Little Big Soldier (2010)

Movie: 4/5
Video: 5/5
Audio: 5/5
Extras: 2.5/5
Overall: 4/5

"This is Why Jackie Chan is Better in Chinese."

Jackie Chan is a nameless soldier who rises from a field of dead bodies. While scavenging for money and whatever he can find, a general (Leehom Wang; Lust, Caution) from the opposing side rises and is soon soldier's prisoner. While being captive, the general and the soldier try to figure out who informed soldier's army about his side's whereabouts. At the same time, a young hunter from the general's side couldn't find his body and being to slay anyone in his path to find the general.

Released the same year in China as The Spy Next Door, this is the better of the two films. Jackie's comical acting and fighting is hands down the best out of all of the newer films that he's made in the last ten years. And especially when we get towards the end of the film, we see how well Jackie can convey tragedy and can really move you emotionally. I give the film a 4/5.

Video: 5/5

Presented in 2.35:1, Well Go USA has given Little Big Soldier a flawless transfer. The grain is nice and detail is clear. Colors are nice and fleshed out. I really liked how well the colors stand out whenever we have the dream sequences and we see a sea of sun flowers and yellow is strong. 5/5.

Audio: 5/5

Well Go USA has given us four audio tracks for the film; Mandarin and English DTS-HD MA 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo. Listening to the English dub was a tough sit through as Jackie Chan is not doing his dubbing for the film. Both DTS-HD MA tracks sound great. I do not understand why we have a Dolby Digital stereo tracks for both languages? Audio is pretty flawless in the action scenes. I give the audio 5/5.

Extras: 2.5/5

Trailers for Shaolin, Legend of the Fist: the Return of Chen Zhen, Kung-Fu Dunk, Ip Man 2; and both U.S. and Chinese trailers for Little Big Soldier. Music video called the Rape Flowers by Jackie Chan, in SD. And finally a fifteen minute making of, in SD. The making of wasn't really that interesting, it kept going on and on and mainly focusing on everyone talking about how great Jackie is. We know Jackie is great and that Jackie did a lot for the film, this was his passion project. And finally, a useless DVD copy of the film. I give the extras a 2.5/5.

Overall: 4/5

I picked this up for $8 used back in 2012. For the price, I can recommend it. If you are a fan of Jackie's work, don't pass this one up. This probably his best performance that I have seen. Well Go USA has given the film an amazing release and I give this Blu-ray presentation 4/5.

Dragon Lord (1983)

Movie: 5/5
Video: 3/5
Audio: 5/5
Extras: .5/5
Overall: 3.5/5

Dragon Lord is one of Jackie Chan's earlier films where he really shows off his abilities as a stunt actor. Jackie plays Dragon, a young man who ends up fighting his best bud Cowboy but is called Mars throughout the film. Through their fighting, we realize that Mars isn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed as they clown around and Mars comes close to killing him numerous times. After putting their differences aside, the duo go quail hunting and end up discovering a sinister plot by a crime lord who wants to steals China's classic treasures.

While story and plot might be minimum for an hour and a half, what makes up for this film is the fact that Jackie is kicking butt. A lot of stunt scenes. Especially in the grand final fight in which Dragon and Cowboy fight the Big Boss. That fight was brutal and hilarious at the same time. Jackie really shines as he shows his abilities. And for that, I give the film a 5/5.

Video: 3/5

Presented in 1080p with a 2.35:1 transfer, Echo Bridge has given this film a good transfer. It's not perfect and it shows. Is it high definition? Yes and it is not a crappy upscale of an SD master that Fortune Star has provided to Jackie Chan with their releases. Print damage is constant, however, it is not totally distracting. Colors also go off here and there, but, it's more or less towards the end whenever it cuts to different angles and shots in scenes. Overall, I give this a 3/5.

Audio: 5/5

Despite only being the English dub presented in DTS-HD MA 2.0, the track is nice. It's sad that the original Chinese audio is not present on the disc, let alone the full cut of the film. The audio is nice and clear. I cannot complain about this presentation, even if it's just an English dub track. 5/5.

Extras: .5/5

Despite being listed as a "Theatrical Trailer", it's a thirty-two second video spot that you would see on a Miramax/Dimension/Touchstone/Disney/etc VHS from back in the day. Extras get a dismal .5/5.

