Police Story

1985's POLICE STORY has long been considered Jackie Chan's finest hour, including by the actor/writer/director himself.  It was also given the much desired Criterion Collection treatment a few years back, with a beautiful remaster.  I only knew Chan from a few movies like RUMBLE IN THE BRONX and RUSH HOUR, but of course there are so many more.  I always liked him.  He gives off a less hard edged image than many other martial artists of the East.  Surely I would join in the chorus of praise for POLICE STORY. 

Not quite.  But no one will deny Jackie's dedication to orchestrating and performing mind boggling stunts and fight choreography.  The film's reputation for that is well earned, especially a wild finale in a shopping mall, where untold numbers of panes of glass are shattered as the actors punch and are thrown into them. There's also the film's opening, involving a shoot out and eventual destruction of a shanty town as several cars plow through it.  Then, Jackie pursues the bad guys as he hangs off a double decker bus with an umbrella.

Sounds silly? The movie is just getting started.  That's my issue - this is an unbelievably goofy outing.  For much of the filler between those spectacular action scenes, we get sitcom level comedy that actually seems inspired by Three's Company! Note that tape recording during the courtroom scene, or earlier, when Chan Ka-Kui (Jackie) brings home a witness (Brigitte Lin) about to testify against her boss, a drug dealer.  Chan's girlfriend (Maggie Cheung) is waiting in the dark with friends for a surprise birthday.  That cake ends up in his face when she thinks the witness is someone he's cheating with.  Or when said girlfriend, now aware of the truth, hears Chan (who is not aware she is in the next room) offering a less than flattering summation of her.

Or that lengthy scene in the police station, when Chan attempts to field several telephone calls.  Some have compared this ballet to something Buster Keaton may have done.  Uh, maybe Buster Keaton as channeled through Jack Tripper.

I like slapstick, a lot, but here it is just so tired, so antithetical to the attempts to tell a police story.  Ironically, when the film shifts gears and gets all serious toward the end, it becomes quite hilarious. In much the same way bad kung fu films do, including those intense musical cues and hyperactive zooms.  Too bad.  But don't miss the final battle.  Legendary stuff.