Non Stop Action On The High Seas
Starring: Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, Dick Wei, Mars, Isabella Wong
Director: Jackie Chan
1983 | 98 Minutes | PG-13
“You are harboring a murderer!” – Dragon Ma
It’s interesting… many people seem to be of the belief that Project A is one of, if not THE greatest movie Jackie Chan has ever done, yet it left me a little underwhelmed.
China’s best sailor, Dragon Ma (Jackie Chan) sets out to stop gun smuggling pirates from running roughshod over the South China Sea.
As with every Jackie Chan movie, Project A has a pretty thin plot. There is an awful lot of pointless story – something about pirates stealing guns – compared to what we really want to see… awesome martial arts and Jackie Chan risking his life in some insane stunts.
The martial arts are awesome as could be expected from any movie featuring Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao. My lone complaint in this department is that the fights tend to be overcrowded, making it harder to see and appreciate the choreography. There is a decent bar fight between Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao at the beginning but it definitely could have been better with more time and less people around.
The “highlight” of the film? One of the most unnecessarily dangerous stunts by Jackie Chan. Jackie climbs out onto the clock face of a clock tower and falls three stories with only two cloth balconies on the way down to slow his fall. Then, for reasons unbeknownst to me, they show the stunt twice… except they actually show two different attempts at the same stunt. One where Jackie lands on his head and neck (OUCH!!!) and one where he lands a little more safely on his torso. It’s crazy that this guy isn’t dead by now.
Again, Project A is far from being a bad movie. FAR!!! I just personally think Jackie has done better. Project A should still be considered mandatory viewing for all action movie fanatix.
Action Movie Fanatix 