Possibly Jackie's last action outing! Is this the Jackie Chan movie we've all been waiting for?? And who's his stunning new female co-star??? Read on to find out.
First of all I have to
apologize for the lateness of this review.
I saw CZ12 back on release day in Singapore but had such mixed feelings
about it that I just kept delaying it.
I’m a huge huge Jackie Chan
fan! Police Story, Project-A, Armour of
God, Dragons Forever, Thunderbolt, Rumble in the Bronx, City Hunter, Wheels on
Meals, Who Am I, Mr. Nice Guy, Gorgeous, Rob-B-Hood, Shanghai Noon, Karate Kid
and even the Rush Hour movies! I think they all rock! If you haven’t seen them then do yourself a
favour and check them out! All great
movies following Jackie’s special formula and mix of action and humour, not to
mention the crazy crazy stunts! The guy is fearless and that’s why I reckon he could’ve taken both Bruce &
Jet. He has and never will have an
equal.
So how does CZ12 compare to
these classics? Not that well I’m
afraid. Undeniably it’s great seeing
Jackie back on the big screen. The
moment you see his big nose and cheeky grin you can’t help smiling.
The story follows Jackie as
he tries to recover twelve bronze animal statue heads representing the animals
of the Chinese Zodiac (Dragon, Snake, Tiger, Monkey etc). Stolen by British forces (shame on you) from
China in the 1860s, these heads start popping up at auctions fetching crazy
amounts of money. Jackie, an archeology
thief as in the previous Armour of God movies, is initially employed to track
down these heads with his motley crew of thieves. But soon it comes to mean much more to him
than just another job as he learns to appreciate the significance they have to the
people around him and also to the heritage of China.
We are introduced to the
members of Jackie’s team early on. Zhang
Lanxin is bound to keep the boys happy.
A China national Taekwondo champion (meaning she could kick Yaw’s butt), her first scene is reminiscent of Maggie-Q’s Lamborghini scene in Mission
Impossible 3 but turned up a notch thanks to some pretty nifty splits
action. A real female fighter with
scorching looks, it will be exciting to see what movies she does next.
Crazy kick!!
Her fight scene towards the
end is also one of the highlights of the movie, at times even detracting from
some of Jackie’s own hand-to-hand combat.
The rest of the team, unfortunately, is completely forgettable. They have no chemistry with Jackie making it
hard to believe he would every really trust and depend on such people. There is a token white woman in the vein of
previous Armour of God movies but she is never anything other than completely
annoying.
The action shows brief
glimpses of what we love about Jackie Chan movies but never reaches that level
we want. Too much obvious CGI and fake
stunts really distract and make serious scenes unintentionally laugh worthy. Even the main big fight with a rival thief
never really takes off. I left the movie
thinking Jackie didn’t actually have any proper fights in this film.
The ending, although a
spectacle, is so CGI heavy that it just becomes unbelievable. I never thought I’d be comparing a
Jackie Chan movie to a Tom Cruise movie – but after seeing Cruise jump out
of a tower in Dubai, the finale in this feels dishearteningly lackluster.
There are plenty of guest
appearances and the usual gag real at the end to draw out a few smiles and
laughs but on the whole this is still quite a forgettable movie.
Jackie still has it, I’m sure
of it! I’m sure without all the CGI and
with a better story we can still get a real Jackie Chan movie but this isn’t
it. Need a Jackie Chan fix then check it
out – just make sure you go in with appropriate expectations.
Rating 3 out of 5
Bobby
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