Overall: 3.5/5

Despite this is SOB abomination edit conducted by Harvey Weinstein, I can recommend it for the price. Echo Bridge did a good job on this release. It's just a shame that they couldn't secure the original Chinese version. You can get this for $6 at Best Buy. For that price, you cannot beat it. 3.5/5.

Crime Story (1993) / The Protector (1985)

Movie: 5/5
Video: 2/5
Audio: 4.5/5
Extras: 5/5
Overall: 4/5

"This is an Insult to Jackie Chan's Legacy."

Movie: 5/5

The Protector (1985) - 5/5

Jackie Chan is Billy Wong in his first leading, English speaking role. While celebrating his tenth anniversary of living in America, Billy and his partner are partying at a bar when robbers come in and start shooting the place up. Billy's partner is killed in cold blood and Billy guns down all of the killers involved, even as going as far as chasing the lead gunman down by boat to kill them all. While morning the loss of his partner and friend, Billy goes to a party where a crime boss's daughter is kidnapped by henchmen who work for Harold Ko. Billy, a Chinese immigrant takes on a new partner and go to Hong Kong to save the kidnapped woman.

We have both American cuts and the Hong Kong version which has additional scenes written and directed by Jackie Chan. In the Hong Kong version, Jackie's character, Billy has a side story with a female character who is new to the film. For his first English speaking role, Jackie does a good job. And I find it really funny yet awkward when Billy says; "Give me the fu**ing keys!"

I cannot remember off the top of my head, but I think that's honestly the only time I have ever heard Jackie say that word in any of the English speaking films that I have seen him in. I think James Glickenhaus did a good job directing him in this movie. I did enjoy both cuts of the film. Do I think Jackie's new scenes were needed? Not really. But, including both cuts, I do give this a 5/5.

Crime Story (1993) - 5/5

This is one of my all time favorite Jackie Chan films. Whenever Jackie does his police dramas, he always shines. In "Crime Story", a gang of thieves go after a crooked business tycoon named Wong Yat-Fei.

Video: 2/5

The Protector - 1/5 - Rating of Both Cuts Combined

James Glickenhaus' cut of the film is presented in 1080p and Jackie Chan's cut of the film is presented in 480p, which is in Standard Definition. Not that it matters, the Glickenhaus' cut is an SD upscale. This is an insult to Jackie Chan's legacy! I know Echo Bridge got crap for using a cropped version of Supercop, that's bad. This is worse in my opinion. Fortune Star, which owns the Golden Harvest's library, has chosen to let all of these films fall to the way side! These need remastered! Jackie Chan is one of China's biggest stars, if not the biggest, and this is how the Chinese studio chooses to treat his films?

The Jackie Chan cut presented in SD, is horrendous. Print damage and macroblocking is present throughout the whole entire film! Brightness is blown out. Just like in my review for the Canadian Blu-ray for "The Killer" and "Hard Boiled", the brightness is blown out and the white bleeds through the whole image like a poor quality VHS tape. It is infuriating how bad the quality is on this. I give the Jackie Chan cut a .5/5 in terms of quality.

James Glickenhaus' cut of the film is presented in 1080p and is not a high definition transfer, color is decent, if that's the only pro about both cuts of the film. Detail is void in most shots and there's even points where the image gets this blocky/line haze to it. Like there's a scene where they're on a boat in Hong Kong and whenever one of the characters on the boat moved their head, you can kinda tell it's some sort of interlacing problem. I can honestly tell you if there's any print damage because it's an upscale transfer, void of any detail. I give the Glickenhaus' cut of the film a 1.5/5. Which gives us an overall 1/5 for both cuts combined.

Crime Story - 2.5/5

Another SD master upscaled to HD. For an upscaled transfer, it is watchable and it's not as bad as both transfers for The Protector. Color and saturation and contrast is strong while detail and sharpness is flat. Why can't you muster the money to properly restore all of Jackie Chan's films? At least Echo Bridge gave us HD transfers in OAR for Twin Dragons, Supercop, and Dragon Lord. Such a shame. 2.5/5

This gives us an overall of 2/5 for the transfers. Why?

Audio: 4.5/5

The Protector - 3.5/5

The American cut of the film has both an English DTS-HD MA 5.1 and a DD 2.0 track. I've brought this up before, I am sure; but why would you include a DD track when you have a DTS-HD MA track for the film? It's a waste of space. I know it's not much, just a few hundred MB of space, but still. The DTS-HD MA track sounds good. It's a shame Fortune Star would focus on audio over video and not both together. 5/5.

