 | Follow us on | |||
Project APOSTED BY JASON FETTERS, January 19, 2014 Share
With the annual Gasparilla Pirate Festival coming up soon in Tampa, the time is right to take a look at the most influential box office star in Hong Kong during the 80’s, Jackie Chan.
Combining his love of Buster Keaton and early American comedians, Chan set out to make a period film filled with jaw dropping stunts and electrifying action scenes.
Jackie Chan is the Sergeant for the Hong Kong Marine Police and he must protect the seas from a savage gang of pirates that have been raiding ships.
This will be no easy task because despite fighting pirates and gangsters, Chan and his men also get into fights with the Royal Hong Kong Police Force. Police and sailors do not need get along and nowhere is this more apparent than an intense bar brawl that is over the top in fighting, stunts, and Jackie Chan’s unique brand of humor.
After the police begin mocking Chan and company a huge fight breaks out that is bursting with charged kung fu energy. Beer bottles are broken and used as weapons as the carnage continues. The whole fight shows just how good a well-choreographed stunt team can be while still remaining believable. There are some hokey moments such as the scene where the police and sailors stop fighting and start up again when an old record player starts playing music but for me that just adds to the comedic charm found throughout Project A.
In no other movie will you have bike tricks used to take out opponents so skillfully and funny.
The bicycle stunts have to be seen to be believed.
Project A is a showcase for the three brothers, Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, and Jackie Chan. The three join forces, during the finale, to take on the cruel pirate leader, San-po, in a dazzling display of action that is never boring.
Jackie Chan is moving towards dangerous stunts in Project A that he will employ in upcoming movies like Wheels on Meals, the Police Story series, and most spectacularly in Armour of God. In Project A, Jackie Chan is dangling from a clock tower 60 feet in the air. Chan, growing tired of hanging on drops on the way to the ground, landing on top of his head. This is the kind of stuntwork that he is internationally famous for.
Project A is sure to excite action fans everywhere and comedy fans will find a lot of laughs, however Chan shows off his full range as an actor by showing real emotions in his dramatic scenes. It would just be another nonstop action movie without those drama scenes that enrich the plot.
Following the disappoint that was The Big Brawl, Project A grossed $19,323,824 in Hong Kong and also won the 1985 Hong Kong Awards for Best Action Choreography that just further proves no one beats Jackie Chan is carefully crafting the best action scenes that evenly blend kung fu and humor.
This is a must see for Jackie Chan and movie fans everywhere.
Highly Recommended
5 out of 5 Stars
"The Asian Aperture" is ©2014 by Jason Fetters. All contents of Crazed Fanboy are ©2014 by Nolan B. Canova and Terence Nuzum.
The Creeps #1
Why I Love Richard Butler
Visions
Chinese Zodiac
The Slasher Movie Book by J.A. Kerswell
Tribute to AnimeNation
Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things
So You Want To Become A Japanologist?
Podcast: Favorite Italian Horror Films
Hammer Files: The Revenge of Frankenstein
James O'Neill's Terror on Tape
Hammer Files: Horror of Dracula
Skywald Publications and Psycho magazine!
Hammer Files: The Abominable Snowman
Crestwood House Monster Books
The Unborn (2003)
Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons (2013)
The Hammer Files: The Curse of Frankenstein
Giant Monster Gamera (1965)
Tampa Bay Comic Con 2014: Con Report
Tampa Concert Memoirs Part Two
The Raid 2
Eiji Tsuburaya: Master of Monsters Book Review
Messengers (1999)
Tampa Concert Memoirs Part One
I Was A Teenage Horror Fanatic! or how Revok changed my life!
Godzilla (2014)
Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame
Arcade Mania by Brian Ashcraft
The Little Norse Prince (1968)