Goodnight should be used as reference to make better action movies.

I enjoy this movie but only because I've been a Jackie Chan fan.

The movie features his trademark comedy moves and gags, but as an action martial arts flick his moves against goons are now much slower than his past movies due to his age (respectfully so). The man is still doing his own stunts and the end credit routine showing the bloopers is always a treat for me.

Knoxville portrays a crook very believably well and the pair of opposite do attract and contrast sometimes to keep the story flowing.

Jackie Chan should join forces with all the other old stars such as Yuen Biao, Sammo Hung and make united flick franchises like R.E.D., The Expendables...

In conclusion, Skiptrace is a bit like From Russia to Hongkong in 80 days, with some bits of China tourism ads/commercials thrown in, plus regular Jackie Chan favourite flavours. If you enjoy Jackie Chan, watch it to support him.