Jackie Chan Rumbles in Brooklyn
Tomorrow, two of Jackie Chan’s most furiously entertaining blockbusters will swing their way back into theaters, as Police Story (1985) and Police Story 2 (1988) begin a run at Brooklyn’s Alamo Drafthouse in new 4K restorations, courtesy of Janus Films. Non–New Yorkers in need of action, take note: in the weeks to come, further theatrical engagements will follow in major markets across the country.
Directed, cowritten, and stunt-coordinated by Chan, the two films follow Hong Kong police detective Ka-kui (also Chan, of course) as he fights crime in a series of fearless, impeccably choreographed set pieces, stumbling into the occasional comic pratfall along the way. Several further sequels and spin-offs have since followed in the Police Story franchise, but for sheer off-the-wall inventiveness, nothing tops these first installments, the only ones that Chan directed. There’s certainly no shortage of shattering glass and huge explosions, but the greatest spectacle here is the man himself, dangling off moving vehicles and kicking his way out of any number of scrapes, “the Fred Astaire of outrageous mayhem,” as critic J. Hoberman wrote this week in the New York Times, on the occasion of the Janus rerelease.
Get a taste of just how crazy these movies get in the below trailer:
