leonblackwood
Review: This movie sees Jackie Chan (Who Am I), play a top secret agent who goes on a mission with his elite force to kidnap 3 scientists who are experimenting with a powerful new source. On the way back from the mission, the elite force are double crossed by 2 of the agents within there team and they send there helicopter crashing to the ground. Chan manages to escape from the crash and ends up in the South African wilderness, covered in bruises but he gets saved by a tribe who take him in as one there own. The only problem is that Chan has lost his memory and he keeps on getting flashbacks about his last mission. The tribe then see some cars driving through there area, so Chan goes to investigate, only to find a man dying from a snake bite so Chan saves his life with his new survival skills. The man's sister, who was panicking through the whole ordeal, brings Chan back to civilisation but he is still struggling with his memory lose. The agents that tried to kill the whole elite force, soon realise that he is alive and his life becomes in danger. Whilst fighting against corrupt CIA agents, he pieces together his shady memory and exposes the powerful individuals who stole the unique energy source. The storyline wasn't bad and the action scenes were OK but I still struggled to get into it. It definitely wasn't as authentic as Chans earlier movies and you can see that this film was made for a world wide audience, mostly for the Western market. Chans acting wasn't bad but the rest of the cast was pretty awful. Like most of Chans movies, the stunts were amazing, especially the scene on the helicopter and the epic fight scene at the end but I don't know why he has to over complicate his movies. Anyway, it's worth a watch if your into your action movies but it's not a must-have. Average!Round-Up: This is another movie which has been written and directed by Jackie Chan which explains why the epic action scenes were spot on. Personally, I preferred his earlier movies like Drunken Master and all of the movies that he done with Sam Seed but thats just me. As this is the beginning of my Jackie Chan season, I'm holding out for his earlier movies, before they started to fly on strings and they had those crazy Kung Fu styles. I'm struggling to find some of the classics so I might have to import them from the Oriental market to have an impressive collection. Anyway, if there's anyone out there who have loads of Jackie Chan movies, or any old classic Kung Fu movies, then please let me know.Budget: N/A Worldwide Gross: HK$39millionI recommend this movie to people who are into their action/adventure/comedy movies about a man who loses his memory and tries to piece his flashbacks together, whilst fighting against armed assassins and corrupt CIA agents. 4/10
winner55
The gradual introduction and growing popularity of Jackie Chan in America has from the beginning been fraught with odd twists and turns. "Rumble in the Bronx" at last popularized Chan for American audiences, but Chan cultists tend to hold this to be a disappointingly trivial film. These cultists generally came to Chan via "Drunken Master" some years before the release of "Rumble", and still hold that film in high esteem - even though it is actually inferior to a number of later Chan films, including the 1994 sequel "Drunken Master II".The release of "Rumble" was followed-up theatrically with the release of "Operation Condor"; the problem with this is that "Condor" is actually the sequel to "Armour of God", a more interesting and more problematic film, which was released in America only on video.Chan solidified his "Rumble" reputation with the extraordinarily energetic "Supercop", which also introduced Michelle Yeoh to American audiences two years before her appearance in the James Bond film "Tomorrow Never Dies". "Supercop", by the way, is also a sequel to a previous film, "Police Story", which only appeared in the US on video.Chan then embarked on 3 film ventures almost guaranteed to subvert his reputation: the James Bond imitation "First Strike"; the low-key, difficult to follow "Mr. Nice Guy", and the disastrous "Rush Hour", which apparently succeeded at the box-office, much to my disappointment.This year, the continuing saga of Chan's appearance of America continued on its twisted way. A film made around 1985 was re-dubbed and released theatrically: "Twin Dragons". The odd thing about this is that "Twin Dragons" has been available in America on videotape for at least ten years! Meanwhile, almost simultaneously, Chan's most recent Asian release, 1998's "Who am I?" was also released in America - but only on video! The odd thing about this simultaneous release is that Who am I is decidedly the better of the two films. So before remarking on "Who am I?", a brief note on "Twin Dragons": This film, co-directed by Tsui Hark and Ringo Lam (although Lam claims he only acted as second-unit pick-up director), is loosely based on a Claude Van Damme film, "Double Impact" and was made (very quickly) as a benefit for the Hong Kong Director's Guild. It is enjoyable, and has one or two remarkable stunts, but on the whole is a bit of fluff, even by the standard of "pure entertainment.On the other hand, "Who am I?" - co-directed by Chan and Benny Chan (no relation) - is a well mounted stunt-and-fight-filled maze of plot and theme, as Chan stars as a commando with amnesia in a struggle with a corrupt CIA agent over a recently discovered explosive element derived from a meteorite; the film moves from South Africa to the Netherlands, and involves considerable double plays and double-guessing on the part of Chan's character as he struggles to reclaim his memory while also stopping the corrupt CIA agent from successfully selling the new element to the highest bidder. The message of the film is very positive, and the action is lively; the editing and camera-work are worthy of commendation.There are some draw-backs to the film: Relationships between Chan's character and, first, a tribe of South Africans, and then later two women helping him, are never fully developed; thus Chan's character, rich in potential, is never developed fully, since this would require greater interaction with others.For Chan fans the film is also disappointing in a number of subtle ways: the stunt work here tends to belie Chan's claim that he works "without a net"; i.e., without safety-supports. The slide down the skyscraper. for instance, is too obviously along a guide wire.Secondly, the climatic final kung-fu battle between Chan and two kick-boxing thugs, while well done and exciting in itself, is clearly derived from the climatic finale of the much better "Drunken Master II." Both these problems raise an important issue which has been buzzing around Chan Fans for a couple years now - namely, is the master running out of steam? Is he perhaps growing too old for the kind of acrobatics his stunts and fights require?
Rubyslips99-1
Great great kung fu film. The plot is a farce on the typical James Bond fare of secret government conspiracies and evil men attempting to gain the means to take over the world. The strength here, instead of a huge budget full of beautiful women and nifty gadgets, is in the action sequences. The fight scenes are so much fun to watch, and Chan's car chase is also a wonderful piece of footage (with some physics+ involved). If you are looking for a great time with the kind of fast fighting and physical comedy that come with Jackie Chan then make sure you sit down to Who Am I? Also, I will say that the final fight scene between Chan and the two toughest badies in the the bad men's stock fight is incredible. My favorite fight scene of all moviedom, especially the man whose specialty is his incredible legwork.
