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FIRST STRIKE

Although New Line is trying to build excitement for their latest Jackie Chan film by using the tag line "Fighting for America for the first time", the hype is only partly correct. Jackie's by now familiar Hong Kong cop character spends only the first act working for the CIA on a special assignment, tailing a suspect aboard a jet flight from Hong Kong to the Ukraine. The original title for this film was CIA Story - it's also known as Police Story 4 and Jackie Chan's First Strike. Whatever the title, this is yet another Chan adventure full of awesome stunts and fight choreography. While it's not the red, white & blue outing that New Line is trying to draw a crowd with, I can't object too much to their marketing strategy. Any method that gets Jackie's features released in this country is a step in the right direction. And I can't say it's totally dishonest, as each new Chan film seems to be more international in scope and flavor.

This one takes him well beyond the aforementioned Ukraine, as circumstances take our hapless hero into Russia and Australia, too. After the briefest of plot introductions, it's not long before Jackie is snowboarding down a mountain, pursued by gunmen aboard skis, snowmobiles and helicopters. See Jackie dunked unprotected in a frozen lake! See Jackie pursued across the face of a building by brutish assassins! See Jackie fight off thugs under shark infested waters, without an oxygen tank! While these stunt sequences are thrilling in their subtle (or not so subtle) but very real dangers, Jackie is still at his most exciting while working with his own team of stuntmen in an excellently staged battle using chairs, poles, tables and ladders to good effect.

There's also plenty of comedy, mostly involving Jackie being forced to don a series of strange costumes - or none at all! Chan, who controls all of his films himself (with the able assistance of fellow stuntman Stanley Tong in most of his recent films), is just as able to raise a laugh or a tear as anything else - but it's his unique ability to do so much while taking your breath away with one piece of action after another that's made him one of the biggest movie stars ever.

Oh, by the way, the story is all about a spy forced into becoming an arms dealer while sacrificing his family honor. Not that anybody cares.

There's a whole bunch of Jackie Chan features awaiting U.S. release - the next few years should bring Drunken Master 2, Thunderbolt, Crime Story, Operation Condor, Mr. Nice Guy and many others to our shores in American versions, all with the best dubbing available (considering that Cantonese is one of the most difficult languages to match dialogue with, so far so good), all while Jackie is preparing his first Hollywood feature in over ten years. I urge everyone not to miss a single frame of it all. ½

Take a peek at the action-packed First Strike website.

THE PEOPLE VS. LARRY FLINT

Let me state first of all that I am far too young and innocent to have ever been a regular reader of Flynt's infamous Hustler magazine. Oh, it's not the porn that bothers me (bring it on!), it's just that the articles are way above my head.

Many people seem surprised that one of our nation's foremost pornographers should also be one of the greatest defenders of the United States Constitution of the modern era (as Flynt most definitely is), but when you look at it logically it's almost inevitable. I doubt that the publishers of Reader's Digest are dragged into court to defend their First Amendment rights very often.

Aptly, director Milos Foreman doesn't waste much time in this entertaining biography with the details of Flynt's personal life. We get only glimpses of his hillbilly childhood, his years as a strip club owner, his marriage to dancer Althea (played by the rightly praised Courtney Love), and the assassination attempt that cost him the use of his legs. Instead, most of the film's running time is taken up with Flynt's court battles, in which he sticks to his rigid principals to the point that one questions his sanity. This is where Flynt's life story is truly fascinating, and this is where the film is as well.

While playing Flynt, Woody Harrelson doesn't step too far outside the boundaries of his already established screen identity, but this is not to say that it's a performance without skill and breadth. On the contrary, he takes on the role like it's a ride on a merry-go-round and graciously invites us to enjoy it with him. If only more films that attempted to tackle serious subject matter had half the sense of fun that this one has.

THE RELIC

No one looks forward to the release of a new monster movie more than I do (and they're few and far between these days), but I can not recommend this one without a word of warning. To put it bluntly, this aptly named throwback is not really a very good film.

It involves a big monster that runs around loose in Chicago's Field Museum (and the tunnels beneath it) eating the brains out of anyone that gets close. If that sounds like fun to you, then you should have a good time, but don't expect much beyond that. A few of the performances are good, including that of leads Tom Sizemore (as a streetwise cop) and Penelope Anne Miller (as a plucky scientist. But the most of the rest of the film is downright laughable, whether intentionally so or not. The writers have jettisoned the reason given in the novel as to why the creature is created in the first place, and proceed to present scene after scene of their characters making wrong moves and easily-avoided blunders. As savvy as the folks populating Wes Craven's Scream are as to what to avoid in beast-in-the-house situations, these people are just as ignorant.

Compounding the problem is the direction by the usually competent Peter Hyams. Hyams desperately tries to generate false thrills by making almost every shot a tight close-up, and makes matters only worse with quick cuts and flashing lights. In contrast, the scenes of the monster attacking were surely directed by the beast's creator, special effects whiz Stan Winston, and they show a great deal more intelligence. Winston, who showed much promise with Pumpkinhead, should be allowed more time in the director's chair.

The monster itself (dubbed "Kathoga"), is a nifty beastie - sort of a combination of Predator, Alien, and The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. The biggest problem with this film is that there's not enough of the monster, and way too much of various stupid characters running around going nowhere. For monster fans desperate for a decent fix only - all others should beware.

Visit The Relic's web site.

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