Review: Chinese Zodiac

Jackie Chan stars as JC, a treasure hunter tasked by a rich American (Oliver Platt!) to find 12 bronze statues pertaining to the 12 signs of the Chinese zodiac. He and his team (which includes long-limbed debutant Zhang Lanxin as Bonnie and Liao Fan as David) are eventually joined by preservationist Coco (Xingtong Yao) and French aristocrat Catherine (Laura Weissbecker) who want the statue busts for either personal or more altruistic reasons. American stuntwoman Caitlin Dechelle turns up towards the end as a formidable henchwoman.

 

Also known as “CZ12”, this 2013 action/adventure not only stars Jackie Chan, but he also directed, co-wrote, produced, composed, and performed the duties of art direction and fight choreography on the film, among other tasks (He’s even one of the DOPs!). So its success or failure definitely doesn’t have anyone else’s shoulders to rest on, really. Basically a reboot of “Armour of God”, it’s probably slightly better than that film, but hampered by overlength (despite also obviously having been hacked to pieces) and in the version I saw, pretty pathetic dubbing. I hate dubbing, subtitles aren’t the work of the Devil, y’know (And the dubbing, by the way comes and goes, making it even more ridiculous. I know why the subtitles are used, but it’s still silly). So yeah, I saw the ‘International’ version of the film, unfortunately, but even if I did see the original version of the film, 100 or so minutes of this film is a bit too long already, so I’d have to think a 2 hour version would be way too much.

 

On the plus side, boy does this film work in the action department. I’m not sure how much of his own stunts Jackie is doing these days, but the opener here is a lot of fun as Jackie makes an escape in what looks to be a rollerblade suit of some sort. The best scene in the entire film is a really creative fight later on in the film fought on some sofas (!), that definitely shows Chan’s still got it. If you’re into his kind of comedic choreography, you’ll like what he does in that scene, even if you have to think that some wire-work or doubling was involved for 60ish Chan. I was even more impressed by his leggy co-star Zhang Lanxin, who is not only hot, but has an even better fight than the sofa scene a few minutes later. That’s great stuff. It’s a pretty lively film even if it’s too much film. It’s a damn good-looking film too, with really nice scenery, especially in the second half. American character actor Oliver Platt is a strange presence here, but even more strangely completely wasted in a nothing role, as is Shu Qi in a bizarre walk-on at the end.

 

Watchable Jackie Chan film with some terrific action, but it runs too long in whatever version you see it, and the version I saw also comes equipped with cheap and inadequate dubbing. That somewhat soured my experience overall, though it’s not boring and probably one of his better latter-day efforts. Chan co-wrote the screenplay with Frankie Chan (better known as a composer and occasional director), and regular Jackie Chan collaborators Edward Tang (“Project A”, “Armour of God”, “The Legend of Drunken Master”, “Rumble in the Bronx”), and Stanley Tong (“First Strike”, “The Myth”).

 

Rating: C+