SUPERCOP
A film review by John Robertson
Copyright 1996 John Robertson
Directed by: Stanley Tong
Starring: Jackie Chan, Michelle Khan, Maggie Cheung, Ken Tsang, Yuen Wah, Bill Tung.
Perfect Person Rating*: The Perfect Person for Supercop is someone in the mood for an action film that doesn't pull any punches (or use stuntmen!), who also gets a kick out of campy humour and bad overdubbing. This film's perfect person would give Supercop 10 out of 10.
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For those whose first experience with Jackie Chan was this year's Rumble in the Bronx (Cannonball Run notwithstanding), Supercop will be both a surprise and a delight. Everything that there was to love about Rumble in the Bronx, namely the action, the incredible fight choreography and the charisma of Jackie Chan, are to be found in Supercop. The surprise for people familiar with Rumble is that Supercop is actually a much better movie. Where Rumble was something of a comedy that scored many of its laughs through the absurdity of the plot and setting, Supercop is a more straightforward action flick in the summer blockbuster vein that gives you smiles along the way.
The plot of Supercop isn't too important, but a brief summary for those who are interested. Chan plays Kevin, a Hong Kong cop with an impressive resume in the martial arts. He volunteers for a mission infiltrating a drug ring that has its tendrils spread all through southeast Asia. He suceeds, and makes his way to the inner circle of the gang along with his sister "Hanna" (Michelle Khan), the second best thing about the movie (after Chan himself).
Supercop isn't a typical action movie, and one of the ways this is most apparent is the character played by Khan. Most females in action movies are ornaments typically, who slow up the hero, trip when being chased, and maybe kick someone in the groin for humour near the end of the movie. Sure I'm over generalizing, but compared to Khan that's what every female action movie sidekick seems like. She not only keeps pace with Chan in the fighting and humour department, she does her own stunts as well, and at least one of hers is better than anything Jackie does.
If you had to find a flaw with Supercop, you don't have to look far -- or listen far as the case may be. Made in Hong Kong, the movie is overdubbed into English, but whoa, the audio on the dubbing is REALLY bad. It sounds like it was done through a couple of tin cans tied together with string, and that's just not what you expect for your eight bucks.
Next movie Miramax decides to bring us from Chan's repetoire, I'll buy the microphones for the dubbing if they let me meet Jackie. :)
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Copyright 1996 by John Robertson. Retransmit freely if unedited. My opinions are solely my own, and in no way reflect those of my employer.
* Perfect Person Rating: The Perfect Person Rating is an attempt to give the reader a new way of understanding my rating. Rather than give a film a score, either overall, or on several attributes, the Perfect Person Rating tries to identify the type of person would enjoy this movie the most. Since a reviewer is by nature someone with a great deal of experience in what they are reviewing, their experience may not be the same as someone who has less experience, is less jaded, or more attuned to the subject. Hopefully the Perfect Person Rating will go further toward eliminating reviewer bias than a simple rating scale. Comments are appreciated.
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