American
audiences may have first taken notice of Jackie Chan with Rumble in the Bronx (1995), but he had already established his
signature style with the highly successful Police
Story franchise. While it is not surprising to see Chan return to his most
lucrative franchise the same way that Bruce Willis seems to keep dying hard,
Sylvester Stallone repeatedly returns as either Rambo or Rocky, and Arnold
Schwarzenegger will always “be back” for another Terminator film, the title of Police
Story: Lockdown is somewhat misleading. Released as Police Story 2013 in China
Gone are the
days of Chan’s large scale slapstick stunts, instead replaced with a minimalist
plot taking place primarily in one set piece. Most of the humor is also gone
along with Chan’s ability to perform spectacular stunts, but this shift in
style is far superior to an over-use of CGI effects making up for the aging
actor’s physical limitations. Even though this film doesn’t contain the
character from the classic Police Story
franchise, this is as close as Chan has gotten to those films in many years.
In a set-up that
initially feels like Die Hard in a
bar, Chan plays a police officer held hostage alongside his estranged daughter
in a factory-turned-nightclub by a group of cage fighting criminals from Thailand Wu Jiang (Ye Liu) has a grudge against the aging officer,
determined to make him pay for a case from his past. As he is confined for a
large portion of the first act, Police
Story: Lockdown often relies on flashbacks of previous cases for
sprinklings of action sequences, all in Wen’s effort to figure out the case
that he is being punished for.
Another film
contrivance for adding action to this stationary narrative also takes place in
Wen’s head, as he calculates scenarios before they actually occur. While this
is misleading for the viewers, showing them violence and action as it could
occur rather than how it will play out, it also keeps the storyline moving
along during sequences filled with heavy dialogue instead of fighting. There is
no doubt that Chan’s style of action has slowed down, but what little is
included still has the ability to impress. Even though Chan may no longer be
able to accomplish the large scale stunts, the choreography of the fighting
still feels like it belongs in one of his films.
Despite having
far less action than his previous films, much of which merely takes place in
the head of our cop protagonist, Police
Story: Lockdown is a welcome addition to Chan’s filmography. I don’t really
care what the films are called, as long as Chan keeps making movies like this
rather than the slew of historical action films he has made recently. There is
a bit too much talking, the resolution between Chan and his daughter is
emotionally contrived, and the imagined action scenarios are distracting
fake-outs that eventually lose the trust of the audience, but all of this is
forgivable in the brief moments we are reminded of the reason Chan became a
star in the first place.
The Blu-ray release
includes interviews with director Sheng Ding (Little Big Soldier) and select cast members, along with a
behind-the-scenes featurette. There is also a trailer and an English-language
track is available for those too lazy to read the subtitles. The high
definition is actually impressive with the special effects shots that are in
the film, even if most of them are imagined or shown through flashback. There
are also some great slow motion shots in the fight scenes that are enhanced by
the pristine visuals. Although there is more talking in this Police Story than previous
installations, that doesn’t make the visual style of the film any less
impressive. In many ways, the stagnant plot forces even more stylized visuals
to compensate for the inactive storyline, though it never feels like overkill.
Entertainment Value:
8.5/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 7.5/10
Historical
Significance: 7/10
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