OPERATION CONDOR
A Film Review by Brian Takeshita
Rating: *1/2 out of ****
The first scene of OPERATION CONDOR has Jackie Chan preparing for a secret mission. He attempts to pop a couple of pieces of chewing gum into his mouth, but misses. After they ricochet off his face, he says, "Not a good start." As it turns out, this line not only gives foreshadowing to the opening sequence, but to the rest of the movie as well.
In this, the latest of the Jackie Chan movies to be released in America after first runs in Hong Kong, Chan plays an international operative codenamed "Condor", and is tasked by the United Nations with finding a stash of gold hidden at a secret base by the Nazi's during their retreat across the Saharan desert during the Second World War.
For some reason, Condor is given his mission at the U.S. embassy in Spain. I think this may have been done so that in a chase scene, they could honor the time old tradition of knocking over a fruit cart. Watch for it in any chase scene set in a foreign country, most notably in Europe. The chase will take itself through a marketplace, and a fruit cart will be overturned. It's almost a guarantee. Anyway....
Condor is given a key which is supposed to unlock a giant vault in which the gold is hidden; the problem is that the key has insulators integrated into it, which may mean a booby trap might be electronically triggered if the key is used improperly. To help him figure out where the gold is hidden and how to use the key correctly, Condor is accompanied by a desert expert (Carol Cheng) and the granddaughter of the captain who was in charge of hiding the gold (Eva Cobo). There aren't supposed to be any relatives of the Nazi captain living in Spain, but Condor finds the granddaughter by looking her up in the phone book or something. Although these two women are supposed to be integral parts of the mission, they prove no help at all except to get in trouble and provide an excuse for Chan to jump into his martial arts. In fact, most of the scenes are so ridiculously contrived that it seems everything is just a way to set up a fight.
I suppose this isn't so bad, since Chan's action is really the best part of the movie, and the only reason you go to see one of his films anyway. If you've never seen a Jackie Chan movie, don't expect a great plot, but do expect to be entertained by his moves. They are so well choreographed and often so amazing that you wonder if this guy is human. Knowing that he does his own stunts, and knowing that this is the real stuff (no computer-masked bungee cords here) makes the action sequences all the more exciting. You've got to hand it to a guy who's probably broken every bone in his body for the sake of his art.
Also of note in this, as in any Jackie Chan movie, is the humor. As far as I know, none of his films take themselves too seriously, and even the dramatic parts have a certain tongue-in-cheek quality about them. What is almost masterful is the way that humor is even integrated into the fight scenes. Unlike a martial arts film such as anything with Jean Claude Van Damme, where the fights get you on the visceral level, fight scenes in Chan's movies are simply entertaining. You marvel at both his moves and at the way he employs them in such a way to make you laugh.
Unfortunately, even Chan's mastery can't save this film. The plot and characters are so weak that they don't hold the movie together at all, and the acting is terrible. Carol Cheng has apparently won best actress honors at the Hong Kong Movie Awards in the past, but since OPERATION CONDOR is a dubbed movie it kind of takes all bets off. This, combined with an obviously low production value made we want to turn away from the screen until I heard those kicks start flying.
Review posted December 16, 1997
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