6/10
Chinese/Spanish co-production with plenty of action and humor , being filmed in Barcelona
5 February 2012
Raymond Chow-Golden Harvest production deals with two cousins named Thomas (Jackie Chan) and David (Biao Yuen), owners of a mobile restaurant , meanwhile they save the gorgeous Sylvia , a pickpocket posing as prostitute (Lola Forner). They join forces with their friend Moby (Sammo Hung Kam-Bo), a botcher eye private whose chief (the prestigious American secondary Herb Edelman) assigns him a new case about looking for a girl named Gloria (Susana Sentis) . Entertainment , comedy and amusement abound in the streets of Barcelona , culminating with a spectacular attack in the hideout fortress of the nasty band led by Mondale (the notorious Spanish actor Jose Sancho) and his evil thugs (Keith Vitali , among others).

Chinese/Spanish action comedy full of over-the-top struggles , thrills , ingenious stunts , slapstick , tongue-in-cheek and excitement . This bemusing movie is packed with adventure , car pursuits , intrigue , unstopped action , overwhelming stunt-work and lots of fights but with abundant humor . Jackie Chan is top notch as one army man fighting a group of heinous villains and as always he makes his own stunts like is well showed . Awesome , incredible stunts and brief comic touches , as usual ; the picture is better constructed than Chan's predecessors films . The lighting-paced storyline slows down at times , but frantic action sequences make up for it . Spotlights movie include spectacular brawls , car chases including bounds and leaps , impressive and interminable fights , a breathtaking final struggle between Jackie Chan and Keith Vitali ; in addition other fine action sequences in overwhelming style . This is an acceptable action movie distinguished by nicely cinematography of the spectacular sequences , and contains agreeable sense of humor such as previous entries . Chan pays overt homage to two of his greatest influences as Charles Chaplin and Harold Lloyd . Jackie Chan usually forms couple to notorious actresses as Maggie Chung and Michelle Yeoh . However in this outing Jackie teams up again to prestigious Chinese actor Sammo Hung , a fine action star in their own right and also had an American career as successful ¨Martial Law¨ TV series . Both of them starred together several films as ¨Heart of Dragon (1985)¨ which was directed by Sammo . Third protagonist , Yuen Biao, also played some movies with the famous pair as ¨Dragon Forever¨. All three of the main stars, Jackie Chan , Yuen Biao, and Sammo Hung, all were seen in Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon in which Jackie plays a guard who gets beaten by Bruce in the underground hideout, Sammo plays Bruce's opponent in the opening of the film, and Yuen plays a tournament fighter.

This is a passable action movie distinguished by fight sequences , noisy action and packs silly sense of humor as well as Jackie's subsequent entries . The picture achieved moderated success in China , Spain and around the world . However , Jackie Chan's failed at Box-office in his American debut ,¨Battle creek brawl¨ . Chan is a hard-working actor and director throughout his long and varied career . He went on playing ¨Cannoball¨ , ¨The protector¨ and "Rumble in the Bronx", until getting all American success with ¨Shangai Knights¨ , ¨The tuxedo¨ , ¨Around the world in 80 days¨ and ¨Rush hour¨ trilogy , and the recent ¨Karate kid¨. Of course , his biggest hits were ¨The Police story¨ series that won the Golden Horse Award, a Chinese version of the Oscar , the first was titled ¨Police story(1985)¨ directed by the same Chan , it was a perfect action film for enthusiastic of the genre ; the following was ¨Police story 2(1988)¨also pretty violent and with abundant humor touches . It's followed by ¨Supercop¨ or ¨Police story 3¨ and finally , ¨Police story IV : Crime story¨ . The picture is well produced by the great Asian producers Raymond Chow and Golden Harvest production and compellingly directed by Sammo Hung . Rating : Acceptable and passable , the picture has its sensational moments here and there , but also with abundant humor touches mostly provided by its agile star , the super Jackie stunningly accompanied of Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao . ¨Wheels and meals¨ also titled ¨Spanish connection¨ is followed by a sequel ¨Wheels and meals II (1985)¨ with the same actors and direction . It's a perfect action film for enthusiast of the genre though only for Jackie fans .
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