Scott Waugh’s garbage bag of dogshit isn’t technically the worst thing I’ve seen for this website, but it’s the most depressing.
“No more hand signals!”
Jackie Chan’s career can be very easily split into three distinct periods: His early work, when he was a staunch Hong Kong supporter, making well-crafted action comedies that made Hong Kong cinema a global phenomenon; his Hollywood period, where much of his Hong Kong stuff was repurposed with American audiences in mind; and his current mainland China period, where he’s either constantly miserable or making half-arsed attempts at recapturing the silly comedy magic that made his career what it once was.
A figure detested in his country of origin, and just about tolerated in the West, Chan is now making films that either celebrate the CCP, or are so lifelessly generic that an AI could have spat it out and no one would have noticed the difference. Hidden Strike is the latter. Gone are the days where silent film comedies influence his acrobatic stunts, now replaced by overly serious, grim punch-ups and gunfights with a costar he wishes he had anywhere near the level of chemistry he had with Chris Tucker. Or, god forbid, Sammo Hung.
Skiptrace failed, but at least was funny in one or two places. Police Story 2013, the first film I ever reviewed on this site also featured Bad Dad Grumpy Chan, but at least that was smaller, and basically just a worse Die Hard. Hidden Strike is exactly everything that is wrong with Jackie Chan and his new brand of slavish media, designed solely to appeal to a studio and toe the party line.
It’s not even worth talking about the plot to Hidden Strike. It’s something about an oil refinery in the UAE being attacked by rebels, with Chan coming in to save the day. John Cena is there too. Whatever, who cares, it’s so unoriginal, tedious and nonsensical from minute one that I’m doing the movie a favour by not rehashing it here.
There’s plenty of action, sure, but it’s all either awful CGI car chases, incomprehensible gunfights or Just OK martial arts mostly featuring Jackie Chan’s increasingly-employed stunt double. You’ve seen better elsewhere. John Cena does a decent job with his fights and moments of comedy and isn’t phoning any of it in. His character – an ex-mercenary who lives in a small UAE village as teacher and well-digger – is uninteresting at best and embarrassingly white saviour at worst. Again, whatever. Who cares.
So why am I writing any of this? Because it’s been heartbreaking to see an icon of Hong Kong’s once new wave of action comedies be lowered to this extreme – sadder still that it’s entirely his own doing. In betraying his people, Jackie Chan betrayed his own artistic sensibilities, becoming a slave to the most uninspired, hackneyed, lifeless drivel out there. A coproduction between two countries seemingly only interested in making the most money for the least effort. You’ve fallen off of rooftops and clocktowers chasing comedic perfection, Jackie. Now, you’ve just fallen.
Verdict: An ur-example of a movie made entirely by committee, Hidden Strike is (so far) Jackie Chan falling lower than he ever has.
Hidden Strike (2023)
Mandarin, English
Director: Scott Waugh
Writer: Arash Amel
Jackie Chan – “Dragon” Luo Feng
John Cena – Chris Van Horne
Wenli Jiang – Professor Chang
Pilou Asbæk – Owen Paddock
Ma Chunrui – Luo Mei
Amadeus Serafini – Henry Van Horne
Hany Adel – Captain Azir
Laila Ezz EL-Arab – Soraya
Jia Xiu – Shen Wei
Rima Zeidan – Li Yan
Ernest Manson – Morgan
Zhenwei Wang – Xiao Wei
Simon Gong Jun – Hai Ming
Tim Man – Knox
Rachael Holoway – “Tomb Raider”
Max Huang – a mercenary
Hou Minghao – Assistant Ning
Leave a Reply