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My PS2013 Review - MAJOR SPOILERS DON'T READ!!!

posted 10 years ago by jc2ar
2 replies | jump to latest

Having read many reviews I had low expectations for this movie. But just like last years CZ12 all the reviewers complained about one thing...Jackie Chan not fighting enough.

I am not saying CZ12 was a masterpiece but it was certainly watchable (minus the 600+ character arcs and 1million languages spoken) and the fights Jackie did WERE great for a 58 yr old.

Now we move on to PS2013 which is different in tone altogether.

PROS:
- Jackie cried when he needed to and not for the sake of it. Everyone liked NPS, I found it corny. Every scene in NPS had Jackie crying like a baby. Here, I actually felt something for his character.
- Many reviewers complained about the villain's motive (I will get to that in the cons too) but what I enjoyed was that the villain wasn't over the top 80s bad guy. He wanted answers for his sister's death and when he found out, he was willing to let everyone go (kind of). I liked the developing relationship between Jackie and the bad guy (sorry don't know his name).
- There is one Jackie fight scene and it is intense. I personally didn't like him being constantly thrown to the ground but that cliche of the good guy overcoming the pain was really emotional. I was praying it wasn't a dream sequence when he fought back so that was a relief.
- Use of shaky cam was a good technique. If anyone saw Man of Steel and vomited at the camera work, you will be happy to know they don't overdo it in PS2013.
- The ending had me in tears. After Jackie saves everyone he gets shot and then has a quick flashback. It shows him trying to run out the train tracks whilst his daughter is waiting at the hospital after her mum was dying. Jackie couldn't get there in time and it shows him reflecting on that. And also reflecting on how his daughter disowned him with a simple look. They were obviously trying to portray the cliche of cop is a cop busy with duties blah blah blah. Well the cliche worked. Jackie's song helped set the mood.

CONS:
- My gawd! What is it with Jackie and acting with people who are 20-30 years younger than him. It really annoys me and doesn't fit in. They also try to portray the young generation as drunk slutty gelled haired hooligans. Yes we get it, our generation sucks. Thanks for establishing that.
- It would have been nice to see Jackie's wife in the film. They talk about her throughout but don't show her. It would have been nice to see Jackie in a complete family role. Karate Kid didn't do it, Spy Next Door was hardly fitting since Jackie was more like a stepdad...so this movie kind of missed it.
- Jackie's daughter in the film starts out like a punk. It then takes her 20 minutes to change her mind and then gloat how she is proud to be a daughter of a policeman. But 20 minutes back, police are nothing and fight crime for low wages. Nice shift lady.
- The hostages were your typical Chinese over the top support characters. Remember in NPS when Jackie says he loves his gf, and then the scene is ruined by showing every persons reaction to such a sweet moment? Yeah they did that here too. When Jackie is having an intense and emotional fight, you hear things like 'He's so skillful', 'This is such a suspense!' and 'Mr Policeman, please don't fight anymore you won't win. I don't want to be free, you are so honourable'...
- The villain's plans were hokey. I will give the reviewers a bit of credit and agree with that point. His plan was to keep hostage everyone who happened to witness his sisters death at a chemist. And you get a mess of dialogue when everyone tells a mixture of stories. It then turns out it was one of his own men who instigated it and you're like WTF?
- As a result of the last two points, I had no sympathy for the hostages. They were lame and annoying.

Overall a solid movie. I hope it gets a UK cinematic release (yeah right, keep dreaming).

Is it a Jackie Chan film? No and that has been stated clearly that it is not an action movie. I don't know who compared it to Die Hard, it is nothing like Die Hard. Just because it takes place in one location does not make it Die Hard. It is like saying every action movie is Commando.

I am disappointed it was titled Police Story. Obviously done to garner attention but it deserved a different title.

I'm giving this movie a 7/10.

It's a shame every now and then you get a solid movie like this and then Jackie goes off to America to shoot a movie with...Sean William Scott.

Anywho, any questions ask away!!!!

[–] anthropy 10 years ago

That's a long review. Very good and honest opinions. Actually, the movie wouldn't garner much attention if not for Jackie Chan's fame and Police Story's franchise. It's a role that could be played by any decent actor who knows kungfu. The director explained why he did this. He said something like he wanted to do minuses (in a mathematical sense) with Jackie Chan, stripping away all the usual elements that's associated with him and his screen persona to the bare minimum, and thus present the truly dramatic side of Jackie Chan. Well, he did that while removing all the trademarks of fun and levity that could be seen in all previous PS movies.

The script went through many different drafts. The original title for the first few draft was "The Negotiator". Even though they changed the scripts many times and gave it a different title, but it is still basically a negotiation movie.

[–] A_Man_of_Iron 10 years ago

The camerawork itself is not that bad but I thought the editing was horrible. Too many fast cuts even in scenes that didn't need it. For example, there's a bit where Jackie Chan is getting out of his car and just that small bit of action is shown in like four different shots, including one wide shot from a point far away from the action. It's horrible. Little Big Soldier (which was also directed by Sheng Ding) also suffered from the same awful editing problems and it stopped that film short of being an excellent film.