First Strike - Jackie Chans Erstschlag

Despite being part of the Police Story series, in the first half this picture reminds you a lot of a Bond movie and doesn’t hesitate to say it out loud. Jackie sets off to visit Ukraine, has a breakneck snowboard ride, then he goes to Australia where he swims with sharks etc. Considering I wasn’t expecting much from this, the picture was a pleasant surprise. Chan is in excellent physical form, the choreography is generally humorous and inventive (especially the fake kung fu is better than slow-motion “bullet time") and primarily it is decently paced, meaning that you don’t notice some of the mistakes. You can see that this had a sizeable budget and, last but not least, the movie isn’t very long, so you don’t get a chance to get bored. (17.04.2005)

Jackie Chan is just crazy, but I'm still incredibly entertained by him. He is entertaining, and that's how his films were supposed to be as well. His focus in the past has been to entertain the audience. This is a pure example thereof, further enhanced by the Russian setting and subsequently the Australian one, where it doesn't fit in either case, but that's what makes the individual confrontations so interesting. (05.08.2014)