Truly Dreadful Film

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

This movie is not a Jackie Chan movie, despite his name plastered all over the cover.But that's the least of it's problems.If you want to watch a somewhat nostalgic 90's movie featuring ridiculous Jackie Chan hair, this movie is for you. If you want to watch something coherent, stay far, far away.Basically, what we have here is a poor attempt at a prison movie. The plot focuses around a cop who goes undercover in a prison in an attempt to find out details about an inmate who's believed to have faked his own death.Simple enough plot. Problem: why in the hell did he have to beat the crap out of someone in order to get thrown in the prison? Couldn't the police just have made arrangements for him, rather than him serving a 2 year sentence to get some basic information? Jackie Chan's "character" is even worse. He gets thrown in the prison for what was clearly a manslaughter in self defense, and hardly appears in the movie at all. His character serves absolutely no purpose.There are some other characters along the way, like Sammo Hung, but ultimately the result is a shoddy movie that constantly features innocent men purposely committing crimes to get thrown in prison to fulfill a personal vendetta.Of course, that's not all. The last 15 minutes, the four male leads all have their executions faked and are suddenly now killing machines on an assassination mission.I don't use the term killing machines lightly - they take out numerous heavily armed soldiers through the use of a few handguns.The most comical part comes in the last scene of the movie when the undercover cop (now free) reunites with his girlfriend - the same girlfriend from two years ago when the movie began. The film clearly states that she had no idea he was undercover in prison; so basically, he screwed her over and she's happy to see him.To end it all, we have a small blooper reel during the credits which ultimately ends with a freeze frame of Jackie's smiling face, despite the fact he only gets a whopping 20 minutes of screen time.In short, avoid. This movie will leave you with more questions than answers, and it's not worth your time to ponder them. I don't want to get hung up on the whole "this isn't a Jackie Chan movie" thing, but the reality is that he only appeared in this movie as a favor to the director, who helped Jackie get out of some trouble with triads in the early 80's.In fact, Jackie hates this movie so much that he bought it's rights to ensure it's never distributed again (if you look around, you'll notice that it is no longer produced on DVD in any country).

Rated R for Violence and Language. Quebec Rating:13+ Canadian Home Video Rating:18AI saw The Prisoner yesterday night on Showcase Action.I'm surprised at the low rating.It should be in the 6's or 7's.Now I am going to say this now.This is not a Jackie Chan film or a Martial Arts film.The VHS's and DVD's have Jackie Chan's face on the cover and the film is called Jackie Chan's The Prisoner.But Jackie Chan is definitely not the main star of the film.He is a supporting actor who does have some fairly memorable scenes.This was the third film Jackie Chan had to do for actor Jimmy Wang Yu.The first was The Killer Meteors in 1976,then Fantasy Mission Force in 1982 and this film.Out of those three Jackie Chan films I must say that this was the best.Also the film is not a martial arts film.It is a gritty and violent prison film with profanity and violence but it does have some small traces of humor in it.The US release has some obvious scenes cut out.The film has a fairly good storyline.The film is about a man who'se girlfriends father got killed by some thugs.To find out who he must go to prison and explore the prison underworld.He does so by beating up a pimp.While he is there he meets and makes friends and enemies with the prisoners.That is one of the stories of the film.There are three stories related to the film.The second story is about another prisoner(Sammo Hung) who tries to escape from prison to see his son at boarding school.The third story is about a pool hustler(Jackie Chan) who gets into a fight with some triads for not losing.His girlfriend then gets stabbed by one of them.She needs a liver-transplant in 24hrs.So Jackie Chan tries gambling but after th others want to win back their money he gets into a fight with them and he himself ends up in prison.The Prisoner is a very underrated and good prison film with a fairly good storyline.The ending sort of came out of nowhere but whatever.The prisoner is a very good gritty and violent prison film which Jackie Chan is not the star of and I recommend it!Runtime:96min 10/10

Island on Fire (1990) was released in three different version, the Hong Kong theatrical run, the badly dubbed nonsensical U.S. version and the original two hour plus Taiwan cut. The best one out of the three is the Taiwanese print. This film was a "charity" film that was made to help the director who was in some real "financial" trouble with some shady characters.The director's best friend "Jimmy" Wang Yu called up some actors who "owed" him some favors. The top flight actors did the work for little or no pay. They were making a movie that was going to make some money, not a classic or anything like that. Just a quick film that'll make some fast bucks. Let's take a look at the different prints shall we?1.) The Hong Kong cut is a fast paced action film. Only the bare bones are left. Little plot is left in the way of seeing some of the actors on the screen. The story is simple, someone is hiring dead criminals to whack important people. Tony Leung Ka Fai get's involved when his fiancée's father get's whacked by the "dead" assassin. After snooping around he finds out that they're coming from a Taiwanese prison. So, old Tony gets himself arrested and his buddy pulls a few strings to get him inside the "big house".2.) The United States print re-dubs a lot of the scenes making many of them nonsensical. The dialog is drastically changed and some scenes are just re-dubbed (i.e. Jackie Chan is thrown in prison for accidentally killing Andy Lau's brother). Whilst in prison Andy Lau tries to have some of his inside men try and kill Jackie. Wang Yu doesn't want the prisoners killing each other or stupid things like that. He wants it civil inside. So to placate Lau's men he slices his arm and squeezes out some blood whilst telling them, "Let Lau know that I have bled for his brother, there will be no violence in my prison." Well, to that effect any way.In the U.S. version he just cuts his arm to show the two how "crazy" he can get. "You wanna see crazy! I'll show you crazy!!" he tells the two as he cut's his arm?! Doesn't make any sense. It goes on like this for ninety minutes! The DVD is horrible, not only is it badly dubbed but the "commentary" is worthless. Hell I know more about the movie than the guy they put on it.3.) The Taiwanese cut is over two hours long and it fleshes out the characters. Unlike the Hong Kong version, the film is fully subtitled in English (the subs disappear during the last eight minuted in the Hong Kong print). What I like about the Taiwan version is that the true motives of the characters are revealed. The movie makes a lot more sense and you call feel for them. It's also not as jumpy and confusing.The rest of the movie is real interesting. You'll be in for a surprise by the wild ending and the shocking conclusion!Highly recommended!Taiwan print: A+H.K. print: BU.S. print: F-

okay to all the people calling this film a crap martial arts film i have news for you..........its NOT a martial arts film.Its a story that involves people caught up in a plot to assasinate people by the goverment prenouncing that they have died then using them as expendable assasins.It just so happens that there are martial arts stars in it people went to see hulk hogan in surburban commando and they didnt expect a wrestling film did they. Despite all that i think this is a great film that deserves to be remade so that most cinema goers around the world will have the chance to see this powerfull emotional film.8/10