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Released by: Universal Studios
Released on: March 25th, 2014.
Director: Jackie Chan
Cast: Jackie Chan, Oliver Platt, Kwone Sang Woo, Liao Fan, Yao Xingtong
Year: 2013
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The Movie:
CHINESE ZODIAC is Jackie Chan's follow up to his two very popular ARMOR OF GOD films. Since the last of these was in 1991 it's safe to say that this film was eagerly awaited. Chan also made a big point of saying in various interviews that this film would be a throwback to his earlier heavily action-oriented days. Basically the middle-aged star's lad hurrah.
Unfortunately the film itself is a major disappointment due to its weak script, often poor cgi and iffy acting. The film begins very strongly with a chase sequence introducing the character Hawk (Chan) - a retrieval expert hired by to find missing historical artifacts. Like a piece out of a Bond movie, Hawk flees a massive industrial complex using a special suit that has various wheels built into it. He zips up, down and under just about anything you can think of. It's a very fun scene and quite exciting.
The artifacts Hawk is after are ancient Chinese bronze heads that have been stolen. Businessman Lawrence Morgan (Oliver Platt) has hired Hawk and his team to retrieve the various heads from all over the world. This happens to put Hawk in conflict with a woman named Coco (Yao Xing Tong) - who believes that these priceless artifacts belong in the hands of their rightful and historic homeland, not the highest bidder.
A weird, and slightly jarring nationalistic subtext runs through the film leading to sometimes preachy speeches. These tend to gum up the works in an action film. Chan has also naturally lost some of his physical abilities with age (he's pushing 60) so the camera tricks and wire work are sometimes obvious. Platt is wasted and nondescript and lacking menace. Chan's team members and costars are alternately dull and invisible or in the case of Coco's insufferable sanctimony, pure agony to watch.
Chan himself continues to exude true star presence however. Much of his stardom has always been predicated on his immense physical skills, but the man has a genuine and extremely likable persona on screen. Warm, funny and nice without being stilted, Chan's body may be slowing down but his charisma is still fully intact.
While the film is paced to deliver "big" action set pieces at regular intervals, these become less and less impressive. The volcano bit is so over-cgi'd as to become embarrassing and having silly stereotypes like pirates running around in a jungle sequence is just goofy. And not in a good way. CHINESE ZODIAC had a very good budget and the luxury of extensive worldwide locations. Pity it couldn't have been better.
Video/Audio/Extras:
CHINESE ZODIAC is presented in a very strong 2.35.1 AVC 1080p encoded transfer from Universal. Colors are mixed very "hot" in the film, but once that intentional choice is acclimated to, the rest of the visual fundamentals are solid. As expected from a digitally shot feature with a healthy budget, black levels are good and fine detail excellent.
Sound is provided solely by an English language DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio Track that represents a bit of a blunder. Since the actors in the film's international cast are speaking a variety of languages, there is a lot of dubbing involved. Some of it is frankly amateurish. Having some alternate language options like Cantonese would have been advisable. Technically the track is fine though. Dialog is crisp and well situated, LFE and surround used effectively, and overall track presence sound.
The only extra is an hour long documentary about the making of the film. This is an interesting piece, with Chan coming off particularly well. It's informative and interesting and frankly better than the film - especially when he pulls back the curtain on some of the action set pieces in the movie.
The Final Word:
Really only for Jackie Chan fanatics, CHINESE ZODIAC is a failed opportunity.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
