Island of Fire

With a stellar line up of HK stars including Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Tony Leung and Andy Lau (some of whom appeared as a favour to the director, who was in dire financial trouble with some 'dodgy types'), this brutal film mixes emotional drama, savage violence and OTT action to deliver an effective little addition to the prison movie sub-genre.

Tony Leung plays Andy, a cop who gets himself sent to prison after his future father-in-law is murdered by a supposedly executed convict. Whilst trying to figure out how a dead prisoner can become an assassin, he befriends various other prisoners, but himself becomes a target of some of the less desirable characters in the prison.

Those drawn to this film by the presence of 'wacky Jackie' will be sorely disappointed, since Mr. Chan appears in only a few scenes, and even the fights he participates in are not up to his usual acrobatic standard. However, fans of the other big stars should get their money's worth; Prison on Fire may be no classic, but it is entertaining enough to be worth a go.

Anyone who has seen their fair share of prison movies will know what to expect from this kind of affair: nice guy prisoners who we are supposed to root for; bad guys who make our hero's life a living hell; prison escapes and riots; and the occasional 'funny' scene to lift the mood (in this case, Sammo's ogling of a big breasted woman whose car breaks down near to his work detail). This one has it all!

It also has a rather enjoyably silly ending which features loads of gunfire and some slow-motion squib effects, and more disturbingly, a shocking scene which features an Alsatian being kicked in the head (the poor mutt flies through the air and lands awkwardly on its back!).

If you wish to check out this movie, find either the Taiwanese version, or the Hong Kong Legends DVD; the Taiwanese cut features several scenes missing from the US release, whilst the HK Legends disc includes them as an extra.

I saw the dubbed-into-English version of this. My recommendation is, don't bother. It's a stretch to call this a Jackie Chan movie, since he's involved in less than one-third of the movie.

The fight scenes are not nearly as well choreographed as thoes in most other Chan movies, and the filmmakers try to make up for this through tight editing. Much of the time, it's impossible to see what the moves are.

The plot is confusing, and the script is horrible. There are times when it takes on some qualities of "Plan 9 from Outer Space" when it blends incoherence with bad acting.

The surround sound is technically well done, though.

First of all, this movie doesnt really have main character. There are five of them. Like the original trailer says, "five stories in one", the film is about five main characters, whose life are somehow related to each other. Jackie Chan does a different role in this movie. Role is similiar to Heart of the Dragons. There are only few fight's, but it didnt bother me. I didnt watch this as a Chan movie.

Movie is touching especially the ending. Surprising is the violence level in this movie. Endings big shootout and some other brutal violence too. The way jail-staff(movie happens in jail)treats the main character's made me wanting them to die. Guards are real a***oles.

Movie success as a drama too. Samo Hung's character is most touching. He desperately escapes from jail to meet his son and pays for it, with pain. Ending is surprising and shocking. This movie is very very good. I can recommend this movie to every one who likes HK movies. Great actors. Great plot. Great emotions. I loved it.

Story takes place in a prison. Jackie Chan, Andy Lau, Sammo Hung and few other stars of the era. The movie is supervised by Jackie Chan's old colleague Jimmy Wang Yu.

The plot is about a prison where the convicts are part of a recruitment program to do special biddings for the government. The selection criteria is not obvious, but it seems that one's who had a fight in the prison and fought well got recruited. Who the true culprit is, and what twist in the plot there is at the end must be seen.

It's one of few movie where Jackie is not the star. There's also a rare fight scene between Jackie and Andy Lau.

It's hard to categorize what this movie is. It's a generic action movie, but there's lot of super A list actors appearing just as a co-star. Unfortunately they are under utilized, and the movie fails to achieve stellar performance it could have had.

Maybe this was movie made based on friends getting together, and chipping in their talents. This would have been possible with someone with Jimmy Wang's clout.

The movie is somewhat of an enigma in Hong Kong movie history.

This is the Chinese version of 'Cool Hand Luke'. I didn't like the Paul Newman version but after seeing this, I've got to give Paul Newman a lot more credit.

I watch it because I'm a huge Jackie Chan fan. See it if you must, but watch the original first (Cool Hand Luke - 1967). The American version is much more entertaining.

"Sometimes nothin' is a real cool hand"