JACKIE CHAN'S FIRST STRIKE (1996) A film review by Steve Kong Copyright 1997 Steve Kong
It's hard to review a Jackie Chan movie, for the sheer reason that if you've written one, you've written one for all of his films. First Strike is no different. Jackie Chan movies are not to be seen for an intricate story or immense character development. Rather they are seen for the incredible action and the death-defying stunt work.
The story in First Strike that is use to string along the action scenes goes like this: A double agent has stolen a nuclear warhead in which he is to delivery to some Russian Mafia guys in Australia. The action takes place in the Ukraine (Canada substituting) and Australia.
The stunts in First Strike are most impressive. They include Jackie fighting with all sorts of different objects (ladders, tables, toxic fish). They also include Jackie fighting in all different locations, snowfields, underwater with large sharks, and hanging onto the edge of a building. And the most impressive of them all is the one in which Jackie flies off a cliff and grabs onto a flying helicopter. My most favorite scene is the one where Jackie takes on a half of a dozen men with sticks. He does this with the creative use of tables, chairs, brooms, and a ladder!
The humor is laid on thick in First Strike, and many times I found myself laughing out loud at the silliness on screen. First Strike seems to be the most American of all the Jackie films re-released in the US so far. The dubbing is pretty good and the new music sounds suspiciously like the music from Rumble in the Bronx (both scores are done by J. Peter Robinson).
When you see First Strike don't expect anything but pure action and humor. And if you can do this, you'll enjoy First Strike. But, expectations or not, First Strike is yet another Jackie Chan movie that you should see.
-- steve kong boiled@earthlink.net spy on me at: http://mookie.relay.net/mookie/steve-cam.html movie reviews: http://hardboiled.home.ml.org/
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