Film Illiterate, wherein the proprietor records movies seen, and sporadic progress through assorted lists of the "best". Originally started after regretfully renting something forgettable for the third time. I've forgotten what, but never again! A tedious endeavour since 2005. Hello. 🙂
Enter the Dragon and Drunken Master 2 were always going to be hard acts to follow, but High Risk would've been a disappointment had it followed Santa With Muscles.
It's transparently derivative of Die Hard and Speed, but so much of the action is deadly serious that it's difficult to tell whether it's meant as a parody or merely a B-grade ripoff. Kit (Jet Li) is an ex-cop mourning the loss of his wife and son in a bus explosion; they were being hostage by a criminal known as "The Doctor" (Kelvin Wong) who declined to deactivatve his bomb after being paid. That's the Speed part; it turns to Die Hard when The Doctor holds a party hostage on the top floor of a hotel.
The action is impressive, but ridiculous; the high point comes when Kit drives a car into the ground floor elevator and out again, guns blazing, at the penthouse.
What's unmistakably parodic is the character of Frankie Lone (Jacky Cheung). The story goes that director Jing Wong hated Jackie Chan so much during the filming of City Hunter that he used High Risk as a vehicle for revenge. Frankie is an actor best known for doing his own stunts, but he's also an incompetent, alcoholic womanizer; too drunk to fall safely, Kit does the stunts for him. Cheung does a good job aping Chan's mannerisms, but the end result is more cruel than funny. It's not at all pleasant to watch.
The print we saw was made even worse by the atrocious Engrish of the subtitles; by the time it ended I was just glad it was over.