(c) 2020 CineAsia / China Film International
Vangaurd is a Chinese Security company situated in London , Now I did not see that coming. It;s set around the Chinese New Year celebrations in London's China Town.
Jackie plays the Head of Vanguard Tang Huanting with Yang Yang as one of his agents Lei Zhenyu. Also appearing as female agent is Miya Muqi a Chinese dancer , Yoga and Taekwondo Instructor who starred with Jackie in Kung Fu Yoga.
When a Chinese Accountant in London is approached by a terrorist organisation to finance their cause , the accountant who has informed the Police gets kidnapped in China Town while the New Year festival is on . But watching are Vangaurd who through CCTV is monitoring the area and capture the Kidnapping in Progress. Vanguard is alerted and Tang gets his team to go in for the rescue.
After a daring rescue , which has some good shots of London's China Town , which I was quite surprised to see.
Now The terrorists want their finance and send a mob after the accountants daughter who happens to be in Africa on a nature reserve .
Vanguard is sent to get to the daughter before the terrorist do in a bid to save her .
Playing out much like most Stanley Tong films , Vanguard is a globetrotting extravaganza but on a budget. With filming in London, Dubai and other work in studio .
After getting to the accountants daughter Fareeda with little or no time to spare the Terrorists and Vanguard agents enter into a battle where they must overcome each other and the local wild life.
The big set piece here is the chase on to a river which leads to a water fall . There are some really cool scenes here and shows that as far as choreographing and setting up the action the combination of Stanley Tong and Jackie Chan and his stunt team do come up with fresh content.
But it's also here where it nearly all came to a end. when performing a stunt on a jet Ski for the Water Fall scene , which i will add is done by CGI as no one in the world could do it as it was shown in the film.
The piece in question was filmed up river to show Tang and Mi Ya who are in a chase with terrorists navigate the waterfall.
What seemed a simple stunt for Jackie , much like the Armour of God one . it all went awry when the Jet ski capsizes and Jackie an his colleague go under ,but Jackie don't come back up .
The end credits show the crew rush to rescue Jackie who seems to be under the water for ages. He must have great lungs I tell ya. You also see the how close Jackie thought he was to the end in the outtakes as he is brought ashore looking slightly dishevelled and very cold and wet.
After this the film shifts to the far east as Tang and his team have to confront the Terrorist leader and it's here that the film takes a slightly darker tone in places. And the action hots up in a full scale mini war on terrorism as Tang and his team go head to head with not just fists but Machine Guns, Rocket launchers and whatever.
You can see where the money was spent on the film because the action come thick and fast.
But remember it's not just Jackie but Yang Yang who gets to shine and he does do his own stunts to a degree. , this is also shown on the outtakes.
It does seem that Jackie's role was more towards the beginning of the film with Yang Yang getting the later half of the film.
The story shifts once again as we head to Dubai in what becomes like a showcase for the worlds most expensive cars and a chance for the crew and cast to have some fun , but this also where much CGI is used as they where not going to risk millions of pounds worth of cars.
But Unlike say the Fast and Furious the special effects are lacking also the choice of colours for some of the cars do cause the screen to look odd at times , but these where real cars they shot and you can see even in the outtakes it must have been hard to eliminate the glare , a strange choice , it's a bit like the old adage ,don't wear a dog tooth jacket or suit on camera as it looks really odd .
The CGI sections looked they need more work in post production then it got , but i guess budget is a budget and as it is recorded that Jackie earn't around $12 Million for his role I guess that was a sizeable amount of the budget there.
But then he did nearly drown , so I give him that.
Media Co Ltd
China Film Co Ltd
Tencent Pictures Culture
Media Company Limited
Shanghai Lix
Entertainment Co Ltd
Epitome Capitol Ltd
Shenzhen Media Film and Television Company
CineAsia
Credits
Year: 2020
Director : Stanley Tong
Producer : Stanley Tong / Barbie Tung
Written By : Stanley Tong
Starring :
Jackie Chan / Fady Zaky / Yang Yang / Miya Muqi / Ai Lun
Running Time : 108 Minutes
Language : Mandarin / English / Arabic
Production Company : China Film International
Media Co Ltd
China Film Co Ltd
Tencent Pictures Culture
Media Company Limited
Shanghai Lix
Entertainment Co Ltd
Epitome Capitol Ltd
Shenzhen Media Film and Television Company
Publisher : CineAsia
As a action film to pass just over 90 minutes , and it's just over 90's minutes with out the credits and outtakes. Vanguard is a fun action film. The fight action from Jackie , Yang Yang , Miya Muqi and the JC stunt team is excellent. They just seem to get all the fight action right. Even Yang Yang gets to shine in some really complex scenes , there's no long drawn out fights , it's all small segments of action from all the cast intertwined. But this is pretty much a trademark of Stanley Tong's action film work. You either love it or don't .
Many will state that Jackie does not get to do anything in the last action scene , which is a shame but I guess it's not just about Jackie anymore but about giving a springboard to these new stars , which I for one am all for.
I would rather see Jackie and his Stunt Team work with the new talent and have Jackie do what he can then have a film where Jackie goes around in a wheel chair hitting people with a walking stick.
First and foremost Vanguard is full of action and yes the story is little more then fodder to bolster the next action scene , but if your a Jackie Chan fan and know of Stanley Tong then your know what to expect. Is it the best film he has done in recent years ? , no I don't think so , I feel the likes of The Foreigner , Railroad Tigers where exceptionally good.
I mean there's still a couple of Jackie's films i have yet to see that where filmed in the past few years like Skip Trace and the more recent Namyia. I do like that Jackie experiments with different directors like Ding Sheng, Renny Harlin , Martin Campbell and Leo Zhang. They give opportunity for Jackie to diversify . But i always look forward to Jackie's collaborations with Stanley Tong because I know the type of film I am going to get before I load up the DVD .
My only gripe with Vanguard and it's a small one is the basis of the story of which is run of the mill has a lot of similarities in it's premise to the Chinese TV series Hot Girl ( which we recently reviewed ) , which is about a elite protection unit that undertake various missions. It's also worth noting that Jackie Chan had worked on a film with the lead of that series , Dilraba Dilmurat .
Vanguard won't win any awards and Unfortunately none of Jackie's films in the last five or six years have .
But look past the story which is pretty much run of the mill action fodder and some poor choice in some of the CGI post production and Vanguard is enjoyable , and yes I would watch it again as I'm sure there's bits I missed.
The last film that Jackie got awards for was in 2012 and that was CZ12. And that was a film Jackie starred in , Produced and Directed. Proving once again that only Jackie Chan can direct Jackie Chan and fully get it right.
Of note Jackie is Producing and Directing a story which he has written called The Diary , but he will not be starring in this movie , though I would like to see it just to see Jackie try something new.
Review By Sertes Nake
Date of Review : 14-01-2021
