Thunderbolt

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.