Operation Condor
A movie review by Michael J. Legeros
Copyright 1997 by Michael J. Legeros
(Dimension)
Directed by Jackie Chan
Written by Jackie Chan and Edward Tang
Cast Jackie Chan, Carol Cheng, Eva Cobo deGarcia, Ikeda
Shoko, Aldo Sanchez, Ken Lo Wai-Kwong
MPAA Rating "PG-13"
Running Time 90 minutes
Reviewed at Six Forks Station Cinemas, Raleigh, NC (16JUL97)
==
The "new" Jackie Chan film has one ingenious, arguably brilliant sequence. It happens at the end of the movie, in an old WWII wind tunnel, built by the Nazis and buried somewhere in the Sahara, along with a fortune in stolen gold. (240 tons worth, if you can stand it!) Chan's character, a super-spy adventurer with the code name Condor, is squaring off against a pair of mercenaries, two of several villains who want the gold for themselves. The three combatants get tossed and turned and slammed against walls and sucked toward giant propellers and, at times, appear to hover in midair. It's a great bit that's better lit, better paced, and more meticulously edited than any other action sequence in the film. Alas, the rest of OPERATION CONDOR is strictly lower-grade J.C. Wacky dubbing and frantic editing are the chief culprits, both of which may be attributable to the repackaging process. (Chan, who also directed, trimmed some 13 minutes from the original, which was released as ARMOR OF GOD II in 1991.) His sense of humor is still a strong selling point and, with a "story" that takes place on three continents, the accompanying scenery is quite nice. I just wish he'd staged that motorcycle sequence better. I couldn't tell if that was him in every shot or not.
Grade: C+
-- Mike Legeros - Movie Hell http://www.nonvirtual.com/hell
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