Film Review - Thunderbolt (1995)

Jackie Chan stars as a sports mechanic who takes on illegal street racers on the streets of Hong Kong. As a car enthusiast, I am astounded that I hadn’t heard of this film prior to this week. And yes, it is as strange and as fun as it sounds. Here, Jackie plays Chan Foh To (dubbed Alfred Tung in the U.S. version) who, with a team of professional mechanics, helps the police to monitor and capture illegal street racers from time to time. An early scene shows the police pulling over more than 20 “souped up” (professionally modified) cars; each car is inspected by Chan, his father (and the boss of the company), and his co-workers and tagged with having illegal modifications. Then, all out of nowhere, a black GTR (Nissan Skyline) comes zooming down the road at incredible speed. Chan chases the GTR and captures its driver, one Warner “Cougar” Kaugman (Thorsten Nickel).

Alongside being a professional racer who breaks world records on land, and also entices cops to chase after him at night without (almost) ever being caught, Cougar is a professional killer. And this is when the plot of the film first kicks into gear: Cougar is arrested but very soon after is sprung from jail by his cohorts, in what is a surprisingly bloody and violent prison break. Cougar makes his way to Chan’s house and demolishes it in its entirety, kidnaps both of Chan’s sisters, and then he has the gall to invite Chan to meet him in Japan for a car race. Yes, it’s that type of masculine, adrenaline infused actioner akin to Point Break (1991) and Bad Boys (1995) but with a Hong Kong flair.

Chan, the hero of the film isn’t pure of heart, not by a long shot, but he is a generally good person who always keeps to himself. However, he is quick to anger, he refuses to be interviewed by reporters on every occasion, and he keeps his past a secret from everyone around him. We never actually find out what had happened to him in the past that’s caused him to keep his feelings bottled up inside, but I suppose that it’s not really important; either that or the screenwriters simply forgot to tie up loose ends. With 5 screenwriters, I vote for the former.

On the flipside, Cougar, the villain is a murderous psychopath who only thinks about car racing and is handsome, tall, and charismatic. He and Chan are polar opposites in every regard except for one: car racing. Car racing is the one thing that Chan and Cougar have in common and race with one another they shall.

I know that this doesn’t sound like the typical Jackie Chan film, but it definitely showcases several Jackie Chan-isms: there are a few martial arts fights that contain fantastically clever fight choreography; Jackie performs *most of his own stunts, which are insane and oft death defying, or at the very least crippling; and Jackie drives several Mitsubishi vehicles. I’m certain that he has a contractual obligation to Mitsubishi and to prove my point, before leaving for Japan, Chan and his team unbox and reconstruct a Mitsubishi RalliArt, a heavily modified, professional sports car.
The film’s action directors are Jackie Chan and his life-long buddy and fellow actor/director Sammo Hung, but the film’s overall director is Gordon Chan, who’d previously worked with Stephen Chow and Jet Li on several occasions. Unfortunately, here Gordon Chan commits the cardinal sin of shooting the fight sequences in anything but a combination of wide shots and “cowboy” shots (Google “Cowboy Shot Photography”). Most of the fight sequences are shot using a telephoto lens that is zoomed in, compressing the foreground and background together, making everything look flat and zoomed in, and adding a feel of claustrophobia. In typical HK Kung Fu film fashion, fight sequences are shot in a manner that compliments the fight choreography, which is why they are typically shot using many wide shots, and the choreography is visually presented utilizing deep focus compositions and dynamic camera movements, but here, Jackie and his opponents are squeezed into each frame and, in combination with rapid-fire edits this comes off as more of a Hollywood production. The fights themselves are spectacular as Jackie and Sammo prove their worth time and time again, but one can’t help but feel a bit let down by the presentation.
There is a solid level of authenticity to the racing scenes and world depicted herein, and even when the racing scenes are flashy, utilizing either under-cranked camera work (under-cranking is when you shoot film at a speed that is lower than 24 frames per second and then play it back at 24, making the footage look slightly sped up) or slow motion. The cars are real and the driving techniques are legit, but what transpires on the track durin the big, final race is utter insanity and chaos. And you read that correctly, the big race takes place on a professional race track, with many other contenders, all of whom have sponsors covering their cars from front to rear. I’m not quite sure how Cougar had managed to leave Hong Kong after massacring a few police officers, but there you have it. What’s done is done, and the story must move on. This is not an Andrei Tarkovsky or a Christopher Nolan film, it’s not about philosophy or minutia; it’s a mindless, well-made Jackie Chan film and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I’d watched most of Jackie Chan’s films throughout my life and I always admire when he goes out of his way to entertain the masses, even during his many brushes with death. In Thunderbolt, while practicing a speed lap on a race track in Japan, Chan’s car is struck by another race car and flips over onto its roof, igniting into flames. Several pit crew members rush to his rescue spraying the flaming car with fire extinguishers until, surprisingly, Chan emerges from the burning vehicle, engulfed in flames himself, grabs a fire extinguisher from one of the pit crew members, and helps them put out the fire. It was difficult for me to accept the fact that Chan himself had helped the crew put out the fire rather than initially run for his life. He acted entirely selflessly, and that is more Jackie Chan than it is Chan Foh To.
Such is the testament of Jackie’s love for his craft and for his audience, and this is what we go to the movies for (or watch them on TV/On Demand). We want to be entertained, and no one knows how to entertain the masses better than superstar Jackie Chan, who had reached an elite status at least two decades ago, and precisely for this reason. It is always a pleasure to discover gems like Thunderbolt and I am happy to write this piece on it. I feel the same joy talking about it than I did watching it.

