Review of the movie "Hidden Strike" - an uneven but sometimes spectacular blockbuster with Jackie Chan and John Cena
The director of "Need for Speed" has made his own "Mad Max" - with kung fu and a plot about capitalist evil.
An oil production complex owned by the Chinese corporation Unicorp is attacked by a group of mercenaries. Luo Feng (Jackie Chan), a former secret service agent, and his team try to rescue the workers and take them out of Iraq along the so-called "Highway of Death". The situation is complicated by the fact that among the employees of the complex is his own daughter Luo Mei (Ma Chunzhui), with whom the hero has long lost contact.
Another former soldier, Chris Van Horn (John Cina), turns out to be among the mercenaries. He doesn't know the details of his mission and thinks he's fighting terrorists. When Van Horn realizes what's up, he decides to help Luo Feng. Now the two of them will have to confront a large mercenary army to prevent the villains from taking over the oil reserves.
"Hidden Strike" is a curious weather vane of the modern blockbuster industry, a cinematic symbol of how far Chinese cinema has come in recent years. Asian action stars have been appearing in Hollywood movies since the days of Bruce Lee, but more often as villains, in the background, or at best paired with a chatty American. Their characters were joked about, and their fighting abilities were cleverly hidden by Hollywood clip editing - somewhere to a lesser extent ("Rush Hour 2"), somewhere to a greater extent (say, the remake of "Mulan").
By 2023, the scales had moved in the other direction. Now the Chinese studios can shoot a buddy-movie, where the honored local actor Jackie Chan acts in a pair with the American star John Sina. And the latter tries to speak Chinese in the movie - but his accent is laughed at, as if in retaliation for decades of Hollywood jokes. Now the Chinese are spending 80 million dollars to playfully form an action-comedy between the lines to banish American militarism (not coincidentally, the plot involves the infamous "Highway of Death") and show how the poor proletariat takes over the greedy capitalists.
However, ironically, for some reason they called American director Scott Waugh (let his last name not deceive you - he looks like the whitest man in the world) to shoot it. The director of passable action movies like Need for Speed and the author of the upcoming "Unstoppable 4". A man not completely untalented, but clearly not one of those who can raise the average material to the level of an outstanding movie. It also doesn't help that "Hidden Strike" is clearly focused on the greats. In the first third of the movie, the heroes escape from mercenaries during a sandstorm and have a "Road of Fury" on the minimap. The movie itself invites comparisons to George Miller's masterpiece - and only exposes the cheapness of production, awkwardness of local computer graphics and strong problems with dynamics.
In addition, "Hidden Strike" clearly takes its story more seriously than it should. The whole plot about confronting evil mercenaries could have been fit into a couple sentences, but the picture spends almost half of its running time trying to outline all sides of the conflict. As a result, the comedy buddy-movie starts only at the fortieth minute: by that time it is time to wake up the viewer after all the incendiary stories about the sad reality of the modern oil business.
After spending a lot of time on exposition, the movie tries to catch up on all the important plot lines in the remaining hour, but in the end there is no time left for anything. Chan and Sina's characters have some funny comedic run-ins, with Van Horn trying to flirt with his partner's daughter, which of course he's not happy about. But they happen only a couple of times during the movie and do not lead to anything in particular. Sina's character is given a tragic past where his mercenary father died because of his actions. But this plot branch doesn't really grow anywhere: it is only necessary for the hero to "believe in himself" at the climax. The most offensive for the line of the hero Jackie Chan, unexpectedly personal for the actor. He, like his character, was also never a good father - and for the sake of work time after time rejected his own family. Curiously, Chan has clearly been trying to make sense of this in movies lately: only recently came out "Kung Fu Stallion," where the protagonist also had trouble communicating with his daughter. In "Hidden Strike," the conflict remains punctuated by the daughter ultimately accepting her father because he's simply incredibly cool. It's hard to argue, but I would have liked a little more intrigue.
Only acrobatic action really saves the picture. Somewhere in the middle Scott Waugh finally remembers that he actually has Jackie Chan and all the creative power of his stunt team at his disposal. In the movie there are really inventive episodes: the heroes fight knee-deep in foam, suspended on cables, and fight with mercenaries in the middle of the labyrinths of a deserted town. The authors curiously use the space for action and do not spoil the spectacular moments with splices - as if for the camera suddenly stands not Waugh, but Jackie himself, and the sample of at least the 1990s.
If "Hidden Strike" is worth watching, it's for these rare but impressive episodes - reminiscent of what action movies might look like in a perfect world. It's just a pity that such talented performers fell into the hands of not the most dexterous director: after a little acrobatics, Scott Waugh quickly returns to gray scenes of car battles and unsightly CGI.
You can watch "Hidden Strike" online on Netflix.
This article was brought by Gregory McKee
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