Kick'em In The Ghoulies

Region 3 DVD 2D 2 disc version review

Chinese Zodiac 

aka 

CZ12

aka

Armour of God 3

It's that time when a new Jackie Chan film arrives, years ago we used to get new films from Jackie twice maybe sometimes three times a year, but over the years he has spent more time and money making more extravagant films which take longer to produce. Then take into consideration his Hollywood career which also slowed things down a bit.

Chinese Zodiac aka CZ12 has been a film Jackie has been wanting to make for years, the name was touted about years ago, and the fans have been waiting for what in all intents and purposes is the third in the Armour of God series.

Yes, Jackie is back as the Asian Hawk, referred to in the film as JC. The film was released in the far east last December and went to DVD and Bluray in the east on March 7th. It's still set to have its European and USA releases.

It's also a film made for 3D and Imax, so it's a first for Jackie.

Now the CZ12 is filmed in many countries including France and Latvia and stars quite an international cast which include South Korean actor Kwon Sang-Woo ( Volcano High, Once Upon a High School,71 Into the Fire), American actor Oliver Platt (Lake Placid, Xmen First Class), French Actress Laura Weissebecker and Chinese actresses Zhang Lan -Xin and Yao Xing Tong.

This also makes the film a multilingual film, with English, Cantonese, Mandarin, and French being spoken.

SPOLIER ALERT

From the opening scene where JC is escaping from one faction or another ( very much like the openings in the first two films), you can tell your in for a treat, though I was surprised that one of the highlights of the film, Chan kitted out in a 32 wheeled bodysuit was the opening scene. But when the opening credits were revealed I knew I was in for a ride.

Our next major scene sees JC tackle the thin ledges and roof of a large mansion in France. This is a scene though very much like what we have seen before from Jackie still manages to blow you away as Jackie leaps and runs along the smallest of ledges with ease and all without aid.

But it does not stop there, this all ends with JC in a large maze being chased by dogs, and if you catch the out-takes you can see there were some scary moments as the Doberman dogs got a bit more excited than they should have with Jackie really getting attacked.

Now Jackie did all his stunts with little aid from his stunt team, other than them being used as assailants or helping the other stars get to grips with their own scenes.

The film seems quite vast especially when the team set off in search of the island where the Indestructible was meant to have come to its demise.

Now in the old days, Jackie would have gone with his team and the actors and actresses to an Island and performed their stunts and shot their scenes on-site and bearing the elements.

Nowadays people won't commit to such dangers and of course as film budgets rise you can't risk injuring the stars so they can't work. So the whole Jungle scene was a huge set built in a studio, it also lent itself to some of the films' 3D effects.

Even still some of the stunts performed were quite hair raising, and I remember seeing an outtake of Laura Weissebecker on a Safety wire as she had to go down a rock-face (that they had built remember ) and she was screaming and Jackie was telling her she be OK. And then you think back to poor Maggie Cheung and what she went through filming Police Story and Project A pt 2.

It was great to see Ken Lo on-screen as the pirate leader, but I so wanted Jackie and Ken to lock horns, since Drunken Master 2, I along with many fans I am sure would like to see a rematch between Ken and Jackie.

There are lots of other little scenes that entertain but there are two major scenes left, we have the replica factory of MP corporation where Jackie Goes to help save some students, it's also where he meets his arch-nemesis the Vulture. ( Alaa Safi) , the fight between JC and Vulture is quite unique.

What's more, it's also where we get to see Zhang Lan Xin ( Bonnie ) go head to head with Caitlin Dechelle in a girl-on-girl match. Jackie also gets to use every prop he can find in a running battle with the guards.

Our next big scene is where Lawrence Morgan has threatened to drop the Dragonhead bronze into an active volcano unless some bids on it in the forthcoming auction.

It's here where JC must stop Vulture from carrying out this deed in an aerial combat scene which works quite well.

Of course, they did not skydive out of a plane at 20'000 feet and try and beat each other up. The scene was filmed in Latvia at a wind tunnel, so yes Jackie and Alaa Safi did don aerial suits and fight in mid-air once they got the hang of staying up...

2013 Hong Kong Film Awards -  Winner Best Action Choreography - Jackie Chan ,Bradley Allen,Jun He and the Jackie Chan stunt team.

9th Huading Awards - Winner - Jackie Chan -Best Director

Winner - Best Action Choreography - Jackie Chan stunt Team

Winner - Best new artist - Zhang Lan -Xin 

Okinawa Film Festival 2013 - Winner - The Laugh Grand Prix Prize , beating nine other entrants

Jackie Chan as Asian Hawk, better known as JC

Kwon Sang-woo as Simon

Liao Fan as David

Yao Xing Tong as Coco

Zhang Lan Xin as Bonnie

Laura Weissbecker as Catherine de Sichel

Jonathan Lee as Jonathan Lee

Vincent Sze as Michael Morgan

Alaa Safi as Vulture

Pierre Bourdaud as Pirate

Emmanuel Lanzi as Henchman

Rosario Amadeo as Pierre

Pierre-Benoist Varoclier as Léon

Wilson Chen as Wu Qing

Ken Lo as Pirate Chief

Oliver Platt as Lawrence Morgan

Caitlin Dechelle as Katie

Zheng Wei

Bo-Yee Poon as Lawrence's Assistant

Abdul Haviz

Ashok CA

Shu Qi as David's wife (cameo)

Daniel Wu as Doctor (cameo)

Joan Lin as JC's wife (cameo)

Kenny G as Airplane pilot (cameo)