Chinese Zodiac: La armadura de Dios

This is a classic late-period style Jackie Chan Chinese action-adventure. Not quite as good as the Operation Condor/Armour of God movies it's supposed to be a sequel to (nor as good as Supercop/Police Story films) but every bit as good as The Accidental Spy, Who Am I?, and The Myth. And I thought all of those were quite enjoyable.

This movie shares all the great features and all of the flaws of Chan's self produced and/or directed films. They have a great sense of humor and the stunt/action sequences are quite inventive. But they are also quite cartoony--the acting is VERY broad--and there's quite a bit in it that defies any common sense. But who really cares, right? This is Chan unfiltered.

The only REAL flaw to the film is the clumsy way Chan keeps inserting his moral messages. He has characters tell us what's right and wrong in very stilted dialog instead of creating situations that demonstrate his points. (not to mention that a few of his morals seem to have been government imposed--"we are not to interfere with the social structure in any way" a protest leader incongruously says as Chan nods wisely and says "That's right!") But I think this will make a fine home video release for the US audience, once they edit out some of the more China-centric chit chat, re-dub the dialog (or at least all the English, which is horribly spoken by the international cast) and replace a couple of oddly inappropriate pop tunes).

I'll be buying it for my JC collection!

The international thief JC (Jackie Chan) and his team are hired to steal two bronze heads of the Chinese Zodiac by the MP Corporation that is specialized in supply stolen relics to auctions. After many incidents, JC befriends the women Coco (Helen Yao) and Catherine (Laura Weissbecker) and together with his crew, they live intense adventures and betrayals.

"Sap ji sang ciu", a.k.a. "Chinese Zodiac", is a typical Jackie Chan Film, with a naive and funny full of action story. The beginning is breathtaking, with JC rolling and passing by an army and makes the movie worthwhile watching. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Operação Zodíaco" ("Zodiac Operation")

Went in with a load of expectations as it was jackie's full fledged action movie after a long time ........ and sequel of a highly entertaining "Armour of God" added more zeal to the expectations ... movie starts off with a superb stunt with jackie trademark of riskiness written all over ... then movie movie moves off superfast with stunts, comedy and entertainment all through the way ... 2 and half hours runs without brakes ..... jackie is wonderful throughout the film ... though the movie misses jackieism of 80's and 90's a little bit , still the magic works .........

verdict: Jackie's show throughout - highly entertaining ... action fans don't miss it ;)

For a Jackie Chan movie, then he really went all out this time, putting on an adventure unlike anything he has done before. That being said, I am not saying that his previous work has been less than this movie, it is just that this movie takes Jackie Chan's breathtaking stunts and combines it with an adventure much in the likes of "Indiana Jones", and it actually works out for a nice combination, and a nice change of scenery for Jackie Chan.

As with all Jackie Chan movies, there is a hefty amount of action, martial arts, jaw-dropping stunts and comedy in this movie. And yes, it delivers on all these accounts. And he proves that despite being up in age, then he still is the undisputed master of stunts and this particular style of movies.

There is nothing much to say about this movie actually, as it is fairly what you'd expect from a Jackie Chan movie, and any fans of him will not be disappointed while watching this movie.

Jackie Chan does it again and even gives Indiana Jones a run for his money this time.

I was really surprised when I saw Shu Qi and Daniel Wu make a short cameo appearance at the end of the movie. That really was a nice touch to the movie.

In the past 3 decades Jackie Chan has successfully developed and maintained his own kind of genre full of unbelievable action, acrobatic fights, thrilling moments, unlimited fun and decent humour entertaining all age groups ranging from the innocent kids to the intelligent old. His latest offering is also made on the similar format showcasing all the essential ingredients of a Jackie Chan film but still cannot be rated at par with his earlier classics since its not that exciting as it may seem from its short synopsis.

This time the heist specialist or treasure hunter Chan takes up an assignment to deliver the 12 bronze heads of the Chinese Zodiac, stolen from Chinese dynasty's Summer Palace centuries ago. The location of few of those heads is known but the rest need to be discovered and brought back. Chan and his crew are hired to find these 12 bronze heads and the film is all about their adventurous expedition to complete the collection.

It begins with a novel, exciting & well shot sequence where Chan is escaping from a mansion after completing his ongoing mission. It sets the mood right and you are all game for watching something very exciting and exceptional coming up in the next reels. But unfortunately, despite having some great action sequences, CZ12 doesn't turn out to be that entertaining as expected. The fun and humor element is not the same as found in Chan's other movies and the characters are very weak, foolish and forced which are not able to impress at all. Particularly the bunch of pirates and the girls are simply there to act as few silly characters in the film and nothing more.

A major negative feature of the film is the use of French and other foreign languages in it for a considerable period of time without any English subtitles on the screen, which forces you to keep watching it helplessly like a fool. After few initial good moments the screenplay becomes directionless and only aims at the thrilling actions sequences thrown in to keep the pace going. The camera-work is truly superb as usual and the background score successfully manages to excite you in all those well conceived brave scenes, especially the ones involving the sky diving and volcano sequences.

So if you are a die-hard Jackie Chan fan from decades, then this film will surely remind you of his gems such as ARMOUR OF GOD (1986) and more. But at the same time, will not give you a similar experience in the theater watching the miracle man. Yet, CZ12 might impress many young viewers not familiar with the amazing living legend called Jackie Chan. And at the age of 58 (with more than 100 films), I can't even imagine any other person in the entire globe performing such risky and unbelievable stunts all alone by himself like a rubber man.

To say it all, as a true fan of the maestro I loved watching CZ12 and its crazy sequences but as an exciting adventure project its not upto the mark if compared to Chan's earlier gems and could be a lot better (keeping in mind its interesting plot). The man is there in the entire film standing tall as always and if this is supposed to be his last major action project, then it surely deserves to be seen by all his fans as a must for this one reason alone.