Yep, some more old skool Jackie Chan!
This time it’s Armour of God otherwise known as Operation Condor 2. It’s a sequel released after Operation Condor in the United States, despite being made several years earlier…. wait what?
Jackie plays the franchise’s main character Hawk – an adventurer and skilled fighter who gets out and about stealing artifacts for money.
Hawk’s ex-girlfriend is kidnapped and kidnappers demand to receive an ancient artifact called the ‘Armour of God’ in return for her release.
So Hawk and his friend Alan then search for the Armour and find it at a wealthy man’s house. Alan tries to steal it against Hawk’s wishes and he is quickly caught. Alan manages to convince the man to lend him the Armour of God instead and the wealthy man agrees on the basis that his daughter goes with them and is in charge the whole operation.
So they set out to accomplish their goal, naturally running into bad guys and getting into all sorts of fights and chases that we have all come to love in Jackie Chan’s movies.
The whole ‘adventure’ style of this film is really entertaining. As I mentioned above, car chases, fights, and numerous impressive stunts from Jackie make this film visually exciting to watch.
Jackie’s abilities and willing to perform risky stunts really sell his performance in this and all of his top films. Even to the point where Jackie had a nearly fatal fall during a jump in one scene of this film! This has been the most dangerous accident he’s ever had in his movie career, but it highlights just how far he’ll go to raise the entertainment value of his movies.
This effort shows throughout the film and especially during the final fight scenes as Jackie cranks up the intensity and delivers some creative movement as he fends off his attackers.
As usual, Jackie’s moves aren’t ‘traditional’ martial arts moves (with the exception of kicks and punches) but basic human movement, timed and performance with tremendous athletiscism. Combined with the stunt work and ‘monkey’ like ability to move around his environment, he makes this movie another credit to his impressive career.
The action is up there, but there are a few shots where you’ll see wires briefly, but its to be expected as it is before digitally removing them on a computer was an option. It’s only on a couple of occasions and is used pretty tastefully.
Whilst the action is good, the light hearted kung-fu comedy is always present. Simple banter and a bit of slapstick humour is used throughout the film giving it a natural blend of decent comedy to go with the top notch action.
The verdict? It’s a Chan classic!
It broke box office recordss in China upon it’s release and still stands tall as a top action film. Check it out!
On Blu Ray –
Region A (US & Canada)
Operation Condor 2: Armour of God [Blu-ray]
Region B (UK, Australia, New Zealand, Europe etc)
Operation Condor: Armour Of God II (Blu-ray)
On DVD –
Region 1 (US & Canada)
Operation Condor 2: The Armour of God
Region 2 (UK, Europe, etc)
Operation Condor : Armour Of God II [DVD]
Region 4 (Australia, New Zealand, etc)
Jackie Chan ~ The Dynamic Collection (15 Disc Box Set) (PAL) (REGION 4)
