if you're lucky Jackie Chan's latest film
Chinese Zodiac is playing theatrically near you somewhere in America, and hoo boy, I want to applaud Jackie for putting it all out there. If you're wondering, just how thrilling can a 59-year-old action star be, this is the answer, this is the best possible answer to that question.
Its a fitting, for good and bad, exemplar of Jackie Chan's career, that its coming so late in his career is unexpected, but wholly welcome. It fits comfortably along side his 80's and 90's classics like the Armour of God (Operation Condor) series, if not in complete excellence, then at least in spirit. The plot is a nearly incomprehensible mishmash of melodrama, dream logic, and earnest Chinese patriotism, thank god. The humor is as constant as the action, and just as enthusiastic, if not as well delivered. The film as a whole is as eager to please as a newborn puppy, and about as smart.
This may sound like I'm ragging on the film, but I'm not, really. Its a fun, joyous film that contains a lot a great stunts, good enough jokes, and pretty decent fights. Its unfair of us to expect Jackie Chan to hit the same highs he hit decades ago, I'm not even going to harp on the guy for the obvious wirework and occasional CGI trickery. The only thing that matters is this, is the film entertaining. Oh yeah it is. Quality cinema? Not exactly, but who needs a traditional barometer of quality when you've got a rollerblade suit in your opening scene.
Grade: Chinese Zodiac about measures up to Jackie's Who Am I, and is even nuttier.and speaking of trying too hard, its clear that Robert Rodriguez ain't trying hard enough with
Machete Kills, a film that made me feel bad. I mean, its not wholly terrible, but its a low-achiving, low-aiming grubby little comedy that looks crappy, features more boring exposition then zingers, and wastes the efforts of a considerably stacked cast. Why the hell even bring Cuba Gooding Jr. to the party if you're not going to give him anything to do, and I can repeat that critcisicm with at least half of the cast here.
a movie about multiple personality having terrorists and sudden excursions into a 70's era James Bond plot should never be this boring. At this point I'm wondering if RR even has it in him to do Sin City 2 justice, as that particular morsel was the last film from him that felt lively.
