Strong and Moving!

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

An atypical Jackie Chan production in that it features substantially less of the martial arts and comedy that we have come to expect from the Chinese star. Instead this feels like more of a Stallone film, as a sports mechanic must prove himself against a criminal on the track in a life or death race to the finish. The production is a lot more serious than most Chan movies and the comedy is kept to a bare minimum, so consequently some scenes do drag and appear a little dry.Another change is that for the fight scenes, Chan mainly uses a double rather than fighting himself. The reason being that due to injuries he was unable to do the required moves. Although this does detract from the realism of the production it certainly doesn't detract from the realism of the fights, which are as fast and frenetic as usual. My favourite occurs when Jackie goes mad with a sledgehammer in a pinball arcade, fighting through and on top of the machines and acrobatics. The finale of this sequence involves a huge cascade of metal ball bearings which makes for a nice spectacle.Unfortunately the few other fight sequences ring a little false, and some are filmed in some rubbish artistic slow-motion so you can't see what the heck is going on. Being a film primarily about fast cars, there are the requisite number of passable car chases, the best occurring at the finale where lots of vehicles crash, explode and fly through the air in style. Also watch out for a moment where Jackie gets a rude awakening after his bedroom is hoisted into the air with a crane! Only in Hong Kong. The acting from Chan and his co-star Anita Yuen is strong but less so from the other cast members, particularly Thorsten Nickel as the laughable European bad guy Cougar, although this may be a result of the English dubbing rather than a problem with the actor himself.Sadly the lack of comedy, decent Chan martial arts and the sudden seriousness (a bloody shoot-out is fairly decent but doesn't sit well within the film's 'family' template) with dollops of morality and sentimentalising make this one of the star's less entertaining productions. For slicker and generally better films check out either RUMBLE IN THE BRONX or FIRST STRIKE from the same period.

Jackie Loh Chan is a motor mechanic whose father helps the police identify illegally modified vehicles to confiscate them from boy racers plaguing the area. During one such confiscation Chan witnesses a car evade capture and almost kill a policeman. The police are after this car as the driver is suspected to be criminal and speed freak Cougar – wanted across the world by several different Governments. Chan gets involved in a high-speed chase that results in the capture of Cougar but when he escapes he targets Chan for a violent second race.Jackie Chan movies are never the best place to look if you're after strong plotting and well written dialogue and this is no different. The plot itself is very basic and quite full of holes – it's even pretty thin in explaining how Chan gets mixed up in the police business originally. But like I said plotting is never his main thin and only occasionally does the weakness of the plot become annoying – mainly when the drama is played out in words exchanged.At these points the weaknesses of the script are exposed – the dialogue is unconvincing and, sadly, totally lacking in humour, preferring a more hard edged approach. It's a shame cause Chan's better films mix his trademark humour and his amazing stunt work – this has him at his toughest and, while the stunts etc are all great, it's not a good look for him.While the fighting and driving are all very enjoyable the director occasionally works hard to spoil them – he doesn't do a good job here. Basically all I wanted him to do was set up two cameras and point them at the action. However instead he uses far too many edits and fast cuts to make some fight scenes almost unwatchable. I think specifically to the great scene in the games place. It starts as a tough scene with great martial arts action but the director first edits too quickly and then slows it down in some weird slowmo that blurs everything badly.The action is all good though – the main car chase on Hong Kong streets is good and most of the fight scenes show off Chan's ability and not just his willingness to put himself at risk. Chan is OK as an actor but the intense emotion required by his hard boiled character is not really him. He seems different without his usual comedy material and is at a stretch several times. Nickel is god-awful as Cougar – he looks like an 80's throwback (think Airwolf with long hair!) and delivers every line with all the character of a stapler. Yuen is better as Amy Yip and is good-looking and natural despite not having a lot in the way of lines. I was pleased to see Wong in the cast and he gets a chance to show off his John Woo credentials in a few scenes. A cheeky bit of casting has Chris Patten (not really him of course) getting blasted by Jackie's car – he was Governor of Hong Kong at the time.Overall this has sufficient good action to justify watching. However the direction is iffy and it lacks the trademark Chan humour. Still enjoyable to watch for the action but this isn't one of Chan's better efforts.

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.

Jackie Chan is the mechanic, who helps the police on his spare-time. He soon meets the psychotic drugdealer Cougar, who by chance also likes racing.... Action and racing is what Thunderball is all about. Great old-fashioned, predictable fun! 8/10