The trailers for this movie made it seem like Jackie Chan's Taken. Daughter kidnapped and/or dead, check, old guy that kicks ass, check, super cool revenge plot, check. It also has a cool terrorism plot with Pierce Brosnan tracking down a group of bombers. How in the world could this movie not be great? Well I'm here to tell you... it really isn't.
In this film Jackie Chan takes his daughter to buy a dress, which leads to her being killed through the bombing of a nearby bank. With nothing left to live for, Chan's character goes out to find the men that killed her daughter, doing whatever necessary to get their names. Brosnan plays a high ranking government official trying to solve the bombing, while having Chan constantly terrorizing him looking for the bombers' names. So here we are with both a cool revenge action thriller, and a high stakes political thriller, two things that in this case don't mesh well together.
I'll first say that it is no fault to the actors that this movie doesn't work. Chan is fantastic in this movie. While his English isn't great, he more than makes up for that with an incredibly emotional physical performance, with his body and facial expression at the top of their game. His resilience to find his daughter's murderers feels real at all times and he plays the part of the grieving parent perfectly. He is also brilliant in every action scene he is involved in. Brosnan is also fantastic, and is only ever outshone by Chan. He is constantly carrying the more political scenes he is in, scenes that without his presence would be painful to sit through. That's pretty much everything I have to say acting wise. The rest of the movie is filled with undeveloped side characters that the audience is given no reason to care about, and yes that includes the central antagonists in the group of terrorists.
The area this film loses everything it had going for it is the writing. While the revenge plot is fun to watch unravel, the political thriller aspect of the film is honestly just boring. The large amount of characters we know nothing about do nothing to help this. One of the many things not developed about a lot of the characters is any motivation. Other than Chan of course, most of the characters seem to have no motivation for their actions, despite how grand those actions are. In some cases, a lack of motivation can make a character more mysterious and interesting, but in this case I think there is just a lot of lazy screenwriting that didn't bother telling us why people are doing what they are doing. Characters also do a lot of stupid shit in this movie for really no reason. Brosnan's character, despite being married and of high government ranking, kisses a girl he is having an affair with in an open restaurant, Chan at one point gives Brosnan a day to give him the terrorists' names with no idea if he'll have them in time, and a bunch of government officials just shoot people whenever they seem to feel like it. So not only is the script uninteresting, it's also fairly stupid.
Luckily the action sequences are great, although there aren't enough. Each fight scene is choreographed very well, showing a good balance of reality and fun. Another aspect I liked a lot was Chan's character stalking Brosnan, as he sets up many cool traps to stop Brosnan's men. The only issue with all those scenes is that they're sandwiched between the boring political side of the film.
Overall I'd say this is a movie to watch on TV some day. The revenge, action movie part of the movie is a ton of fun, and could make for a great movie on its own, but the boring political thriller Pierce Brosnan is trying his hardest to carry is honestly just boring and forgettable. This is by no means a movie you need to rush to the theatre for.
Rating: 2.5/5
Written by Matt McKenzie
In this film Jackie Chan takes his daughter to buy a dress, which leads to her being killed through the bombing of a nearby bank. With nothing left to live for, Chan's character goes out to find the men that killed her daughter, doing whatever necessary to get their names. Brosnan plays a high ranking government official trying to solve the bombing, while having Chan constantly terrorizing him looking for the bombers' names. So here we are with both a cool revenge action thriller, and a high stakes political thriller, two things that in this case don't mesh well together.
I'll first say that it is no fault to the actors that this movie doesn't work. Chan is fantastic in this movie. While his English isn't great, he more than makes up for that with an incredibly emotional physical performance, with his body and facial expression at the top of their game. His resilience to find his daughter's murderers feels real at all times and he plays the part of the grieving parent perfectly. He is also brilliant in every action scene he is involved in. Brosnan is also fantastic, and is only ever outshone by Chan. He is constantly carrying the more political scenes he is in, scenes that without his presence would be painful to sit through. That's pretty much everything I have to say acting wise. The rest of the movie is filled with undeveloped side characters that the audience is given no reason to care about, and yes that includes the central antagonists in the group of terrorists.
The area this film loses everything it had going for it is the writing. While the revenge plot is fun to watch unravel, the political thriller aspect of the film is honestly just boring. The large amount of characters we know nothing about do nothing to help this. One of the many things not developed about a lot of the characters is any motivation. Other than Chan of course, most of the characters seem to have no motivation for their actions, despite how grand those actions are. In some cases, a lack of motivation can make a character more mysterious and interesting, but in this case I think there is just a lot of lazy screenwriting that didn't bother telling us why people are doing what they are doing. Characters also do a lot of stupid shit in this movie for really no reason. Brosnan's character, despite being married and of high government ranking, kisses a girl he is having an affair with in an open restaurant, Chan at one point gives Brosnan a day to give him the terrorists' names with no idea if he'll have them in time, and a bunch of government officials just shoot people whenever they seem to feel like it. So not only is the script uninteresting, it's also fairly stupid.
Luckily the action sequences are great, although there aren't enough. Each fight scene is choreographed very well, showing a good balance of reality and fun. Another aspect I liked a lot was Chan's character stalking Brosnan, as he sets up many cool traps to stop Brosnan's men. The only issue with all those scenes is that they're sandwiched between the boring political side of the film.
Overall I'd say this is a movie to watch on TV some day. The revenge, action movie part of the movie is a ton of fun, and could make for a great movie on its own, but the boring political thriller Pierce Brosnan is trying his hardest to carry is honestly just boring and forgettable. This is by no means a movie you need to rush to the theatre for.
Rating: 2.5/5
Written by Matt McKenzie
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