Ging Chat Goo Si (2013)

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1. 

   Siskoid

   Police Story: Lockdown features an older, wiser Jackie Chan, and correspondingly, his Police Story protagonist is a negotiator more than a fighter. Indeed, Jackie didn't want to do any fights for this picture, but the director sort of tricked him into it. I wish he hadn't, or at least, not to that extent. Thing is, a lot of the actions seems shoehorned in, especially the red herrings shown in flashback. The film does depend on figuring out what the villain wants, but we waste too much time with irrelevant sequences doing so. Elsewhere, the editing is sometimes interesting, other times too frenetic and jumpy. The story clearly evokes, well, elements from the first four Die Hards, honestly, but the more you get into it, the more interesting things get. The set-up, with Jackie trapped in a massive disco with terrorists, trying to save his estranged daughter and other hostages is action 101, but the bad guy has a fairly complex motivation that does pay off, even if the plotting requires some willing suspension of disbelief. Trim 20-30 minutes out of it (and perhaps your expectations from a "Jackie Chan movie") and you've got a pretty good action cop flick. 6 years 8 months ago
2. 

   DJPowWow

   aka: "Police Story: Lockdown" (USA title)
   
   Like Clean_Slate said, this is a completely different movie compared to the previous "Police Story" films, with Chan playing an older, more serious mainland Chinese cop. They excise most of the comedy in favor of a more dramatic story, which may be galling to most Jackie Chan fans, but I found to be an interesting change of pace for the 60+ year old actor. 8 years 8 months ago
3. 

   CinemaDump

   Jackie Chan is back again in a new installment in the Police Story series. Like New Police Story though, it's a complete reboot with no relation to previous movies. It plays out like a drama with some sprinklings of action here and there. It falls dangerously close to being a Die Hard clone but somewhat escapes that designation. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed with Police Story 2013 though.
   
   Jackie Chan looks the part of a mainland police officer and he can do drama fine as was evidenced in New Police Story. This is important because there is absolutely no humour on his part this time. I'm doubtful if he even cracks a smile in this movie. New Police Story has a smidgeon of comedy from Jackie but there's literally zero this time around. It still takes a little getting used to but Jackie Chan does just fine.
   
   Police Story 2013 finds Jackie Chan as Zhong Wen going to meet his daughter Miao at a club. They have a difficult history together, especially since Wen's wife died leaving him as Miao's only parent. Her boyfriend turns out to be the owner of the club they're in, upsetting her father given the bad company he keeps. Wen is suddenly attacked, Miao is taken away and a hostage situation arises.
   
   The story can't hide its blatant unoriginality. That wouldn't be too bad except that the story hops around too much with a heavy reliance on flashbacks to explain goings on and the editing comes off as way too busy. The club set is pretty cool though and makes for a nice setting.
   
   There's less action like I said compared to other Jackie Chan movies in general. It's not particularly well filmed either which is really disappointing. The beautiful choreography from other Police Story installments is absent and it's poorly captured. The camera doesn't stay focused for long enough and that's obviously done to hide its deficiencies. There are a couple of occasions where the action is pretty cool but that's not very often. For an action movie that's a big failure.
   
   There's also way too much slow motion that comes off as really cheesy. I can't help but like a slow-mo scene at times but not when it's as overabundant as it is in Police Story 2013. A lot of the time this is done to show drama but it doesn't work. Poor CGI is also pretty apparent and made me think back fondly on the glorious real explosions of Police Story movies of the past.
   
   Jackie Chan is still a hero and Police Story 2013 can't take that away from him. He's done his part in playing his role properly and he clearly can take his acting in new directions. The blame for this lackluster movie is director Sheng Ding. There's nothing wrong with a cop drama but Ding's borrowed too heavily from action movie classics without doing anything worthwhile.
   
   Police Story is still an awesome series and this new chapter doesn't ruin it. The worst movie of the series is still Jackie Chan's First Strike if you ask me. It's nice seeing Jackie still in the business of making movies and I had heard that he was courted hard by Sylvestor Stallone to be in The Expendables 3. Jackie doesn't need to do an ensemble cast movie and as much as The Expendables is a huge guilty pleasure of mine, I'm glad he went in his own direction. Let's hope he's got more in the tank because he'll always be a beloved figure and I want more of him.
   
   6/10 9 years 11 months ago

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