A little update first. There's quite a few movies to catch up on because I stayed away during the holidays. I'm not particulalry fond of crowds. So a few other reviews are up at the on Berning Away, click thourgh for... Kimi no Na Wa (Your Name) [posted Dec 9, 2016] Rogue One (posted Dec 20, 2016) Assassin's Creed (posted Jan 5, 2017) The Great Wall (posted Jan 6, 2017) and now... While he may still be in control of the stunt-work, action super-star Jackie Chan is playing more to his age these days. While he may be tackling more dramatic roles, he hasn’t completely abandoned the genre that made him famous. Although for some, the lack of those impressive extended action beats may disappoint. It would be a very unfair assessment. Chan does his best and he does it well enough where the story here is concerned. Set sometime in the early 20th century, Japan has moved in on China and the Chinese armies are fighting back. Chan’s little gang of thieves (who rob trains) get swept up in plot to bomb a railway bridge that is crucial in supplying the Japanese armies, although they may not be entirely sure how they’re going to achieve that. Director Ding Sheng takes his time to establish a string of characters before rolling up the main plot, and there are quite a number of characters, each getting a kind of credit screen giving their name, position or ranking, and catchphrase. Once things get going, it’s a fairly straight-froward adventure with a couple of heist attempts, decisions on who’s doing what, one jail-break off a train and the finale where they carry out the plan to blow up the bridge. In all, it’s almost like a war flick with men on a mission, even if it’s a gang of thieves instead of soldiers. Given with the title, there are several action set-pieces set around trains, and given the number of characters floating around, there are no real extended one-on-one action beats. That being said, there are some brutal moments within the action, but they happen so fast it’s hard to determine if the violence is truly over the top at times. All that is mostly off-set by the humour throughout the movie, including one hilarious moment of banter between Jackie and his son, Jaycee. In all, even if it requires some patience to get through the first quarter of the film, it is ultimately an entertaining and fairly action-packed flick. Directed by Ding Sheng Stars Jackie Chan, Zitao Huang, Kai Weng, Jaycee Chan, Hiroyuki Ikeuchi, Sang Ping, Darren Wong, Koji Yano Rating *** /5 Find the best online deals here. | Barnes and Noble | Google Play Store | Book Depository Discover more about the books here.
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