I originally wanted to write this review when I first saw this movie about 2 months ago, but I couldn't find where it was located. So I finally found the blasted thing, under its English title, "Meltdown" which makes no sense in relation to the movie. The Chinese title, "High Risk" (Shu dan long wei) makes a bit more sense.

This movie movie starts out in the past with Jet Li's character, Kit, trying to defuse a bomb underneath the bus that his wife and child are trapped in. While getting ready to defuse the bomb, Kit gets a call from the bomber, known as, "The Doctor", and has to instruct his subordinate to cut the wire while he's on the phone, unforutnately, it's the wrong wire. It goes off, and kills his wife, and Kit goes living in hiding from the embarassment and anguish.

When we next meet Kit, he's named "Bold" and he has a job as a stuntman in Frankie Lone's (Jacky Cheung) group. Frankie's an obvious Jackie Chan ripoff. He's supposed to do all his own stunts, but he's so enamored with flirting with women that his father says that he's down to only 20% of his original kung fu.

Frankie's set to do a high fall for all his fans from Japan, but he's so drunk he can't do the jump. So he gets Kit to do it for him, and walks out afterward. Unfortunately for him, a snooping reporter (played by Chingmy Yau, a total cutie.) catches the switcheroo, and goes to expose Frankie's secret.

Meanwhile, there's a hotel that the Czar Nicolas' crwon jewels will be on display at the next night. Frankie Lone's going to be there. And working there will also be Jessie, (The Mandarin version calls her Joyce, the Cantonese one calls here Jayce, but Jessie makes the most sense to me.) played by Charlie Yeung. Her boyfriend, a cop, goes there to meet her, but she's mad at him because he's always running off on duty.

The next night, the Doctor, and a band of terrorists raid the penthouse of the hotel, trying to steal the jewelry. Bold, who isn't allowed inside, notices that the Doctor is inside and goes to stop the robbery, only nobody will believe him. Jessie's boyfriend the cop, takes the opportunity to go check out the hotel, and try and smooth things out with his girlfriend while he's there. The reporter's there with her crew, trying to confront Frankie with the evidence they have, and they're inside when the shootings and the violence begins.

And this is where we find everyone at about 30 min into the movie. The rest of it is Kit trying to get upstairs to save save Frankie, and all the various characters trying to do their thing.

The movie's got some really good action sequences and a lot of them that don't quite make sense. Like, early on, Jet Li will take a car and drive it into an elevator. Then the elevator opens on the penthouse floor and the buy guys unload on it...but the car's not in there...instead Jet and the guys bust through the door. What the heck? The only way that'd be possible is if they got off on the previous floor, and then drove up the stairsand then through the door...oh well, whatever.

There are some really hilarious scenes in the movie one of them when the reporter gets stuck in the bathroom full of snakes and the "meat eating iguana". All I have to say about that is, "Damn, that iguana's got some MAD hops."

The final fight between Jacky Cheung and the boss guy who watches all of his movies is gut busting, especially considering how bad he's been getting pounded the entire movie. The boss guy demands that he fight him in the Bruce Lee outfit, so its exactly like the scene from his movie.

I don't know if Jacky can really fight, but they do a convincing enough job of either making it look like he can, or sticking a double in there.

The only real problem I have with the movie is that it switches tone too much. It's almost like you're flipping channels, one channel's got a Jet Li movie playing, and the other's got a Jacky Cheung movie. The two hardly share any screen time, maybe about 30 minutes total, so it really does give the movie this sort of "back and forth" feeling.

Jet Li's got this serious butt-kicking action bit to do, and Jacky mainly palys a really stupid comic relief guy, and later he gets to do a little butt-kicking of his own. If Cheung were a better comedian, a la his fellow Tiger, Andy Lau this movie would be a far better piece of cinema.

But, even as it is, it's very watchable, action packed, and well worth a viewing. Recommendable to any fan of kung-fu movies. If you prefer Jackie Chan's style, the fight at the end is worth you sticking around to watch. If you like Jet Li's style, he gets more than enough screen time, and he shines, as usual. Plus, all the women will definitely make it worth your while.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older