The Shadow's Edge

I was very lucky to have this showing on the same day they opened in macau. So I got to see it immediately on a big screen.

The plot is just ok, but it's great to see Jackie still doing his own stunts and the fight scenes are great. So good to see 2 legends acting against each other. So glad that I found this movie!

Indeed this is the best Jackie Chan movie of the decade. There's parkour, elevator hand-to-hand, parachute, espionage, terrorism, 1v1, 1v2, 1v50, AI, hacking, tailing, anti-tailing and so much more riveting action sequences that simply doesn't seem to end. Jackie Chan and Tony Leung, two of Hong Kong's finest actors with a combined age of 138, are the absolute highlights of the film. The former agelessly humorous, masterful, and unwavering against evil; the latter charismatically menacing, conflicted, and a real beast when it comes to dagger play and family betrayal. Younger performers are also commendable whether Zhang Zifeng or Ci Sha, who all seem heavily trained for their stunts and convincing emotionally. For the down sides, I can bet that 90% of this movie's budget went to actors and action scenes because everything else was truly average - soundtrack, special effects, editing. It's almost giving a really good Internet-created action series. But still, The Shadow's Edge was an entertaining watch that took me back to Jackie Chan's time of prime action genre.

Four charming young parkour villains do a heist, taking advantage of technology.. the great Chinese police must call on a retired expert (Jackie Chan) to help catch them.

It soon turns into a redemption arc for him.. and together with a young girl, they face off against an old assassin.

The film has a flashy and energetic start, but the introduced elements are quickly pushed aside completely for a different kind of movie, which was quite disappointing.

Some important structural pieces become predictable, but at least the film isn't tropey. It is well executed, and reminds of a Nolan's Batman movie in visuals, sounds, etc.

While enjoyable, it is not very efficient in its storytelling, and suffers from pacing issues. There's also too much setup and the payoff doesn't get there. The developments aren't very interesting either.

Overall, it is better than I expected, but nothing in it I haven't seen before.

After a slew of stinkers over the past couple of years like Kung Fu Yoga, Bleeding Steel, Ride On, and Panda Plan, we all thought that Jackie Chan doesn't have what it takes anymore. Lo and behold we have The Shadow's Edge, a remake of 2007's Eye in the Sky. It promises the showdown we all dreamed of: Jackie VS the legend Tony Leung (who also appeared in Eye in the Sky), but given the stinker streak he got, anticipation and expectations are kept at a lukewarm level.

Surprise, surprise, this is arguably Jackie Chan's strongest film since 2017's The Foreigner. Even in their late 60s, this movie shows why Jackie and Tony are still legends for a reason. The supporting cast are also decent, with excellent performance by Zifeng Zhang in particular. The story is convoluted but fairly easy to follow, with the usual double crosses and in particular, really gritty and brutal action and violence, in particular from Tony Leung side. There are some comedic moments but they're few and far in between, but it doesn't detract an otherwise very serious Jackie Chan movie.

If there's any criticism, it'll be it's length. At over 2 hours, you kinda wish it trimmed down a good 20 minutes or so. The editing also leaves a lot to be desired with aggressive zooms, out of place sound effects, and jumpy quick cuts, very clearly to mask Jackie and Tony's sluggishness in combat (though the credits very clearly shows them doing most of the stunts, as do the supporting cast, so that's definitely appreciated). The CGI for some scenes in the first half is insultingly bad in the first half, which is weird considering how well the rest of the movie looked, and it has pretty shameless sequel bait *and* AI glorification, which I can tolerate the former, but boy does the latter actively detract the movie.

Criticisms aside, The Shadow's Edge is a very competent, very well made movie, that finally leverages Jackie Chan's underrated dramatic acting scenes, and absolutely uses Tony Leung to its maximum potential. It is absolutely Jackie Chan's best movie since The Foreigner, and Tony Leung's best performance in a while. I do hope for Jackie in particular, he keeps this newfound momentum, because after years of stinkers and surrounding himself with CGI animals and slapsticks, I think it's time for him to go all in for the dramatic.

When a group of thieves vanishes into thin air after pulling off a heist. The police have no choice but to call in a retired officer to help them track down the culprits.

This is a classic action-packed Jackie Chan flick. The story has a lot of themes, from cryptocurrency to technology and AI assisting police in surveillance. Unfortunately, the story has too many elements, resulting in a longer-than-necessary runtime and even a few plot holes. The action and stunts are classic Jackie Chan, and his fans will enjoy seeing him still in action. The two-hour and twenty-one-minute runtime is excessive, with many segways and digressions in the story. An excellent stream for Jackie and kung fu fans.