Jackie Chan: Crime Story / The Protector

I’ve seen a lot of Jackie Chan films but I’ve never watched Crime Story or The Protector. I’m more of a martial arts Jackie Chan fan and these two movies are more Lethal Weapon then Drunken Master.

Crime Story is a true story based on a kidnapping that happened in 1990. Chan plays Eddie Chan, a cop determined to return a kidnapped businessman to his wife. Kent Chang plays Detective Hung Ting-Bong, a corrupt cop whose in on the kidnapping and working alongside Chan on the investigation while tipping off his partners.

As I said, this is not your typical Jackie Chan film. All of Chan’s action involves a gun and some fighting, but not much by way of the usual acrobatic martial arts stuff many are familiar with when it comes to Chan. He does do a fantastic job in this film as a cop frustrated with the corruption of his beloved police force. He moves through the film as a cop whose slowly but surely coming undone and deviating from the law and order he upholds with honor and bending those rules to bring the bad guys to justice. It’s the usual story, but because it’s Jackie Chan it seems more entertaining watching him play a part he’s not known for.

The Protector was an interesting film as it pits Chan first in New York and then in Hong Kong. Chan plays Billy Wong, a loose cannon whose sick of the corruption in New York. When his partner is killed he reneges and kills the men who killed his partner, the climatic end fight a fiery explosion on a speed boat. This doesn’t bode well with his superiors and Chan is reprimanded and sent to work crowd control with a new partner, Danny Garoni (Danny Aiello). While babysitting some art lovers the party is rushed by gunmen who kidnap a woman, who is later reported to be in Hong Kong. Billy and Danny follow the trail.

Again, not the Jackie Chan film your used to. Jackie kills, maims, even drops an F bomb now and again. Again its all about the guns but there is a bit more martial arts fighting then the last film. Still, both hold up well as far as entertainment goes.

PICTURE QUALITY:
As you can expect both films suffer dramatically on Blu-ray. The original films, if you look at the original trailers for both in their respective bonus features, looked terrible. That being said this set is an outrageously awesome step up, but still, doesn’t even come close to the kind of quality blu-ray enthusiasts have come to expect. Grain, soft shots, spots and more. You have to come at this set (that comes on one disc) knowing that it’s a vast improvement but far from the definitive edition that it could be.

BONUS FEATURES:
Crime Story
~Interview with director Kirk Wong
~Deleted Scenes
~Theatrical Trailers
The Protector
~Interview with director James Glckenhaus
~Behind-The-Scenes Featurette
~Theatrical Trailers
~Jackie Chan’s personal cut of the film including additional scenes directed by Jackie Chan