Jackie Chan's newest mainland Chinese films tend to be very poor indeed, but I was pleasantly surprised by VANGUARD. It's as cheesy and propaganda-laden as you'd expect, not to mention badly acted and featuring some awful CGI animals in the African section, but the action is generally decent and it tends to just about hold up throughout. I put this down to the presence of veteran director Stanley Tong, of RUMBLE IN THE BRONX fame, who still knows how to shoot cool action and fight scenes and generally keeps the momentum going from beginning to end. Chan himself is a disappointment and keeps getting doubled now, and there's constant lazy CGI when there doesn't need to be, but otherwise this is okay.
Review of Vanguard
