Overrated and overhyped

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

At this point Hong Kong might be getting too small for a Jackie Chan movie. Small time mechanic doesn't do him any justice, and Hong Kong can't provide the right stars.Lack of interesting settings also didn't help to put humor into his action, and the movie became like a rehash of Police Story 2.Maybe only Jacke Chan didn't know how big he really was getting.This was more like just another Hong Kong movie, and wasn't a real Jackie Chan movie. But he quickly changes pace with his following movies, before breaking big in Hollywood.So take this movie as a transitional Jackie Chan. The movie proves to me that Jackie Chan really is a Super Star, and wouldn't fit into a regular movie star role.Even then, it would be hard to envision another actor who can play the role he's played in this movie.

"Thunderbolt" is probably Jackie Chan's worst movie since "The Protector" in 1985. Yes, I know that nobody watches his movies for their stories, but the plotting of this one is unusually lame, even by his standards, and while the fight choreography IS up to his standards, the fight scenes (the whole two of them) are ruined, as others have mentioned, by the frenetic, distracting camerawork. Even the most serious Jackie Chan fans shouldn't really bother with this offensively haphazard, stunt-and-plug-filled garbage. Anita Yuen's cute and perky performance is one of the few redeeming virtues. For a good "serious Jackie" movie, I recommend "Crime Story". (*1/2)

Jackie Loh Chan is a motor mechanic whose father helps the police identify illegally modified vehicles to confiscate them from boy racers plaguing the area. During one such confiscation Chan witnesses a car evade capture and almost kill a policeman. The police are after this car as the driver is suspected to be criminal and speed freak Cougar – wanted across the world by several different Governments. Chan gets involved in a high-speed chase that results in the capture of Cougar but when he escapes he targets Chan for a violent second race.Jackie Chan movies are never the best place to look if you're after strong plotting and well written dialogue and this is no different. The plot itself is very basic and quite full of holes – it's even pretty thin in explaining how Chan gets mixed up in the police business originally. But like I said plotting is never his main thin and only occasionally does the weakness of the plot become annoying – mainly when the drama is played out in words exchanged.At these points the weaknesses of the script are exposed – the dialogue is unconvincing and, sadly, totally lacking in humour, preferring a more hard edged approach. It's a shame cause Chan's better films mix his trademark humour and his amazing stunt work – this has him at his toughest and, while the stunts etc are all great, it's not a good look for him.While the fighting and driving are all very enjoyable the director occasionally works hard to spoil them – he doesn't do a good job here. Basically all I wanted him to do was set up two cameras and point them at the action. However instead he uses far too many edits and fast cuts to make some fight scenes almost unwatchable. I think specifically to the great scene in the games place. It starts as a tough scene with great martial arts action but the director first edits too quickly and then slows it down in some weird slowmo that blurs everything badly.The action is all good though – the main car chase on Hong Kong streets is good and most of the fight scenes show off Chan's ability and not just his willingness to put himself at risk. Chan is OK as an actor but the intense emotion required by his hard boiled character is not really him. He seems different without his usual comedy material and is at a stretch several times. Nickel is god-awful as Cougar – he looks like an 80's throwback (think Airwolf with long hair!) and delivers every line with all the character of a stapler. Yuen is better as Amy Yip and is good-looking and natural despite not having a lot in the way of lines. I was pleased to see Wong in the cast and he gets a chance to show off his John Woo credentials in a few scenes. A cheeky bit of casting has Chris Patten (not really him of course) getting blasted by Jackie's car – he was Governor of Hong Kong at the time.Overall this has sufficient good action to justify watching. However the direction is iffy and it lacks the trademark Chan humour. Still enjoyable to watch for the action but this isn't one of Chan's better efforts.

This is another atempt at a more serious roll for Jackie. Although I have only seen it in Cantonese with poor subtitleing, I feel it is one of his best movies to dat. Not only is the story well thought out, and the Dialogue cohesive, it is far more believable than many of his 1980s films. The race scenes are great, with some good stunts on four wheels..but deffinately the highlight of the film is the demolition of Jackies Home/Workshop, by the demonic german baddy (boy that guy has the 'mad' look off patt!) this scene has Jackie being flung around his bedroom like a rag doll on speed..his room just happens to be a prefabricated metal building , which the bad guys have hooked onto a giant crane..poor Jackie has to do a spectacularly painfull looking jump from the swinging room onto a balcony...then try to save his poor sisters and father from the nasty guys...but alas his sisters are kidnapped...oh and watch out for the hospital scene immediately after this action set...he faints very convincingly!!...deffinately a winner for Chan Fans and Car lovers alike.