Although Jackie had top billing, there were long stretches where he wasn't on-screen. He came off as more like a supporting actor with this slick Prince Valliant haircut which he maintained even in prison.
The warden farmed out his prisoners to maintain roads on a tar crew. While on this sequence, the writers stole several tropes from Cool Hand Luke. To wit:
1) The prisoners get into a competition to show the guards they can finish a stretch of road ahead of schedule. They do. Same as CHL.
2) A pretty woman is driving by and her car breaks down. Fatty (one of the main characters) volunteers (eagerly) to help her so he tells her to go on the opposite side and rock the car. It's been raining, so this is a ploy to get her wet top against the window (she doesn't seem to be wearing a bra) while Fatty watches and moans in pleasure, This is very close to a scene in CHL.
3) Fatty asks permission to take a dump in the weeds. He goes behind some bushes and the guards keep yelling at him, so he starts shaking a bush to show that he is still there. After a little too long the bush stops shaking they run over to check it out. They find a long string Fatty used to shake the bush while he escaped. Right out of CHL.
Maybe the writers were paying homage to CHL. Or maybe they were lazy
In an interview, Jackie has said he's turned down roles because he didn't want to be a bad guy. Yet in this movie, he winds up in prison because he killed a gangster's brother in a fair fight. Okay, so far. Towards the end, he and several other men escape from prison, wind up at an airport. The entire army seems to be after them. Jacky kills maybe a dozen men to make good his escape. Good guy or bad guy? But I guess it evens out in the end because he is killed.. I can't recall a Jackie Chan movie where he dies on-screen. So that was weird.
I'm giving it six out of ten for the action.
The warden farmed out his prisoners to maintain roads on a tar crew. While on this sequence, the writers stole several tropes from Cool Hand Luke. To wit:
1) The prisoners get into a competition to show the guards they can finish a stretch of road ahead of schedule. They do. Same as CHL.
2) A pretty woman is driving by and her car breaks down. Fatty (one of the main characters) volunteers (eagerly) to help her so he tells her to go on the opposite side and rock the car. It's been raining, so this is a ploy to get her wet top against the window (she doesn't seem to be wearing a bra) while Fatty watches and moans in pleasure, This is very close to a scene in CHL.
3) Fatty asks permission to take a dump in the weeds. He goes behind some bushes and the guards keep yelling at him, so he starts shaking a bush to show that he is still there. After a little too long the bush stops shaking they run over to check it out. They find a long string Fatty used to shake the bush while he escaped. Right out of CHL.
Maybe the writers were paying homage to CHL. Or maybe they were lazy
In an interview, Jackie has said he's turned down roles because he didn't want to be a bad guy. Yet in this movie, he winds up in prison because he killed a gangster's brother in a fair fight. Okay, so far. Towards the end, he and several other men escape from prison, wind up at an airport. The entire army seems to be after them. Jacky kills maybe a dozen men to make good his escape. Good guy or bad guy? But I guess it evens out in the end because he is killed.. I can't recall a Jackie Chan movie where he dies on-screen. So that was weird.
I'm giving it six out of ten for the action.