After Jackie Chan starred in Rumble in the Bronx, Jackie had finally gained popularity in America and was even number one at the box office during its opening weekend. In order to stay prominent in the US, Jackie had to follow up the very successful Rumble with something even bigger. So in First Strike, instead of going to the Bronx to save his uncle’s store, he goes around the world to find a missing nuclear bomb. And why wouldn’t he follow up his box office success with a sequel to his already successful Police Story series?
Jackie Chan returns (for the last time) as Chan Ka-Kui, a Hong Kong cop, but this time, he’s recruited by the Interpol to arrest a dangerous weapons dealer. Ka-Kui later gets set up and framed for murder. Eventually, Ka-Kui must work with the weapons dealer to stop an evil CIA agent...or something. Looking back, I don’t remember much of this film’s story.
Jackie Chan returns (for the last time) as Chan Ka-Kui, a Hong Kong cop, but this time, he’s recruited by the Interpol to arrest a dangerous weapons dealer. Ka-Kui later gets set up and framed for murder. Eventually, Ka-Kui must work with the weapons dealer to stop an evil CIA agent...or something. Looking back, I don’t remember much of this film’s story.
First Strike features plenty of what made Jackie Chan popular in the first place: the action. There are many creative fight scenes to behold in this movie. There’s a chase scene through the snow, a fight scene in a giant fish tank, and the infamous “chairs and ladders” fight towards the middle. It’s probably the best fight scene in the film. It’s such a creative set piece and he makes use of everything around him. The fights in this movie are comparatively more light-hearted than the fights in the other Police Story movies though.
One of the main reasons why this movie is different from the other Police Story movies is that there aren’t as many stunts in this movie. There’s the stunt at the beginning where Jackie jumps to a helicopter, but there aren’t many other noteworthy painful stunts which the other films are known for. That doesn’t make the fight scenes any worse, but I thought that was worth mentioning. The fights are easily the highlights of the film.
One of the main reasons why this movie is different from the other Police Story movies is that there aren’t as many stunts in this movie. There’s the stunt at the beginning where Jackie jumps to a helicopter, but there aren’t many other noteworthy painful stunts which the other films are known for. That doesn’t make the fight scenes any worse, but I thought that was worth mentioning. The fights are easily the highlights of the film.
This movie is also noticeably more “American” with more foreign actors, international locations, music, etc. But what’s unfortunate is that none of the characters in this movie have much a personality. Even Jackie’s character isn’t that interesting. He’s a cop who’s on a mission. He fights, makes jokes, and likes to sing, but that’s just about all that we know about him. The rest of the characters don’t hold up as well either because we don’t really know anything about them. The action scenes aren’t as thrilling as they usually are because we don’t really care if the characters come out okay. We just know they'll be okay because they’re the good guys.
The story doesn’t help much either because it’s pretty bland. There isn’t anything very new about the story in this movie, but it lends itself to some cool action scenes. It just feels like a typical story with not many charismatic characters besides Jackie. Every other scene in this movie that isn’t a fight scene is just kinda dull. We just end up waiting for the next bit of action. And the action kinda makes up for it. They’re such creative setups, but we have to wait through quite a few uneventful scenes to get there.
The story doesn’t help much either because it’s pretty bland. There isn’t anything very new about the story in this movie, but it lends itself to some cool action scenes. It just feels like a typical story with not many charismatic characters besides Jackie. Every other scene in this movie that isn’t a fight scene is just kinda dull. We just end up waiting for the next bit of action. And the action kinda makes up for it. They’re such creative setups, but we have to wait through quite a few uneventful scenes to get there.
Compared to the other films in the Police Story series, this might be the weakest of the bunch. It has a lame story and uninteresting characters. But still, thanks to Jackie Chan’s charisma and his frequent-enough fight scenes, this movie is still fun to watch. Despite it’s flaws, I still think I’d consider this a good movie, but it certainly could’ve been better.
Images from Wikipedia and HK Cinemagic
Images from Wikipedia and HK Cinemagic