Beanbioca
As Good As It Gets
Baseshment
I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.
BelSports
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
leonblackwood
Review: Is there anything that Jackie Chan can't do? Maybe a decent comedy! Anyway, he now turns his death-defying abilities to drag racing were he plays a former racing car champion, fighting to put a stop to an illegal drag racing driver, Cougar (Thorsten Nickel) who has the cops in his pocket and a group of killers behind him. Jackie Chans life becomes in danger when he goes to the police to tell them about Cougars illegal racing and when Cougar is freed from jail, he targets Chan and his family for putting him in jail. He kidnaps 2 of Chans sisters because he wants to challenge Chan to a race, so with the help of a journalist and a wealthy sponsor, Chan puts together a team to build a perfect car for the race. With freeing his sisters in his mind, Chan prepares for the race which will prove whose the best, even with Cougars life threatening tactics and they hit the track for the final showdown. It's not the greatest of story lines but there are some decent action scenes. I'm not one for watching drag racing because I find it quite boring, so the showdown at the end wasn't that amazing either. The mixture of subtitles and English language, also made it a bit hard to concentrate on the plot but it's not over complicated like a lot of Jackie Chans movies that were made for a Western audience. The epic scenes with the containers were impressive, along with the stunts in the cars but from an entertainment point of view, I have seen much better movies from Jackie Chan. Average!Round-Up: This big budget movie from Gordon Chan, who brought you the Medallion, which also starred Chan and Fist of Legend which starred Jet Li, wasn't bad for an unknown movie from Chan but the guy who played the villain, Thorsten Nickel, was terrible. Chans acting wasn't bad, especially in that dramatic scene when he was in hospital but the whole drag racing concept became uninteresting after a while. On the whole, it's a watchable movie which hasn't got the unfunny comedy scenes which I have grown to dislike from Chan in the latter part of his career but he won't be remembered for it.Budget: $30million Worldwide Gross: N/AI recommend this movie to people who are into their action/comedy/drama/martial arts movies starring Jackie Chan, Anita Yuen and Michael Wong. 3/10
ma-cortes
This moving picture deals with Chan Foh To (Jackie Chan) who runs a small garage in Hong Kong along with his father and two sisters who are abducted and the only way Foh can get his sisters back is by racing cougar in Japan. Foh is an expert mechanic an in his spare time, he also helps the police out by checking vehicles that have been illegally upgraded. One night, heinous street racing driver named Warner Krugerman or Cougar (Nickel), speeds past Foh and the patrolmen . Foh gets into a car and stops Cougar heroically but later takes place the kidnapping his sisters by the psychotic nasty. In order to release his kidnapped sisters , sports car mechanic Jackie Chan has to beat a super-criminal street racer . He now must retrain himself in race car driving so he can be at his best to race Cougar .Exciting film plenty of thrills , over-the-top action with impressive and interminable fights including Chan dangling and downing, ingenious stunts and stirring music . This thrilling movie is packed with adventure , intrigue , unstopped action , overwhelming stunt-work and lots of fights but with humor . Jackie Chan is top notch as one army man fighting a group of heinous hoodlums and as always he makes his own stunts like is well showed at the final stock-shots . Awesome , incredible stunts and brief comic touches , as usual ; the picture is well constructed as well as Chan's ulterior films . The lighting-paced storyline slows down at times , but frantic action sequences make up for it . Spotlights of the movie hold several spectacular races , Jackie jumping down and fighting ; including when the nasty Cougar lands in jail, but breaks out eventually on some breathtaking scenes . Furthermore , when Cougar gets revenge on Foh by trashing his garage , a breathtaking final race and other extraordinary action sequences in overwhelming style . This is an acceptable action movie distinguished by nicely cinematography of the spectacular sequences , and contains agreeable sense of humor such as previous entries . Jackie Chan usually forms couple to notorious actress as Maggie Chung and Michelle Yeoh . However in this outing Jackie teams up again to Chinese actress , Anita Yeun , Miss Hong Kong 1990 . This is a passable action movie distinguished by ferocious sequences , and packs silly sense of humor as well as Jackie's subsequent entries . The motion picture is professionally directed by Gordon Chan who filmed various Jackie Chan and Jet Li vehicles and several art-martial movies such as ¨Fist the legend¨, ¨Kung Fu master¨, ¨The king of fighters¨and ¨The medallion¨The picture achieved success in China and around the world . However , Jackie Chan's failed at Box-office in his American debut ,¨Battle creek brawl¨ . Chan is a fine action star in their own right , he is a hard-working actor and director throughout his long and varied career . Chan usually pays overt homage to two of his greatest influences as Charles Chaplin and Harold Lloyd . He went on playing ¨Cannoball¨ , ¨The protector¨ and "Rumble in the Bronx", until getting all American success with ¨Shangai Knights¨ , ¨The tuxedo¨ , ¨Around the world in 80 days¨ and ¨Rush hour¨ trilogy , and the recent ¨Karate kid¨. Of course , his biggest hits were ¨The Police story¨ series that won the Golden Horse Award, a Chinese version of the Oscar , the first was titled ¨Police story(1985)¨ directed by the same Chan , it was a perfect action film for enthusiastic of the genre ; the following was ¨Police story 2(1988)¨also pretty violent and with abundant humor touches. It's followed by ¨Supercop¨ or ¨Police story 3¨ and finally, ¨Police story IV : Crime story . Rating : Acceptable and passable , the picture has its sensational moments here and there , but also with abundant humor touches mostly provided by its agile star , the super Jackie . It's a perfect action film for enthusiast of the genre though only for Jackie fans .
TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews
This is one of the only pre-Hollywood flicks with Jackie that I've seen, so forgive me if I comment on anything that is a staple of them. Whilst offering absolutely nothing new to the genre, this does manage to, in spite of some rather abusive use of slow-motion, a lot of really cool and, at times surprising, action. As is Chan's usual style, props are used, and there is a general comedic tone to the well-choreographed martial arts sequences. The plot is fine. I can't say I got into it all that much, perhaps because I'm just not that big on looking at cars driving. Even if they do go by fast and make that vroom-noise. It does not appeal that much to me. I'm not a race-ist, though. OK, granted, that was a terrible pun. I'm giving myself a time-out. For anyone still reading this, however... with a couple of questionable angles and edits being all that stand out to the way this is shot and cut together, this simply does not have a lot to offer other than the shoot-outs, chases, and of course, especially, fights. This is in at least two languages, but all of it is subtitled. Well, the version I saw, anyway. There is violence in this. I recommend this to fans of the star. 6/10
TheHande
REWRITTEN: 15.12.Thunderbolt offers an excellent Jackie Chan experience with a multitude of feelings. There is a multi-cultural flavour brought in due to the changes in character's languages. The story also gets extra gravity since the villain this time is not someone who just wants Jackie dead but someone who considers him an equal behind the wheel. This character-dynamic is what makes the film stand out.Of course certain elements are a little more traditional such as the kidnapping of Foh's sisters. Visually the film is very compelling. I didn't originally like the scenes where the action "clips" but after a re-viewing in widescreen the "crane scene" looks absolutely fantastic. The other action-scenes in the film work excellently as well even though during the arcade fight one may spot Jackie's double quite easily.Plot, character and execution work excellently for the film. The soundtrack is also easily one of the best in any Jackie-film. The only negative sides include the fact that the film loses a little bit of its darkness in the silly arcade fight and the traditional leading lady relationship. Beyond these two the film is easily one of Jackie's best and most under-rated.