The Jackie Chan version only has a DD 2.0 Chinese track. It's bad quality like the video. The dubbing sounds muffled and subdued. Overall it sounds subdued. I give the audio on this version of the film a 2/5. This gives us an overall 3.5/5 for the audio portion of "The Protector".

Crime Story - 5/5

For Crime Story, the story is the same as we have English and Chinese DTS-HD MA 5.1 tracks and English and Chinese DD 2.0 tracks. The English dub is okay in DTS-HD MA and the Chinese is great. I give the audio a 5/5.

Overall for the audio portion, 4.5/5.

Extras: 5/5

The Protector - 5/5

"From New York to Hong Kong", an interview with James Glickenhaus discussing working with Jackie and how he was surprised that Jackie was not pleased with the film and creating another cut and calling himself the director. "Locations: Then and Now", which shows the differences between 1985 and 2012. "Behind the Scenes", a Chinese making of. Contains no subtitles. And finally U.S. and Chinese trailers for the film. 5/5 for the extras.

Crime Story - 5/5

"Interview with Kirk Wong", director talks about the production process and explains how he filmed at the real locations in which the story is based on. Like the road where the kidnapping takes place, it's kinda surreal. "Deleted Scenes" that cut out the love interest aspect of the film where Jackie's character is in love with his therapist. And finally the trailers. Considering it's not as much as The Protector's material, the deleted scenes do kinda give some emotional side to Jackie's character. 5/5.

Overall: 4/5

Does this release deserve the overall score of 4/5? Hell no! This is an embarassement to Jackie Chan's legacy. Why Shout! wouldn't just give this a regular DVD release like the double feature featuring Killer Meteors is beyond me. I would never do that as a studio, unless it was shot on video. Never! 4/5, this is a disgrace.

Driven to Kill (2009) / Supercop (1992) / Bravo Two Zero (1999)

Movie: 3.5/5
Video: 4/5
Audio: 3/5
Extras: 1/5
Overall: 3/5

"Supercop is Finally in it's Original Aspect Ratio!"

Movies: 3.5/5
Driven to Kill (2009):

I have not had the pleasure of seeing much of these straight to video Steven Seagal films that he's been cranking out these past ten years or so. I was genuinely interested in seeing Against the Dark and felt that it was an average Vampire (or Zombie) film. This film, Driven to Kill, was initially released by 20th Century Fox in 2009 and has somehow made it's way into Echo Bridge's hands. I haven't seen the original Fox release and I don't really plan on seeking it out, but Echo Bridge is credited in the opening titles. So, I don't know if they were behind this film from the beginning or what.

Steven Seagal is Ruslan, a Russian gangster who is flying from California to New York to attend his daughter's wedding. Once there, Ruslan, meets his soon to be son-in-law and discovers that he's a wanna-be Russian mobster. Ruslan confronts him and he spills the beans that his father wants him to stay in the family business. Ruslan leaves to get ready for the wedding and then all hell breaks loose. Ruslan's ex-wife is murdered and his daughter is now in a coma. Ruslan seeks out the people who are responsible and will make them pay.

This film is all over the place and the acting is bad. Steven Seagal and most of the other actors are dubbed and the dubbing job is horrendous. In some scenes, it does sound like Seagal, but he is just bumbling and you can barely understand anything that comes out of his mouth. In the opening scene where Ruslan is talking to some bimbo, you can barely understand what he is saying. If this was me, I would have gone back and reshot this. I know that Seagal works his butt off and cranks these movies out, but seriously, you got have some integrity on these. But, overall, if you got time to kill; I'd give it a shot. 2.5/5.

Supercop (1992):
This is my fourth copy of Supercop and third review of it. I need to finish my review on the High-Powered Action Pack. To get my views on Supercop, please visit my review for it's individual release. 5/5.

Bravo Two Zero (1999):
Sean Bean is Andy, a British soldier behind enemy lines and is a P.O.W. in Bravo Two Zero. Based on the brutal true story where a group of British soldiers are sent in to stop SCUD missiles. After they're spotted by child herding sheep, Andy his other seven comrades are running for their lives from the Iraqi forces. After Andy is captured, he is put to the test of not spilling the beans of the mission and pays greatly for his country.

