OPERATION CONDOR (Dimension) Starring: Jackie Chan, Carol Cheng, Eva Cobo de Garcia, Shoko Ikeda, Aldo Sanchez. Screenplay: Jackie Chan, Edward Tang. Producer: Leonard Ho. Director: Jackie Chan. MPAA Rating: PG-13 (violence, mild profanity) Running Time: 90 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
Everything about Jackie Chan's OPERATION CONDOR seems to scream out "James Bond wanna-be." The American ad campaign for the film places Jackie in a heroic pose in front of Spandex-clad, gun-toting babes, a pre-opening credits sequence sets the stage with a few impressive stunts, and the opening credits themselves are full of silhouette images. The plot, meanwhile, concerns flirtations with a female associate, narrow escapes, nefarious traps, exotic locations and one wheelchair-bound arch-villain. Anything sound familiar?
Imagine, now, that in the course of mimicking one of the most iconic adventure series of the last thirty years, someone managed to improve on it. When the creative force behind the result is Jackie Chan, it's not a tremendous stretch of the imagination. OPERATION CONDOR is simply the most ridiculously entertaining action film to grace American screens this year, a dazzling combination of energetic comedy and virtuoso stunt work which shames the multi-million dollar detritus offered this summer by Hollywood studios.
OPERATION CONDOR, a 1990 Hong Kong release originally titled ARMOUR OF GOD II, casts Jackie as a secret agent/soldier of fortune named, creatively enough, Jackie. Jackie's mission, should he choose to accept it, is to help the United Nations recover a fortune in stolen gold hidden in the Sahara by Nazis near the end of World War II. Along for the ride are Ada (Carol Chang), an expert in desert geography, and Sasha (Eva Cobo de Garcia), the granddaughter of the Nazi officer who originally hid the gold. Making life difficult for Jackie and company are a variety of bad-tempered mercenaries, including a pair of inept Arabs and the aforementioned wheelchair-bound arch-villain, all of whom have their own designs on the gold.
And none of it really matters in the least, except to the extent that it provides a set-up for action sequences. That structure doesn't distinguish it much from most late-model Bond films, or from the majority of late-model action films of any make. What does distinguish OPERATION CONDOR is the action it delivers -- not just big, loud and expensive action but inventive, thrilling and beautifully choreographed action. A Jackie Chan fight sequence can do something absolutely extraordinary in the jaded age of the blockbuster: it makes action seem original. You may spend half of OPERATION CONDOR's running time -- particularly the spectacular wind tunnel finale -- wearing the goofy expression of someone who can't believe he just saw that.
You may spend the other half enjoying the presence of Chan himself, though the Bond analogy certainly breaks down at this point. Chan is a lot of things on screen, but suave ain't one of them. You get the feeling you'd be more likely to see him in a cardigan and slippers than in an Armani tuxedo; he's like Mr. Rogers if he could do a spinning back kick. (My apologies, Fred, if you _can_ do a spinning back kick.) Yet it is exactly that polite, boyish charm which makes Chan such a great action hero. He's in on the absurd joke of action films, but not in the raised eyebrow, quip-spewing way which passes for wit in other genre entries. Chan is willing simply to laugh at himself, at the idea of a vulnerable nice guy who defeats his opponents with grace and style rather than with an Uzi. One of OPERATION CONDOR's best gags has Jackie trying to avoid being noticed by Sasha while sneaking through her house, when Sasha sneezes. For a split-second, we see Jackie fight the instinctively gentlemanly reaction which could blow his cover: he _almost_ says "Bless you."
There are a few clumsy transitions in OPERATION CONDOR, many the result of editing which trimmed almost twenty minutes from the original cut of ARMOUR OF GOD II, as well as predictably stiff supporting performances and grossly caricatured accents in the dubbed voices. Big deal. OPERATION CONDOR is _fun_, fun in a way which should make people embarrassed for using the same word to describe CON AIR or THE LOST WORLD. If I were Pierce Brosnan, I'd be looking over my shoulder right about now.
The name is Chan...Jackie Chan.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 saving Bonds: 8.
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