Wednesday, April 25, 2018

RAILROAD TIGERS (2017) **


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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