Jackie Chan’s First Strike
One day, maybe I’ll be able to watch the original cut of this action comedy, which was 24 minutes longer. For now, though, it’ll have to be the 83-minute dubbed version I watched in theatres in January of 1997, and marked my first theatrical experience with Jackie Chan. It’s a serviceable piece of entertainment from the Hong Kong action star.
I’d be curious to know how many people went to see this film in 1997, and knew that it was the fourth in Chan’s “Police Story” series. I sure didn’t, and I probably would have been as relatively disappointed watching it as I am now if I had. Seeing this and “Supercop,” the third film in the series (and another one I’ve only seen dubbed and cut for American audiences), again after the “Police Story” films from the 1980s, it’s a bit sobering to see how the series seemed to take a dive in quality, even if Chan remains one of the best physical performers in movie history. Part of that disconnect is surely because of how watered down the films were made, but even then, neither “Supercop” nor “First Strike” capture that deft blend of action and humor that is on display fully in the “Police Story” movies, or even “Rumble in the Bronx” and the first two “Rush Hour” movies. That’s not just because of how they were handled for American audiences.
“First Stike” begins with Jackie informing the CIA about an illegal arms dealer he’s been tracking. His superior, “Uncle” Bill (Bill Tung), convinces him to work with the agency in apprehending the dealers, leading him on a globe-trotting adventure out of James Bond. That’s a big part of the issue with “First Strike,” compared to the previous “Police Story” films- it completely switches genres on Chan, who’s much more at home with hand-to-hand combat choreography than large-scale set pieces, and while he has some fun moments in the Ukraine sequences (especially when he has a seal hat on), and director Stanley Tong is plenty capable of building these sequences, Chan is largely out of his element, and it feels like it. Maybe it’s because the filmmakers wanted to replicate more the type of action movies that were successful in the ’90s, but this is definitely middle-tier Chan compared to what came before, and it’s not his fault.
The second half of the film takes place in Australia, and here, we get the full, fun Chan experience. The action is more confident, the comedy is more in his wheelhouse, and the fight choreography is filled with the type of controlled improvisation we know and love out of Jackie, especially when he’s forced to be on stilts, or use a ladder to fight off the bad guys. The conclusion of “First Strike” takes place in an aquarium, and the film takes full advantage of that location, and even stages a pretty terrific action scene underwater. By the time the credit sequence bloopers came on, I had a smile on my face, and was reminded of why I enjoyed this film in the first place.
