Movie Review: Crime Story
Jackie goes dark!
Intro
He’s Jackie Chan, you all know him well. For those who don’t, Jackie Chan is what you get when you cross Bruce Lee with a ninja chimpanzee. I’ll admit I’m a big Jackie Chan fan, I’ve seen a lot of his films, from the fantastic “Police Story”, to the dire “Rumble in Hong Kong”. You usually know what to expect from a Chan flick, kung-fu, generic characters and slapstick gymnastics action.
Story
Prepare to be surprised as Crime Story departs immediately from the usual JC formula and instead tells the true life story of how troubled cop Eddie Chan (JC), attempts to solve the complex kidnapping of large Hong Kong business man “Wong”, fighting police corruption all the way.
This is a real about-face for JC, and the film centres more around the story and less upon the action than in his other films as Eddie Chan races to save the kidnap victim and uncover his partner’s connection with the whole fiasco.
7.5/10
Action
Although Crime Story contains less of the usual slapstick action comedy we’re used to in a JC film, when the fights do happen, they’re brutal, hard-hitting and grandiose as Jackie unleashes his reportiore of high-flying kung fu kicks and flips. He might not be fighting in a giant wind-tunnel, or on the roof of a moving train, but bad-guys are still thrown through windows, off roofs, kicked down stairs, shot, stabbed and even kicked through large neon signs and electrocuted. It’s also notable that JC also uses guns more in this film than in most of his other films. With any generic hollywood hero, I’d have scored the film a little higher in this category, but c’mon, it’s a Jackie Chan film and I was expecting a little more in the way of kick-ass stunts. t”s still a great action movie however and it’s interesting to see Jackie kicking ass in a darker than usual way, at one point setting a bad guy on fire, leaving him to roll and scream for a few minutes before shooting him dead and screaming;
“YOU CAN SHUT UP TOO!”
Acting
JC shows us what he’s really capable of in Crime Story, portraying Eddie Chan”s troubled cop with startling conviction. You can really feel his anger and frustration as he battles beauracracy and corruption in his race against time to locate and save the kidnapped Wong.
I’m gonna score Crime Story pretty high here, because it almost makes me wish Jackie could have tackled more serious roles like this just a little more often during his long career in the action business.
8.0/10
Overall
A really good film overall, and stands up to criticism better than a lot of JC”s other films because it”s not just good because of the ass-kicking. There’s also a half-decent story and a bit of character-acting beneath all the violence.
7.5/10