*Thunderbolt was filmed just after Jackie shot Rumble in the Bronx and because Jackie had injured himself while filming “Rumble”, he was forced to use a stunt double for some of the wide shots in this film.

Film Review - Jiu Jitsu (2020)

If you were to combine John McTiernan’s Predator (1987) with Paul W.S. Anderson’s Mortal Kombat (1995), add a sprinkling of Nicolas Cage, Frank Grillo, and Tony Jaa, and suck the life and fun out of the end product then Jiu Jitsu is what you would get. It’s not innovative like Predator, it’s not campy like Mortal Kombat, and it’s not as well shot, energetic, or interesting as either aforementioned film.

We are told twice throughout the film (and also in the film’s trailer) that every 6 years, a comet passes by the Earth, directly above Burma, and as it does a portal opens up inside a temple. Out of the temple pops an alien (who resembles a human wearing a rubber suit) and this alien must fight 9 “chosen” fighters. We are told that if said selected fighters won’t fight the alien, then it will “kill everyone and destroy everything”, and if the fighters win then the alien will leave the Earth, but it will still come back in another 6 years and do the same thing all over again. This story is never told through the point of view of the alien, so the audience has no idea why it does what it does; we don’t know why it likes to fight so much and why it is hell bent on killing everyone on the planet if the 9 chosen fighters don’t appease his homicidal tendencies. Regardless, films like these aren’t meant to be philosophically ponderous; they’re low budget martial arts extravaganzas, mind-numbing exercises in killing time with barely any mental stimulation. I write this with a heavy heart because not only did I grow up watching tons of martial arts films, I’d also practiced karate for many years throughout my youth. I love martial arts films, I don’t love this film.

Watching Jiu Jitsu is like watching someone else play a fighting video game for nearly 2 hours, using the same two or three characters, and never getting to play the game yourself.
Aside from the basic story outline that I wrote at the start of this review, the film’s plot centers around Jake (Alain Moussi) – a muscular man who is chased by an unseen assailant. He leaps off of a cliff into Pacific waters and bangs his head on a coral, providing himself with pointless amnesia. In this film, the amnesia serves no purpose except to have many random characters come and go and fight with Jake, and amongst themselves. By removing the amnesia, the film would remain the same except that we wouldn’t have Moussi play a deer caught in the headlights for over an hour and claim for the umpteenth time that he doesn’t remember anything, and that he doesn’t know who he or anyone else is.
Frank Grillo (The Purge: Anarchy/Election Year) is also in the film, and he delivers biting, satirical dialogue that is mostly comprised of “Do you really not remember what’s going on, Jake?”, “How could you forget who we are?”, and “Do you remember what the plan is, Jake?” He doesn’t do much, he doesn’t say anything that is essential to the plot, and he’s expendable, much like most other characters in the film.
Tony Jaa is also wasted here. He’d showcased phenomenal stunt work and tremendous, unmatched athleticism in films like Ong-Bak (2003) and Tom Yum Goong (aka The Protector, 2005), but here he gets to kick and punch a bunch of soldiers (who’d all forgotten that they have guns lying around somewhere), and he also throws a few elbows and knees from time to time. His character’s purpose is to find Jake, bring him to his “friends” and then disappear until he’s needed again, which is almost never. There is also a small supporting cast that is comprised of unknown actors, but they are terrifically talented martial artists nevertheless.

…all except for Nicolas Cage. I must admit, it was fun to look for signs of when his stunt double was used, even though I know that Cage can’t perform those fancy flips and kicks. But the jarring transitions from well lit close-up shots of Cage’s famous mug to extreme wide-angle, master shots that depict terrific stunt work did make me smirk from time to time.
The film is directed and co-written by Dimitri Logothetis, whose producing and directing credits date back to the mid-1980s. More recently he’d focused on martial arts films that contain a healthy mixture of kickboxing and MMA (Mixed Martial Arts), two of which co-star the legendary Jean-Claude van Damme. Jiu Jitsu contains (notice that I didn’t write the word co-stars) Nicolas Cage, who tries really hard to downplay his usual zaniness throughout the combined 30 minutes that he’s in the film. His character isn’t crazy, so he doesn’t play him as crazy, and his character has an important reason for being in the film, aside from being an exposition machine. However, the film doesn’t actually care about the importance of his character, so he ends up being entirely undeveloped, and that’s pretty much the level of thought that went into writing this film’s screenplay.
Now, the main reason that this film is a bust is its own style - it’s excessive and annoying. While transitioning between scenes, the film adopts comic book panel aesthetics, and for absolutely no good reason. The film doesn’t look or feel like it was adapted from comic books, so everytime that there is a cartoony transition, the audience is taken out of the groove. And the fight choreography, while good on paper and during rehearsals, is shot in a miscalculated manner, utilizing long takes in all the wrong ways. Punches and kicks almost never actually connect in movies, and it’s up to the fight choreographer and DP (Director of Photography) to shoot the fight sequences in a manner that makes the hits look like they are actually connecting. That seldom happens throughout this film, and it’s also rather distracting.

There are almost no redeeming factors in this film, aside form the cast who is undoubtedly increadibly talented; the fight sequences gave me a headache, the scene transitions are plain wrong, there’s barely a story, and the film is too long, clocking in at 102 minutes.

If you love Nicholas Cage and will watch him in absolutely anything, even when he has a tiny role like he does here, then you needn’t have bothered to read this review. If you love martial arts films no matter what, same deal. But if you ask me, I’d recommend saving these few dollars on watching anything else that Tony Jaa, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and Scott Adkins act in. That’s a good time no questions asked.

Jiu Jitsu will be available for streaming rentals and purchasing on November 20 ,2020.