Jackie
Chan is the leader of a team of freedom fighters who rob railroad cars during
the Japanese occupation of China. Chan
and his crew take in a wounded soldier who failed to blow up a bridge
controlled by the Japanese. After he is
murdered by Japanese soldiers, Jackie and his crew decide to complete the
mission.
Railroad Tigers got started off on the wrong foot by including unnecessary
title cards every time a new character was introduced. It would be one thing if the title cards were
reserved only for Jackie and his crew, but it seems like every blessed
character gets their own introductory title card complete with annoying
animation. What’s worse is that they keep
introducing characters a full half hour into the movie!
Some of the humor is a little darker than most of Chan’s stuff. (Like the part where one of his team finds a
severed foot and he sees if the shoe is his size.)
While I appreciate Chan trying to go down a bit of a darker route, none
of it is really funny. I did like the
part where Chan and his crew acrobatically scale a building only to learn a
ladder was there the whole time. These
little flashes of Chan’s old school magic are few and far between though.
The
best moment comes near the end during the tank battle aboard the train. This is a fun, large-scale sequence that is
unfortunately oh-so-brief. It’s a shame
there wasn’t more of this level of mayhem throughout the rest of the picture. As it stands, Railroad Tigers is an OK, but
forgettable historical Chan outing.
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