Police Story II, Project A II - FILM

When it comes to stunt filled action scenes, Jackie Chan has very few equals. He gets the creativity, comedy and pain perfectly in sync when the fists start to fly.

POLICE STORY 2 has three amazing action scenes that will sear themselves in your memory forever.

PROJECT A 2 has two great action scenes and one decent one that could have been better.

It's the rest of his films running time that's a problem.

When Jackie directs, he somehow finds a way of making an hour and forty minutes feel like three exhausting hours. He fills the frame with uninteresting conflict. The middle section of his arguably plot less proceedings drags on endlessly and the audience is forced to trudge along behind it. It's especially noticeable in PROJECT A 2 which had an amazing first entry and suffers from the unavoidable comparison. I've heard some people say they like POLICE STORY 2 over the first and to that I have to say: YOU ARE CRAZY. Police Story is still rather plot less, but is paced immensely better with incredibly intense stunt work. It's Jackie doing his all while PART II is Jackie floating through. When you have two out of three action scenes completely superfluous to the plot (not that it REALLY matters) something is wrong.

If you're an action fan, you should owe it to yourselves to see both films. There's enough here to warrant a watch. Just set your expectations low an you'll be fine.

I hear Jackie is going back to directing his next film. Please Jackie, let someone else do it. Your old friend Sammo Hung isn't doing anything these days. Why don't you give him a shot to give you gold again?