Haute tension

If you are an action fan, and are able to overlook the usual, for Hong Kong movies, schizophrenic tone, which mixes excessive violence with slapstick comedy, it's practically impossible to be disappointed by "Meltdown": first-rate fight scenes, wildly over-the-top stunts, prime explosions and lots of shattered glass. It's hard to believe that so much action can be packed in just one movie. Jet Li moves with amazing speed and agility, Jacky Cheung is pretty funny, and Chingmy Yau is also around, which is always a plus. (***)

I can't say it better myself. This movie rocks, HARD! It's filled with non-stop comedy and action sequences and is never boring.

Jet Li is a police officer who is asked to fill in for a stunt-man, who is a Jackie Chan-persona, one fine day. The next couple of days, the cop's supposed to be a bodyguard for the spoiled star who's to meet with his managers a couple of business partners in a huge rich, business building with a lot of people.

All of a sudden, the party is crashed by some jewel thieves who have been wanted for various terrorist acts in Hong Kong, including one where a bus armed w/ explosives & had a ton of hostages on it was blown to pieces. Included was Li's wife and child so the film is part- revenge flick as well.

The movie starts out explosive, has funny in-between moments and has the last couple of minutes be all about kung fu, more explosions, gun-fights, people using random objects as weapons, more gun-fights, snakes (!) and a helicopter crash along with another random fight.

It never gets old!

The tagline used over here: "They took his wife, now he takes revenge" is pretty corny, and doesn't really appeal to anyone. It sounds like just about any ordinary action movie out there. But it isn't. This movie is truly superb! The acting, the directing, the action, the plot all mix together into something you just got to love.

Kit Li, a former commando soldier, who accidently killed his wife and a bunch of school children after cutting the wrong wire on a bomb, now works as a stand in for a shameless Kung-Fu superstar named Frankie Lone. The public believes Frankie Lone does all his own stunt work, when infact Kit Li does it for him, and Frankie Lone has become a real coward, who forgets from where he got his fame... That is, by using Kung-Fu.

One night Frankie Lone and Kit Li goes to look at some russian jewels, displayed in a skyscrapper. Unfortunetly terrorists take over the building, and takes everyone in it as hostage. Frankie Lone and Kit Li, however, escape the clutches of the terrorists and dwell around in the building, Kit Li taking out every terrorist he finds and Frankie Lone, running from every bug he finds. Its very funny at times, really.

In the end they manage to take out the terrorists, of course, and Frankie Lone remembers who he really is and Kit Li gets a new girlfriend. Cute. Well, its a good ending to a good movie. Wait, make that a great movie. If you ever lay eyes on this movie in the store, buy it! its definetly worth it.

To sum it all up: Funny, action-packed, good directing and writing and just loveable in general. Go get it! I give it a 9!

Violence runs rampant throughout `Meltdown'. If you're not a fan of gore there's a good chance you won't like this movie. Bouncing Betty mines, time bombs, impaling, electrocution, dismemberment by helicopter blades, graphic gunshot wounds and death are among the dark and gruesome violence that balance out the comedic spoof this film is.

`Meltdown' itself is a spoof on both Die Hard 1 and 2 (Ironically it came out the same year as Die Hard 3). Terrorists dressed exactly like those in Die hard 2, right down to the urban fatigues (and trademark sunglasses for the evil military leader) Take over a high rise building, the plot of the original Die Hard. The geeky black computer hacker is replaced in this film by an equally geeky Indian computer hacker. Fans of the Die Hard trilogy will certainly enjoy the parallels `Meltdown' makes to the `Die Hard' trilogy.

`Meltdown' goes beyond a simple movie spoof. The semi-protagonist of the film `Freddie' is a composite spoof of Chinese martial arts movie legends Bruce Li and Jackie Chan. Freddie takes Chan's zaniness and silliness to extreme farcical levels, while wearing the yellow jumpsuit and uttering the kung fu sounds that Bruce Lee will always be remembered for.

The Kung Fu in this movie is average at best. It's not one of Jet Li's best performances, but then again it isn't bad. What the movie lacks in kung fu, it makes up for with the aforementioned gratuitous violence. The parody is what makes this film worthwhile. 6/9 stars.

This movie makes the cardinal sin of trying to mix light, slapstick comedy with extremely graphic, gory, brutal violence. It is merely a rip off of the Die Hard movie with an element of any Jerry Lewis movie thrown in for kicks. The plot revolves around the Jet-Li character who lost his wife to the diabolical mad bomber known as "The Doctor". He becomes employed as a bodyguard to a Jackie Chan type Action Movie Star who is a drunken, lazy bum. At one time, the movie states he had real skills, but lost them with fame. Anyhow they all get trapped by the terrorists in a skyscraper and that is when you get Jet Li taking on the terrorists with the aid of a nerdy looking cop, a plucky female newscaster, and the Jacky character and his dad. My favorite villian is the Valerie Chow character who is this super sexy, karate kicking, weapon toting ultra vixen who makes the other beautiful actresses look like naked human turds. The movie is not very good. Lots of gunfire, explosions, gruesome killings, and noise. I have seen better Jet Li movies.