The film moves slowly in the first forty-five minutes. But it picks up once they are on the run from the Iraqi troops. I was pretty much hooked after that. I think it's two hour run time is a bit too long, like I said, it was slow for almost an hour. I give the film a 3.5/5.

Video: 4/5
The video presentation on Driven to Kill is a decent one. I have not seen the Fox Blu-ray, but saw screen captures of it. I am not sure this is the same transfer or not. It is pretty good. Presented in 1.85:1 in 1080p with an AVC encode. Bitrate is pretty high and there's a nice layer of grain present. I have no real complaints with the video on this. It's not that bad, but it's a little far from perfection. 4/5.

The video presentation for Supercop is magnificent! Third time was the charm for Equilibrium; fourth time is the charm for Supercop! Presented in AVC and 1080p with it's original aspect ratio of 2.35:1. Let's give Filmyard Holdings and Echo Bridge a hand here for this presentation. Oddly, it seems to come from Italy as an Italian language title card pops up at the end of the film after the blooper-credits. The film has print damage and the right side gets a tad blurry here and there, but it's nothing major. While looking over it on my PS3, the Mbps is right around the low to mid-20's in terms of video bitrate. It is a nice and beautiful presentation. While it isn't perfect, I award Supercop a nice 4/5.

Bravo Two Zero will never look good in HD. A lot of the stock footage of the Gulf War is sourced from very poor quality VHS tapes. The interlacing on those transferred tapes is pretty God-awful. The footage that was actually shot by the director and crew is decent but probably filmed with low end film stock. I haven't had a chance to compare this copy of Bravo Two Zero with the double feature that has Men of War. It does get pretty rough in a few minutes during the last twenty minutes of the film when the men are in the Military Prison in Baghdad. I give the video for this film a 3/5.

Audio: 3/5
The audio on all three films is Dolby Digital 2.0. Yes, that is correct; no DTS-HD MA like most of their other releases, this time we get the old school DD2.0 audio. The audio on Driven to Kill is pretty good for a 2.0 track. We can clearly hear the sounds of gun cartridges being swapped out and explosions sounds good. It's not perfect, but I am guessing this is what the director had done in post as there's some scenes where you can barely hear Seagal's mumbling. I award a 3.5/5 for the audio on Driven to Kill.

With the audio on Supercop, it is a bummer. We have been downgraded from the DTS-HD MA 2.0 that we had on the initial Supercop and double feature release with Twin Dragons; then with the DTS-HD MA 5.1 on the High-Powered Action Pack, then harshly downgraded to Dolby Digital 2.0! That's rough, we finally get it in the original aspect ratio. The audio is bit low in first few minutes of the film. However, it does seem to pick up when they break Panther out of prison. I give the audio a 3/5, it's a little more than average for a twenty year old film.

Finally in our final film on this disc, the audio presentation of Bravo Two Zero is tame. I found myself having to turn up the audio on my television a few time to hear what was being said. Like the two previous films, Echo Bridge has given us just Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. Considering this a war film, we could hear things like tanks running around the desert pretty good, but just some of the dialogue was real low. I give the audio a 2.5/5.

Extas: 1/5
While most might not consider this an extra, we get a DVD triple feature packaged with this Blu-ray. It's a Jackie Chan triple feature containing Dragon Lord, Project A, and Project A 2. While I award this only a 1 out of 5 stars; it would be nice if this was a Blu-ray instead of a DVD. We all ready have Project A and Project A 2 on Blu-ray from Echo Bridge. DVD does not mean anything to me anymore, but I don't want to give this a straight zero stars, I'll give it a 1/5.

Overall: 3/5
Considering I got this for $7.99 + tax at Best Buy, I can recommend it at least for Supercop since it's finally available in it's original aspect ratio. Not too big on the fact that they threw in a bonus DVD of Jackie Chan films since, you know, this is Blu-ray that we're talking about here. Bravo Two Zero, I can recommend because of Sean Bean. We all love Sean Bean. What's not to love about Sean Bean? And well, Driven to Kill is ok if you want to see a crappy straight to video Steven Seagal film. I give this Blu-ray release a 3/5.

Supercop / Twin Dragons (1992)

Movie: 5/5
Video: 3.5/5
Audio: 3/5
Extras: 0/5
Overall: 3/5

If Interested in the US Supercop Blu-ray, Buy the Double Feature!

