As a big fan of JC's work over the years, I have to say I was happy to see him make a return to HK. In general, I despise his supposed "better" western movies (Rush Hour and Shanghais where JC seems to be the unsuspecting Asian clown to an absurd sidekick in typical and overtly western racist form.) Whereas movies like Medallion and Tuxedo were just appalling movies by any measure or context. As such, I have yet to subject myself to Around the World. Nonetheless, I hope JC has proven to himself and the world that he can truly make it in the Hollywood scene and can now move on, or move back to, bigger and better things...and while far from perfect, this movie seems to be a hopeful step in the right direction.

The last real movie of JC's was Accidental Spy where I pointed out in a review that we get to see rare glimpses of JC's dramatic acting ability. After that movie, while some doubt remained, I think it was clear that there was some potential for JC to really act in a dramatic character role. But New Police Story even more so stands out from all of his work in that regard. I am quite familiar with the entirety of his work, and with only a few small and exceptional moments, this is his best dramatic acting performance. He is, for me, in this role 100% convincing as someone who has suffered a tragedy. And just like a few moments in Accidental Spy I think we are seeing a side of JC we have not seen before. Time and wear has taken its toll on him, and it really shows on his face. This is a man who has worked hard all his life, suffered great pain and injury. One would think showing pain on screen for him must come fairly easily.

Another aspect of the movie that honestly surprised me was the action scene. The two fight scenes between JC and (the highly doubled) Andy On were stunning absolute perfection in true JC style fighting. Maybe not quite the DM2 fights JC had with Ken Lo and Felix Wong, but I feel among his best choreographed ever. Remember, this guy is 50! You'd never know it watching this. Wow!

The story itself seems pretty simple. JC is a well-respected heroic cop after a gang of ruthless and completely amoral criminals (bank robbers) and in the process of attempting to apprehend them, suffers a horrific tragedy, from which it apparently takes him a year of self-destructive behavior to recover. Does this sound typical for a JC film? No. Well, a little. To a certain extend this is a throwback to the common vengeance stories so common in older HK action cinema. But it's also a bit Hollywood as well where we are made to really deeply dislike the bad guys through the depiction of extreme violence and depravity (although certainly Chang Cheh employed this technique as well). Atypical JC fare, certainly. Nonetheless, one expects a vengeance bloodbath to ensue. What ultimately happens is somewhat of a surprise...

With the exception of Island of Fire, which JC unwillingly did for Wang Yu, this is JC's most violent movie. That's, again, surprising. In the context of a JC movie, one could deem violence acceptable when used in a proper form and whose consequences are felt and understood. Anything less is gratuitous. Generally JC's movies lack gratuitous violence. This movie walks a very fine line. And when the movie taken as a whole, I find the violence does indeed cross the line into unnecessary gratuity. Yet another surprise for a JC movie.

The movie's screenplay (unsurprisingly) is too uneven. It wants to do many things and doesn't quite succeed as a whole: here are these really bad guys, that resort to extreme violence and mass murder simply because they enjoy it, and see it as an extreme sport, and/or a video game. Amoral, depraved, and inhuman. Fortunately, we are made to see the consequences of their actions. But then we are shown that there is a reason for their behavior, and that these people are actually human. Nonetheless, the JC character when ultimately confronted with the bad guys is unconvincingly restrained. Too much initial violence, and too much subsequent restraint and lack of reaction. Much of the suspension of disbelief, which truly did exist, quickly departed at this point.

The movie pays homage to the original Police Story bus scene, but almost becomes a parody as the scene is triggered by one bullet fired by a bad guy in "Butterfly Effect" fashion causes horrible destruction of property that goes on for way too long. It was completely out of place...

The movie takes yet another sudden twist into silliness as Charlene Choi takes on a Miriam Yeung tone, and all of a sudden what has been a sober tragedy vengeance story becomes slapstick for a while. More homage to previous work, but completely out of place again.

The performances and casting were mostly great. For one, I think they got the two best young actors in HK right now: Daniel Wu and Nicky Tse. Wu's performance was singularly excellent. In fact, maybe too good. He may be too big for this sort of role.

Tse was mostly good but he frequently seemed out of place here, and at times appeared to literally be playing his role tongue in cheek. The scene with him JC and Yeung and the birthday cake seemed particularly awkward for him (he was likely laughing to himself over how bad the scene truly was). Oh, and Charlie Yeung's performance? Awful. And I am not sure why since she is a seasoned TV actor after all. But there is absolutely no chemistry whatsoever between her and JC. Their time onscreen together is not believable...and frankly I don't think JC is capable of playing a believable romantic role.

After all is said and done, I think there is so much JC wanted to do after having been exiled to Hollywood for so long that he put more into one movie that he should have. It tries to do too much. But what it attempts, it mostly does well, and there are many new surprises. But like many of JC's 90's and later movies, it just does not come together well as a whole because it's not sure what it wants to do. JC needs to get his creative bearings back, and focus on what it is he does well. This is a pretty decent start.