Police Story 2013

[Drunk Monk]

Jackie Chan's latest. It really shouldn't be titled "Police Story" because the only connection to that franchise is that it's a cop tale. But then again, the last installment "New Police Story" suffered from the same affectation. This is a good thriller, the sort of film that Harrison Ford might have made in the 90s, but not what one anticipates from a JC flick. It's not funny. In fact, it's tragic. There are only a few stunts and fights, but nothing extraordinary. Jackie adopts an 'MMA style" of choreography, which means they roll around and do some arm bars and chokes. The fights are ok, although of the one-action-one-shot variety, simplistic and gritty for Jackie and something anyone could do. The plot, and there is enough of one that subtitles are required, revolves around a hostage situation in a villainous-lair-like bar called the Wu Bar, which inexplicably has a cage for cage fighting in the middle of it, or maybe it's just for the cage dancers. It's a father-daughter tale, a complicated revenge scheme, and gangsters involved in some sort of crime but what crime it is is never made clear. Tian Jing plays Jackie's daughter, which is ironic as she just starred alongside Donnie Yen in his MMA-style police drama Special ID. The finale siege, shot almost entirely in slow motion, is an amusing examination in chaos, while not staggering, a satisfying spectacle nonetheless. No swordfights. Ultimately, PS2013 is a lot like Shinjuku Incident, a decent thriller but not what we want to see in a JC flick. We still want stunts and comic choreography. Jackie turns 60 soon, and we should cut him some slack.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

Wow! Just wow. What a melodramatic piece of crap. I think DM put it properly when he pointed out that we just want stunts and choreography from JC. If this is the alternative, you can keep it.

Part of the problem is that I don't think Jackie really has any acting chops. His emotional range is from A to A.

And what film was this supposed to be? Was it a Die Hard rip off? Was it an episode of UFC 182? Was it some weird Miike/Hitchcock mash-up? Feh.

Lots of the dialogue was too expository which might just be a problem with the subtitles. "You are drunk. Why don't you just sleep it off here in my taxi?" "Tell me daughter why you hate me"

The slo-mo was annoying. The MMA fight just seemed odd, especially since they did it in an octagon which was part of the bar set.

And did anything look more like a building built especially for a movie that that bar?

I also wasn't fond of the false scenes, where the scene basically plays out in the character's imagination until you rewind back to what actually happened. Only in many cases they go down a false trail another time. Actually the whole movie is one false trail based on the opening sequence. And could that ending sequence be any longer?

Time to go back to making Shanghai movies with Owen Wilson.

[Drunk Monk]

Did you see Jack? Jack Tu?

No?

He's in there.

Watch it again.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

Jack Tu? He played . . .

Damn you, JC Apologist.

[Drunk Monk]

Actually, I didn't see him either. And I never went back for it. Emilio was teasing me about it and even went to the trouble of emailing me a screen grab of the scene Jack is in. He's one of the cop snipers. It's a real clean face shot of him and I'm somewhat surprised I missed it.

Maybe I dozed off then.

:oops:

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

I might have had a little nap during this film myself.

[Drunk Monk]

I look forward to your opinion on Dragonblade

[cranefly]

Meanwhile, back to Police Story 2013. I'm talking to you, Greg and DM. You need to watch it again and notice Jack Tu.
Them's the rules.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

Why don't you go review a poster or something? I hear the new Star Wars poster is out.

[Drunk Monk]

Police Story (1985)

I went back for the original because of the passing of Chor Yuen http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFor...p?tid=6852

I'm posting this here because our DVD subforum is on the brink of death. Who watches DVDs anymore? Actually, thousands of YMAA customers still watch them - the amount of income off DVDs is staggering compared to TC Media which let go of its DVD production department years ago. 

But back OT - this is still an amazing film. The action pieces are simply over the top. The opening chase through the squatters village is a masterpiece of stunt work - they actually drove cars through a real squatters village - and that final fall through the double decker bus windows onto pavement is still unbelievable that that anyone could've walked away from that. 

The goofy comedy hijinks with Brigitte and Maggie could only work in a Jackie film. And they do work in a strangely amusing way. Only Jackie could manage such over-the-top action segueing to puerile slapstick. Repeated cakes in the face? Really?

There's a bit of a lull with the trial. That scene and the few that follow could be edited down. 

But then we're back with more action and once again, Jackie delivers. The car stunts are harrowing - any miss would've been disastrous and the timing is so close. The fight choreo is frantic and on point, with so many scenes that could be broken down and admired for their precision and imagination. 

This remains one of my fav Jackie franchises - the Chen Kakui films, not the others like PS 2013 where Jackie plays different characters but still calls them 'Police Story'. 

Alas, RIP Chor Yuen



Seen on Criterion.

[Greg]

I did cancel my DVD delivery from Netflix. They stopped carrying anything current towards the start of the Pandemic. I was also looking at a box of CDs and wondered if I had anything to play them on.....

[Drunk Monk]

I have stacks of DVDs and a player but I seldom use it anymore. Come to think of it, I might even have Police Story 1 & 2 on DVD...

I have crates of CDs which I play sometimes. It's a stack of sliding drawer boxes that maybe 2'x2'x5' - hundreds of CDs. I have two nice wall display case for my Bob Marley collection.

[thatguy]

I used to have the DVD workflow down when I was in Santa Cruz. I could search by call number, isolate the newest titles, and request the ones I was interested in so I'd be near the top of the waiting list (the number of copies in circulation was pretty small, so the waiting list gets long quick). 

I haven't done that in ages, but I just got a Monterey County library card so I could request items and have them delivered by-weekly by the bookmobile that just started coming to our community last month. Mostly to be able to get things that might not be available elsewhere. 

With Kanopy and Hoopla, that's becoming less and less the case. We'll see if I use it at all.

--tv

[Drunk Monk]

We were just getting into the Cruz library collection when the pandemic struck. We were stuck with a handful of DVDs that we kept wanting to return but everything was closed. 

I used to get free DVDs at KFM. I had stacks of them which I'd gather up and sell for ... well for CDs usually.

Then there is Kanopy and Hoopla, which are deep mines to excavate for sure.

[Drunk Monk]

Supercop: Police Story 3 - another for that Den expansion which I haven’t even started yet.

This remains one of my fav Jackie flicks mostly because of Michelle. The balance of tension from getting the undercover blown, with brilliant fight choreo, death defying stunts, and great chemistry from Jackie, Michelle, and Maggie, and a decent story all works into a great film. And those ng - Michelle stunt fails are hardcore. Such a good ride. All of the first three Police Stories are so good - it loses a lot of speed with the fourth installer. 

Being the cheapskate that I am, I couldn’t find it on any of my streamers and that always annoys me because I pay for so many already that I’m annoyed. I found a good version on YouTube, but it was in canto (and in mandarin) and the subs were Indonesian. See https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=huduVoojeQc . That confused me because I reflexively read subs and indo subs are just absurd babble to me. But once things got going, I remember the story well enough to follow along well enough. 

A great rewatch. I love this film.