Before I start reviewing, I am giving everyone a heads up on both the individual release of Supercop and the
double feature of Supercop and Twin Dragons. I popped both the individual release of Supercop and the double feature on my Blu-ray drive and surprisingly, the disc title on Supercop reads as "Jackie Chan Double" which is also what the double feature reads as for the disc title in my comp. Inspecting the size of the movies, Supercop is the same size on both discs, 11.26GB. The only difference between the two discs is that the individual has an interview with Michelle Yeoh which isn't present on the double feature. If you are wanting to buy the US Blu-ray of Supercop, get the double feature which can be found for the same price as the individual release, $8 + Tax.

To the review, I am basically writing the scores from the individual Supercop release. To find my thoughts on it, visit the database page for the US release of Supercop.

Movie: 5/5
Video: 3/5
Audio: 3/5

Twin Dragons:

Twin Dragons is the story of twins, both played by Jackie Chan, who were separated at birth. Years pass and one has become a well known pianist and the other has become a thug on the streets of Hong Kong. When the pianist comes to Hong Kong to perform, he comes face to face with his long lost twin. The craziness begins as everyone thinks they are the opposite and the thug is left to perform while the pianist is left trying to break a mob boss from prison. Twin Dragons is the typical zany 90's Chan film. It's entertaining watching Jackie play dual roles and seeing him show off his impressive stunts. The film scores a 5/5.

Before I begin discussing the video transfer, the last time I had seen the film was at a local drive in theater in
1999. I never saw Twin Dragons on VHS or DVD, so I do not know how the Blu-ray transfer compares to the previous home video releases by Disney. The film is presented in it's original aspect ratio of 2.35:1, which is a big plus for this title. What hurts the film is that it's plagued with scratches and dirt and also presented in 1080i whereas Supercop is 1080p. It is an HD image, but it's just not clean. It has a nice level of grain and sharpness, and I know I am cutting Twin Dragons slack, but the video gets a 4/5 considering it might be a while before a possible proper HK release comes along.

Onto the audio, like with Supercop, the disc only contains English (dub) DTS-HD MA 2.0. I give the audio a 3/5. What I feel is a big plus is that Jackie Chan did dub his characters voices in this film. If it wasn't Jackie's voice, this score might have gone lower.

Overall:

Movie: 5+5 = 10/2 = 5/5
Video: 3+4 = 7/2 = 3.5/5
Audio: 3+3 = 6/2 = 3/5
Extras: 0/5
Overall: 5+3.5+3 = 11.5/4 = 2.875 which will be rounded up to 3/5.

Considering that this double feature is currently going for $8 + Tax at Best Buy, this would be the copy to get over the individual releases. It's a shame that Supercop is cropped while Twin Dragons is presented OAR. I would like to see more Jackie Chan titles come out on the Blu-ray format sooner or later. If you are like me, these will tide you over while you wait.

Supercop (1992)

Movie: 5/5
Video: 3/5
Audio: 3/5
Extras: 1/5
Overall: 3/5

Supercop...

Supercop was one of my favorite Jackie Chan films growing up in the mid-90's. I remember seeing it for the first time at the now closed Kam Drive In Theater in Hawaii in 1996. And this was the second Jackie Chan film I had seen at the time, the first being Rumble in the Bronx. In Supercop, Jackie Chan's character goes undercover and breaks a conman out of prison and ends up getting caught up international drug trafficking and other various crimes. I give the film a 5/5 because it's one of the first Jackie Chan films I've seen.

The video is problematic, it is cropped from 2.39 to 1.78. That alone hurts the score, but I find the transfer very vibrant and detailed. There's a level of grain that's present and it's overall satisfying despite being cropped from scope to matted widescreen. The video gets a 3/5.

The only audio option is the English dub in DTS-HD MA 2.0. I give it a 3/5 but I find it very disappointing that the original Chinese audio is not present on the disc what-so-ever. That's a bummer to me. The only extra feature on the disc is an interview with Michelle Yeoh who is incorrectly listed as Michelle Khan. The extra gets a 1/5.

The overall is a 12/4 = 3/5. I would only recommend this release if you can get it for about $8. I am planning on picking up the Kam & Ronson releases of the Police Story trilogy to complete my collection. If you want the film in OAR and with the original Chinese audio with English subs, pick up the Hong Kong release of the film.