New Police Story

It’s all-out class war as Jackie Chan’s police inspector sees his entire team get whacked out by a group of narc-hating rich kids and, after a bout of Scotch-fuelled depression, decides to (yawn) dole out some old-fashioned working-class revenge. The desperately titled ‘New Police Story’ is the fifth in this hugely popular series  and it’s a trashy confection that sees Chan take brief leave of his successful new line in Owen Wilson-based kung-fu buddy comedies to return to local action thrillers. Well into his fifties, Chan ably proves that high-octane stunt work, like wine, can improve with age, and he’s still got it when it come to the numerous Keaton-esque moments of physical slapstick. On the downside, a plot involving extreme sports and snuff computer games is quickly ditched in favour of driving a bus through a shopping arcade and, in a final-reel deluge of product placement, a huge (albeit very entertaining) fight in a Lego shop. The film contains a darker edge to the fare we’ve come to associate with the star and so Chan’s lack of acting range is a burden – his laughable attempts at  ‘despair’ mix 1940s Hollywood melodrama with ‘Grange Hill’-lite histrionics and from the man who was the Drunken Master, his impersonation of being leathered would suggest that he’s not one to come off-set to a dimpled glass of foaming nut-brown ale. Director Benny Chan (no relation) is fairly adept at thrusting the action forward, but all the stuff in between is very over-the-top and self-consciously pretty.