Terreur à Hong-Kong

Violence runs rampant throughout `Meltdown'. If you're not a fan of gore there's a good chance you won't like this movie. Bouncing Betty mines, time bombs, impaling, electrocution, dismemberment by helicopter blades, graphic gunshot wounds and death are among the dark and gruesome violence that balance out the comedic spoof this film is.

`Meltdown' itself is a spoof on both Die Hard 1 and 2 (Ironically it came out the same year as Die Hard 3). Terrorists dressed exactly like those in Die hard 2, right down to the urban fatigues (and trademark sunglasses for the evil military leader) Take over a high rise building, the plot of the original Die Hard. The geeky black computer hacker is replaced in this film by an equally geeky Indian computer hacker. Fans of the Die Hard trilogy will certainly enjoy the parallels `Meltdown' makes to the `Die Hard' trilogy.

`Meltdown' goes beyond a simple movie spoof. The semi-protagonist of the film `Freddie' is a composite spoof of Chinese martial arts movie legends Bruce Li and Jackie Chan. Freddie takes Chan's zaniness and silliness to extreme farcical levels, while wearing the yellow jumpsuit and uttering the kung fu sounds that Bruce Lee will always be remembered for.

The Kung Fu in this movie is average at best. It's not one of Jet Li's best performances, but then again it isn't bad. What the movie lacks in kung fu, it makes up for with the aforementioned gratuitous violence. The parody is what makes this film worthwhile. 6/9 stars.

Prolific producer/director/actor Wong Jing is the Hong Kong equivalent of Michael Bay, a film-maker who churns out insipid popcorn fodder for the masses. High Risk AKA Meltdown is Jing's blatant clone of Die Hard, a movie full of explosions, gunfire, death and destruction, with some dumb slapstick comedy for good measure, but totally devoid of originality, completely lacking in artistic merit, and a tragic waste of star Jet Li's incredible fighting abilities.

Li plays Kit, a fearless bomb disposal expert who quits the business after his wife is blown to smithereens by a terrorist organisation led by the evil Dr. David Wang (Kelvin Wong, who, thanks to the atrocious dubbing, is more Tim Curry than Alan Rickman). Two years later, Kit is working as bodyguard and secret stunt double for drunken, womanising martial arts movie star Frankie Lone (Jacky Cheung, mercilessly lampooning Jackie Chan) when The Doctor and his henchmen take over the new hotel where Frankie is attending an exhibition of priceless jewels.

While the terrorists try to break the security code for the exhibits, Kit, aided by police detective Chow Kam (Chung-Hsien Yang), tries to rescue the hostages, whose numbers include sexy news reporter Helen (the lovely Chingmy Yau), Chow Kam's feisty girlfriend Joyce (Charlie Yeung), and Frankie's father (Ma Wu)—as well as the cowardly kung fu star himself, who spends most of the film hiding from the villains.

While Meltdown certainly delivers its fair share of chaotic action, including a car and a helicopter crashing into the hotel to cause untold damage, endless shootouts and numerous explosions, the whole thing soon becoming tiresome thanks to the total absence of originality and the excruciatingly bad comedy. Fans of Jet Li will also be disappointed by the lack of martial arts action from the star, the film's only notable fight scene occurring between Frankie and Wang's head henchman Kong, played by Billy Chow, who sports the mother of all mullets!

4.5 out of 10, generously rounded up to 5 for the excessive violence (there are countless squibs, a guy has his hand cut off by a machete, Dr. Wang's sexy squeeze Fai Fai gets her head shot off, and one extra is cut in half by the helicopter's rotor blade).

If you are an action fan, and are able to overlook the usual, for Hong Kong movies, schizophrenic tone, which mixes excessive violence with slapstick comedy, it's practically impossible to be disappointed by "Meltdown": first-rate fight scenes, wildly over-the-top stunts, prime explosions and lots of shattered glass. It's hard to believe that so much action can be packed in just one movie. Jet Li moves with amazing speed and agility, Jacky Cheung is pretty funny, and Chingmy Yau is also around, which is always a plus. (***)

I can't say it better myself. This movie rocks, HARD! It's filled with non-stop comedy and action sequences and is never boring.

Jet Li is a police officer who is asked to fill in for a stunt-man, who is a Jackie Chan-persona, one fine day. The next couple of days, the cop's supposed to be a bodyguard for the spoiled star who's to meet with his managers a couple of business partners in a huge rich, business building with a lot of people.

All of a sudden, the party is crashed by some jewel thieves who have been wanted for various terrorist acts in Hong Kong, including one where a bus armed w/ explosives & had a ton of hostages on it was blown to pieces. Included was Li's wife and child so the film is part- revenge flick as well.

The movie starts out explosive, has funny in-between moments and has the last couple of minutes be all about kung fu, more explosions, gun-fights, people using random objects as weapons, more gun-fights, snakes (!) and a helicopter crash along with another random fight.

It never gets old!

Two HK directors teamed up to make this mockery on Jackie Chan, who was portrayed as a hypocritical coward and a selfish superstar named Frankie Lone in the movie. Note Frankie Lone in his trademark yellow jumpsuit. That was a parody to Jackie Chan's poster for his early film, "Heart of Dragon" (1985). "High Risk" (aka "Melt Down") might seem trashy to film buffs but it's one of a kind. Like what Mank did to William Randolph Hearst in his script for "Citizen Kane," everyone could tell who Frankie Lone stood for back then. It's unclear if the two directors were retaliated, but Jackie Chan did make his double speak out for him in public. It's certainly an entertaining film packed with actions and HK superstars like Jacky Cheung and Jet Li.