Sunday, December 20, 2015

Movie Review - Police Story: Lockdown (2013)

The incomparable Jackie Chan stars as Zhong Wen, a cop who has had a rough go of life.  He’s lost his wife and he is growing distant from his daughter Miao Miao(Tian Jing).  Chan’s character agrees to meet Miao Miao at the beginning of the film in the hot new destination, Club Wu.  The walk from the cab to the club is a pre-cursor to the struggle that Zhong has in his life.  Should he stop and uphold the law when things go slightly awry, or should he continue on to the night club to repair his relationship with his daughter?  This is the theme of his character throughout. 

Zhong and Miao Miao clearly need to patch things up but things go a little crazy and Chan’s character ends up being knocked out and kidnapped.  His captor, the club owner Wu Jiang(Liu Ye) who also happens to be Miao Miao’s new beau.  Miao Miao has no idea she was with such a cruel individual.  The movie from here is set around finding out Wu Jiang’s motives.  Why did he capture Zhong?  Why does he have so many hostages?  What are his true demands?  It’s all part of the ride.

The action in “Police Story: Lockdown” isn’t the normal fast paced and fun action many Jackie Chan fans are used to.  The fights are much harder with a lot of slow motion to show how much pain everyone is going through.  Along with the slow motion, there is a lot of slow music during these fight scenes.  There is also a lot of action that only takes place in Chan’s character’s head.  He thinks about what reactions his actions would cause.

One of the things I really like about many of Jackie Chan’s films is what happens after the movie.  “Police Story: Lockdown” doesn’t disappoint during the rolling end credits as behind the scenes funny outtakes, crazy fight scenes and other stunt work is shown. 

The blu-ray extras for “Police Story: Lockdown” are a little lackluster.  There are interviews with the director, Jackie Chan, Tian Jing and Liu Ye.  The Behind the scenes feature is really just like an extended version of the scenes played during the ending credits of the film.

On the scale of 1 to 5 Pile Drivers, “Police Story: Lockdown” receives 2.5

This blog came from an earlier post on Cinema Head Cheese and you can read more of my movie reviews there.

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