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Reviews
The Medallion (2003)
Surprisingly Disappointed
I expect a lot more from Jackie Chan's movies. The story line seemed to jump around and the editing was poor. Some of the special effects made me feel like I was watching streaming media over a slow connection.
The relationship between Jackie and his girlfriend was not very convincing.
Don't use this movie as a gauge of Jackie's USA productions. The Rush Hour and Shanghai series we much better.
Spoiler:
Why didn't they ever explain why the Librarian's wife had weapons?
Martial Law (1998)
Great stunts but story lacks attention to details
It's great to see Sammo performing stunts in his own show. It's neat that he has made references to training in the Peking Opera and his bouts with the police martial arts instructor provides a good mix of action and comic relief. With the addition of Arsenio Hall the show has gotten better although Arsenio needs to act more like himself than Chris Tucker from Rush Hour.
While you can't always expect a solid story in a stunt show, if the script editors were more thorough they would catch some of the many flaws in each episode. For example: In one episode Sammo and Louis are searching an apartment and Sammo announces where one of the occupants is from. Louis thinks Sammo has used some kind of Chinese detective methods to conclude this but Sammo matter-of-factly states that he read it off the luggage tags. The flaw here is that later in the story we find out that the owner of the luggage flew in on private plane and that would mean no luggage tags would have been issued.
Guest appearances with Jackie Chan or Yuen Biao would be great for the viewers who know the connection between them.
I look forward to this show every week for its action, humor, and foreign flavor. I hope that it can continue to strengthen its cast and story to ensure many more seasons of success!