The Movie

While watching China Strike Force, I totally felt like I was watching a Jackie Chan movie. Perhaps that's because Stanley Tong, the man behind Rumble In The Bronx, and Supercop 1 & 2, directed it. However, those three movies had something very important going for them that this movie didn't - Jackie Chan.

China Strike Force starts out decently enough. Our two lead characters (at least I thought they were the leads) are Shanghai cops in training. They start things off by kicking some major ass Kung-Fu style in a nicely choreographed fight scene. Then a bunch of needless talking by fighting movie alum, Mark Dacascos and rap star turned actor, Coolio slows down the action. But it eventually picks back up again during a high-speed car chase scene that involves an older Lamborghini and an open wheeled Formula One-like racecar. This scene was pretty cool, but I wished they had driven the cars longer. But after this, things slow to a crawl almost all the way up till the very end. I had high hopes after the first quarter of the movie, but I was so disappointed at the lengthy dialogue and needless exposition throughout most of the movie. Where did all the action go? It was as if they were saving it all up for the climactic final battle. Bad move I say.

The premise of the movie is pretty simple. Our two Chinese agents witness a murder at a fashion show. (Your guess is as good as mine as to why he was murdered) They follow some leads that eventually take them to Dacascos, a powerful Chinese mobster, and Coolio, a high rolling drug dealer from California who's looking to expand his business overseas. I found the casting of these two actors to be very odd. For one, I've never seen Dacascos play a bad guy, so it seemed weird. And I don't know how the director talked him into cutting his hair into looking like a psychotic Moe from the three stooges. Coolio was a very odd choice for this role as well. For instance, try to picture Coolio fighting like a 3rd degree black belt. Hard to imagine isn't it? It was for me too, and seeing it on screen just made me laugh. Plus his lines were cheesier than George Bush trying to pull off a Will Ferrell impersonation.

Actually, given the nature of this kind of movie, I would have loved it if the action hadn't dropped off the face of the earth for most of the movie. Instead, they try to cram in as much Coolio as possible, despite the fact that his scenes added nothing to the progress of the story. It was as if they wanted to keep showing his face on screen just to remind people, "see there? Coolio is in this movie!" Yes, we know.

China Strike Force had loads of potential but couldn't live up to the hype. For most of the movie you think you know whom the lead actors are, but as it continues you start to second-guess yourself. Even after the movie ends, you still aren't sure who was the main attraction. I place that blame in the director's hands. He should have picked a direction and ran with it. For example, a major actor dies at the end, and for the longest time, the movie gave me the impression that he was the lead character. Guess not.

Overall the fighting scenes were great, and the stunts were incredible, but the jokes were bad, the dubbing was off, and most of the action went missing in the middle. If you rent this movie, your safest bet is the watch the first quarter, then skip to the end for the final battle scene. Everything else in the middle is slow and boring.


The DVD

Video:
China Strike Force is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. This is most definitely a below average transfer, as it suffers from many downfalls. Right from the beginning credits, a healthy dose of edge enhancement is visible. It's noticeable in some scenes more than others, but when you see it, it's pretty bad. The overall picture suffers from severe graininess, which makes it look very fuzzy, and unclear. The video also suffers from the occasional dirt spec, or film blemish. And because colors are so dull, the entire movie has a dirty or dingy feel to it.

Audio:
Here we have a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track. The audio was much better than the video, but it was far from exceptional. Most of the dialogue was overdubbed, so it was fairly easy to hear, but wasn't crisp, as it sounded slightly muffled. However the music throughout the movie sounded great. Rap music by Coolio himself was played at certain scenes in the movie, giving it that funky, Jackie Chan like feel. Bass response was a little weak, and the rear surrounds weren't used to great effect. They were fairly active, but mostly for gunfire scenes. Although the car chase scene did sound nice and realistic with both cars' engines screaming. For a low rent release, the soundtrack is surprising good. It's too bad more attention wasn't paid to the video transfer.

Extras:
There are not extras offered on this disc.


Final Thoughts:
I really wanted to get into this movie after the opening fight scene, but as things got rolling, I kept getting disappointed. The fighting was fantastic, and the stunts were quite good, but the dialogue was awful, and some the actors were definitely miscast. It started out with a bang, yet ended with a fizzle. Rent It