New Police Story

Back in the 1980s Jackie Chan was the reigning king of martial arts movie. Matt McAllister said in his review, “Films such as Project A, The Armour of God and Wheels on Meals may have been scrappy around the edges, but they were infused with a joyful combination of slapstick comedy and breath-stealing stunts (usually choreographed and performed by Chan himself, and often resulting in a broken bone or two).”

The Police Story movies were one of his largest franchises, and like many Hong Kong actors and directors who have been not well-liked when transitioning to Hollywood (Chow Yun-Fat, Jet Li, Ringo Lam) Chan has now returned to his franchise for another sequel in the series (however now playing what looks to be a completely different character).

The problem with “New Police Story,” released in 2004, isn’t that Jackie Chan is too old for these movies. He may be over 50, but just like showing his successful swift-fast scenes he’s still more than able of performing every hand-to-hand fight. McAllister said, “Though to be fair the movie isn’t quite so confident of Chan’s abilities, writer Alan Yeun seeing fit to pair the flash-fisted legend with a young upstart (played by Gen-X Cops’ Nicholas Tse) for much of the on-screen action.”

McAllister continued, “No, the main downfall of New Police Story is that audiences are a lot less tolerant of witnessing an irony-free succession of cop movie clichés than they were in the 80s.” It is part of the reason that we still greatly remember the original “Lethal Weapon” and “Beverly Hills Cop” movies, and their later sequels were wearing thin. McAllister noted, “And make no mistake – New Police Story leaves no cop movie cliché unearthered.” You want the no nonsense boss? He’s in here. You want a “red wire or green wire” scene? That’s in here. You want footage of the good cop getting drunk out of depression of a mission gone wrong? I think everyone can figure it out.

McAllister noted, “To be fair New Police Story does try and bring itself up to date with a cartoonish plot involving a bunch of extreme sport fans who stage huge robberies and then off coppers like it’s one of their favourite computer games. But the scenes of skateboarding dudes or computer gaming are just embarrassing, like your dad dressing up in baggy jeans and boogieing on down at your local nightclub.”

This is also a surprisingly bad film, with minor characters (especially cops) killed in so many stupidly violent ways that looks really odd with the warm nature of the comedy scenes.  The press notes say that the film has the number of the “highest (fictional) police officers injured and sacrificed during its course.” If that’s a number that impresses you, then “New Police Story” could be the film for you.

Unavoidably the movie does have some great stunts, despite not many that you’d expect from a Jackie Chan movie. McAllister mentioned, “Hong Kong, with its shimmering neon, skyscrapers and complex escalator system, is still the perfect backdrop for these kind of movies, and some fantastic rooftop action scenes show off the city in all its glory.” Part of the liking of martial arts movies is seeing what new and inventive ways for the fight scenes to happen and for the movie people put in to get a fun driving double-decker bus scene and a nicely put together fight in a child’s playground.

However, despite the huge budget, “New Police Story” mostly turns out as ten years outdated. McAllister said, “Clichéd and often ludicrously sentimental, this still isn’t anywhere near as bad as some of Chan’s Hollywood endeavours (The Tuxedo anyone?).” However, it does show that this insistently friendly actor may really need a few new ideas if he wants to continue making movies.

If you liked the last movies in the franchise, don’t see this remake. It’s completely ludicrous as to why they would even think of making a remake, especially after the last one was bad. The plot in this movie does seem to look good for the times, but it doesn’t fit in this franchise. Just head my advice and never see this.

Stay tuned this Friday for the conclusion to “Police Story Month” where we’ll talk about the last remake that was even worse.