122 - The Fearless Hyena

Connection To THE INVINCIBLE EIGHT - James Tien.

Before watching the remastered widescreen version of this in it's original language recently, I had only ever seen the full screen dubbed version on VHS, this mean't my opinion had been that to say it most diplomatic - this was one of Jackie Chan's lesser efforts - but seeing it how it was mean't to be seen - I have to say this film is a lost classic - in my humble opinion it deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Drunken Master and Snake In The Eagle Shadow (seriously).

Going back to the VHS days - I hope I can explain this well, we are talking this is 1990 - 93ish my brother was starting his lifelong love for Hong Kong cinema and particularly Jackie Chan and with him buying the VHS means I got to see (albeit dubbed) classics such as Police Story, Project A and Wheels On Meals - and there was sort of 2 Chan camps, the early Chan and the more recent Chan, the early Chan where worse prints and worse boxes, everything means I saw them as the lesser films, that's what Spiritual Kung Fu was (called Karate Ghostbusters) or something like Half A Loaf Of Kung Fu, and of course (to remain relevant) The Fearless Hyena, and like I say these titles where lumped together as before Chan's prime - even though some films like this where made after Drunken Master - and was no way going to get as much play as Police Story.

The Fearless Hyena which was also Chan's directorial debut (from 1979, the year after Drunken Master) was I think him trying to prove a point - there's loads of fighting, comedy but also drama (just to prove he could do it), some of this was probably aimed at the director Lo Wei who he had up until then recently being under contract to just to say if you let me be - look what you could have had.

While it's not entirely original (even in the Chan oeuvre) hitting the marks as you would expect, there is both vintage Chan fighting and Chan comedy (and Chan in drag as the picture suggests), and while some scenes might echo say Drunken Master, Chan adds enough to them to make them seem fresh.

Overall, avoid the dubbed full screen and if you get a chance to see a decent print in the original language to me you'll be beyond pleasantly surprised. Recommended.

41 - The Cannonball Run

Connection To CITY HUNTER - Jackie Chan

"It's not what you do, it's how you do it..."

I touched on my childhood viewing habits a bit when I wrote about Police Academy 4, and despite my back then and still lack of interest about cars I loved The Cannonball Run films to bits. The first and second movie (Fever I never owned on video but saw more then one thanks to television) where watched multiple times and was a main reason for wanting me to watch All Dogs Go To Heaven in that it had the voices of Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise, the film though not big with the critics where loved and are still loved by me to this very day.

So The Cannonball Run's plot is simple as in it's about an illegal cross country race but it's more about the characters then the actual race, which I guess simple is plot you can say about a lot of the cross country race films, the reason being for a stash or money or competition is just get the array of characters racing against each other.

The characters - the main pair are JJ (Reynolds) and (DeLuise) who are riding an ambulance and dressed as paramedics with a real but crazy doctor (Jack Elam), these supposed heroes actually pretty much kidnap Farrah Fawcett and drug her up at point point, ah the 80's sure where different (see also Revenge Of The Nerds).Victor also has the memorable of superhero alter-ego of Captain Chaos

We also have Roger Moore, who was still James Bond plays Seymour who believes he's Roger Moore... not James Bond mind, you know because of copyright and all, he even gets Bond sound alike music aswell as a bevvy of different women and gadgets but if the lawyers are reading I repeat he is not James Bond, it's fun though seeing Moore make fun of himself especially in a time before it became a common occurrence.

Dean Martin looks drunk for most of the movie - and the fact it's Dean Martin I will assume he was and he teams up with Rat Pack pal Sammy Davis Jr. as Priests they make fun "arch-nemesis" to the J.J/Victor pair

Among others we also have Jackie Chan and Michael Hui play a Japanese race team because you know close enough, the pair of buxom lady drivers played by Adrienne Babreau and Tara Buckman who use there erm... assets to evade authority and Jamie Farr as The Sheik (who is the only character who appears in all 3 movies) are the more standout other racers.

I think Elam as Doctor Van Helsing steals the show for me every time he's on screen he is hilarious whatever he does, another one of my favourite scenes involves The Sheik ordering fast food.

The absolute worst thing for me in the movie is Reynolds referring to Davis Jr. as a "Chocoalte Monk" feels so outdated for me now and sticks out as a negative against the movie.

The ending doesn't make sense when you think about it, the cannonballers all race towards the finish line on foot to see who gets there first however, the race is done by punching a clock with the time on and getting it punched at the other end and the scene earlier in the movie takes over 5 minutes so those that "win" probably don't especially since they are not the last to leave

Overall even after all these years I still find joy in this movie, across this movie and the second I enjoy spending time with the characters and maybe because you don't spend too long it makes the films speed by (damn me and puns lately).

P.S. this could be the answer to a trivia question - what film does Jackie Chan fight Peter Fonda?

40 - City Hunter

Connection To FIREPOWER - Gary Daniels

City Hunter stands out from the usual Jackie Chan films of this time period - and I don't necessarily mean that in a good way - the comedy is more broader then usual and the violence is is stronger - the Chan classics often get a fairer mix of the two...

I think this is a lot to do with the director Wong Jing - known as Hong Kong's Roger Corman - from other Jing films feature a similar violence/comedy tone which doesn't always sit well - this must also be the only film where Chan is also an out-and-out lecherous perv.

Ryo (Chan) and Kaori (Joey Wang) are assigned to locate the runaway daughter of a prominent CEO, Kaori leaves partway through this search because he is not returning the romantic feelings for her - this iffy for one reason, Kaori is the daughter of Ryo's ex partner who he raised from a child... so yeah - the runaway daughter end sup boarding a luxury cruise liner with a ticket she found and Kaori also boards with her horny cousin as Ryo sneaks on board. At the same time a terrorist group led by Donald Mac (Richard Norton) plan to hijack the ship and take rich passengers hostage.

Yeah, that plot doesn't do it justice in how goofy as hell it is - Chan spends part of the film absolutely starving and imagines female body parts as food, there's also 2 goofs in the movie - DJ's Soft and Hard who are bearable and if they had more screen time could have certainly being annoying.

There is some course being a Jackie Chan film some excellent action scenes, a stand out is in the ship's movie theatre while Game Of Death is playing, Chan getting help using Lee moves from the screen he is watching and excellent.

But perhaps the most famous scene is in the ship's arcade, where the characters became characters from Street Fighter II, we get Gary Daniels making a good ken but we get Jackie Chan as first Honda but then an amazing Chun Li (he's still third best in pretty Chun Li's on the big screen though), it's a very cool scene, the only sad thing is really that Chan and Daniels only on screen fight scene is here and that they didn't get a chance to do a proper one.

Director Wong Jing later did the movie High Risk, which starred Jet Li and Jacky Cheung in which Li played a stuntman for the phoney action hero Cheung, who is a thinly veiled take on Chan, guess there experiences with working with each other where bad and at one point it even insinuates that the Cheung character as a child's penis.

Overall it's such fun so the positives outweigh the negatives for me so it's worth... (puts on shades)... giving it a Chance