It's almost tragic to establish that in Hollywood Jackie Chan exclusively gets cast to appear in lame action-comedies (like "The Tuxedo" and "Rush Hour"), whilst in his home country of Hong Kong he's at least righteously offered to play serious roles and to be a genuine hard-fighting icon of action movies. "New Police Story" is everything but comical, it's a harsh and hardcore-to-the-bone cop thriller with an extreme overload of violent shootouts, dazzling stunts and relentless executions. The story is fairly original and adapted to the new type of crime-waves representing the post-2000 era, with Chan playing the cop who's up against an entirely new breed of villains: bored and spoiled rich kids obsessed with video games and committing violence purely for kicks. The youthful gang members inventively rob banks even though they don't need the money, have an insatiable appetite for destruction and oh yeah they really hate cops. When inspector Chan is a little too confident on TV about catching the thugs, they set up an ambush to sadistically slaughter Chan's entire team. The pain and guilt of losing his team drives Chan to drink heavily and neglect his police work, but a younger colleague slowly convinces him to solve the case and avenge his dead team-members. Like most Asian productions, "New Police Story" is rather long for an action film (slightly over 2 hours) but it's never boring or unnecessarily sentimental, not even during the relatively long period when inspector Chan mourns over his departed friends and colleagues. The action sequences and stunts are downright sensational; the highlight being an excessively destructive bus-out-of-control scene through the crowded streets of Hong Kong. "New Police Story" in an almost non-stop and adrenalin-rushing series of spectacular stunts, but it's also very praiseworthy for Jackie Chan's tour-de-force acting performance. This is his first film in which his acting talent is actually a lot more impressive than his fabulous martial arts skills. Especially the sequences in which his character stumbles through dark alleys at night, incredibly drunk and heart-broken, are harrowing and very realistic. Grim, sadistic violence and real drama are very difficult themes to mix together, but this film seemly pulls it off without too much trouble. "New Police Story" isn't intended for the faint-hearted, but if you like your heroes invincible, your criminals ultra-evil and your action rough & explicit, this film comes with my highest possible recommendation.
