New Police Story Review Score: 9/10 | Date Posted: June 3rd 2006 In: DVD Reviews Starring: Jackie Chan, Nicholas Tse Directed by: Benny Chan Released by: Universal New Police Story Review by Ricky Smith | HNR Contributor New Police Story, Old Police Story…Whatever the freshness, I’ll take it! I must say, I’m impressed. I went into this film not expecting too much, but I got a high end action film entrenched in story. Now I don’t know if it’s an Asian theme to actually develop a script that counteracts with the action, but my god…Hollywood take notice! The film opens up with Inspector Chan (which is Jackie Chan, he uses his name in all his films, kind of like Tony Danza) in a drunkenly state. Inspector Chan has just had his entire police team annihilated by a crazy youth gang that gets off by killing cops. This gang is vicious, smart and well organized. Not only are they a high end bunch of bank robbers, they get more pleasure taking out the police. Armed with X-Games like abilities and a take no prisoners mentality, these gang members evoke an all out assault against the local cops. Struggling with the guilt of his team’s death, Chan is found in the gutter by what were a lead to believe is a former police officer, Kevin. Instantly Kevin has a vested interest in Chan and we don’t know why. With Chan at his whit’s end and on the brink of a breakdown, Kevin reunites Chan with his former girlfriend whose brother was one of deceased in his team. Without giving too much away, the rest of the film is filled with multiple subplots, action and a love story. The script is well developed and Benny Chan does a masterful job in directing not only the action sequences, but the subtleties and the human aspect of the film. Aside from the dialogue being dubbed in English, which would be my only critique…The film is completely engaging and its dramatic hardships are as convincing as the cliff hanging stunt sequences. I can’t remember an action film that was so well balanced. Again, despite being dubbed which is usually a turn off for me, I was into this film the whole way through. The villains are relentless, Chan’s deconstructing is painful and the evolution of the story is thought provoking, real and engaging. The concept of the film is fresh and mimics the latest horror champion, Saw with a no mercy type of mentality. The multiple subplots really take this film in different directions and you’ll be completely surprised that not only does the action live up to Jackie Chan standards, but the story is something that very few action films deliver. Full fledged entertainment. My only criticism of the film is that at times, some of the voice-over actors are over the top and fail to match the on-screen actors emotion. However, it’s a moot point considering how well this film is crafted. Major, major props for Mr. Chan, I never expected anything like this and why Hollywood wouldn’t remake this film or learn from it, I will never know. An outstanding film.

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