Chinese Zodiac: CZ12 (Formerly 'Armour of God 3') (2012)

[blue_skies]

I've just watched the first 11 min and if it's a cam job it's pretty dammed good, although I don't have much experience with watching them. Having said that while it is pretty good quality for You Tube , even watching 720 p, it's definitely not HD quality. In my opinion it's not even DVD quality.

I've just watched the beginning sequence and I'm not really that impressed so far. I'm tempted just to skip to the end to see the final fight

edit: I think I'll wait to watch it on DVD. After watching a few more minutes the picture quality really isn't up to scratch on my TV and will lessen my enjoyment of the movie.

[andy338]

To be honest I dont really like Chan as a singer in any way shape or form, and i really dont like listening to Mandarin singing anyway, as in this movie.

His older Cantonese songs like the original Police Story, Project A 2 etc, and of course the cool English tune from the original AoG were ACE, hell when i was a schoolkid i used to sing along in my homemade canto-voice in the 80's when i first saw them

...but not any more...

give me some Thin Lizzy on the stereo cheers!!

Does anybody know where I can download the original music from Police Story, Armour of God etc?

[RogueWarrior]

Does anybody know where I can download the original music from Police Story, Armour of God etc?

ADC will probably have them.

[trueth]

Just watched an HD Webrip of the film. I thought it was good. A lot of fun stunts but it was a lil short on the martial arts scenes. Still a great film and a much better effort than what you'll get out of Hollywood. Now if only we can get Jackie to do another Drunken master film.....

[newgen2005]

Just watched an HD Webrip of the film. I thought it was good. A lot of fun stunts but it was a lil short on the martial arts scenes. Still a great film and a much better effort than what you'll get out of Hollywood. Now if only we can get Jackie to do another Drunken master film.....

I don't want to drift away with piracy talk but what is a Webrip? Seen this version floating around, looks very nice quality!

[trueth]

I don't want to drift away with piracy talk but what is a Webrip? Seen this version floating around, looks very nice quality!

I believe its a version thats ripped from a streaming site. Its close/on par with HDTV. The quality was good enough for me to take a look.

[blue_skies]

OOC who would've paid full price to see Jackie's new film if released globally at the same time?

[trueth]

OOC who would've paid full price to see Jackie's new film if released globally at the same time?

Considering how much tickets are these days, I only see Matinee shows.

[sdog2006]

I watched the action scenes because I knew the story would make a pig puke.

The Result

Wires everywhere, over cranked camera work and little imagination.

Jackie (who I will always respect) should have "jacked it" years ago and it's just ego that has driven him on to his late fifties.

Haven't been excited by one of his films since Who Am I. I watch him now the same way you would take a fleeting look at a car crash.

CHINESE ZODIAC = BULLSHIT

[newgen2005]

I have only watched the opening scenes and wasn't too impressed with it!, the roller blade thing was just stupid! The best bit out of the opening scenes was the fit bird doing the splits!! I am not going to comment on the rest of the film as i have yet to see it but first impression wasn't good!

A real shame!, why couldn't he just treat his old loyal fans to an epic adventure, instead of trying to be funny and choosing to work with clowns! At least Samo and Yuen still care about Asian films!

[tenebre]

i have not seen it. i would have gladly paid to see it n the theater. Instead i just pre-ordered the 3D blu-ray.

I have seen every Jackie film i could in the theater excluding the miram-axe atrocities of butchered garbage.

[makone]

I thought the end fight scenes were the best he`s done in a while. Everything else is terrible. The maze, the jungle and the end stunt is some of the worst stuff i`ve ever seen him do.

It`s sad to see him go down like this.

[dopemonkie]

I thought it was pretty entertaining for what it is, a live action Jackie Chan Adventure for the family (forget the spy next door).. A lot of cheesy jackie bits for humor of course, the end finale was the best, sometimes i ask myself how does he come up with these stuff? like props with the umbrella and camera, photography bit, but its jackie.. It was nice to see Ken Lo (speaking Thai) also jackie's wife makes a really short cameo at the end... Overall it wasnt jackie's best but it was a good effort for 50 SOMTHING YEAR OLD GUY

[D1 Ma]

I rather liked it. I'm not even sure why. Very colorfull, bright picture; relatively fast-moving stupid story and 58 years young Jackie...No doubt, the script, acting and most of the movie sucked, but one action sequence near the end was entertaining, pretty well-paced, with some interesting choreo. It really looked like "a Jackie Chan film". Even though there was a lot of wires, I thought it didn't look too bad. ( I also watched Making of.. and was surprised how much wiring was used - Jackie was wired almost for every move )

I was also very surprised that one high fall was filmed from above, so all visual impact was lost, kinda strange for Jackie to make that kind of a choice for placing the camera...

Rollerblade suite thing was absolutely pointless and not even very good, but I liked the effort: at least, Jackie still tries to use something unusual and never seen before.

It just showed that Jackie should've and could've been doing all these last 15 years. He still has good ideas, still can do some good fighting, but instead he opted for goofy family-oriented junk. CZ-13 looked like a real life version of the Jackie Chan Adventures cartoon

Still, better than his Hollywood crap...

[KUNG FU BOB]

Like many of you I have found the last decade (or more) of Jackie's films to be mostly disappointing, and at times barely tolerable. This is especially sad since I have long suspected that he is still capable of creating riveting on-screen action, but simply hasn't been delivering. As others have stated, I too would be very happy seeing him play the "master" roles now, and mentoring new stars. To see him continue to be the innovator he once was, putting talented young martial arts actors to the test, and keeping the Hong Kong action film scene alive and fresh. But... no.

So when CHINESE ZODIAC was announced, logic dictated that I should've had the pessimistic "who cares" attitude. But for some reason I didn't. I felt just a touch of the old excitement from the past, where upon hearing that a new Jackie Chan film was in the pipeline I'd start counting the minutes until it's release. I knew that I was probably setting myself up for disappointment. But you know what? I'd rather have a positive outlook in general, then maybe be disappointed for a few minutes if the film stinks, than to be miserable and negative up until the film comes out, then be miserable some more if it stinks. Personally I don't dig this whole web scene of judging, dissecting, and reviewing a film before it's even released. But, to each his or her own.

Once the film started screening, then came all of the scathing reviews. It wasn't looking good. But still... for some reason, I remained anxious to see it.

Well, I just watched it, and I loved it! Is it perfect? No. But it entertained the hell out of me, and that's just what it was supposed to do.

The downside:

-Some of the humor is reeeeaally broad, aimed at children, and therefore may cause some cringing and eye-rolling in adults. Along the lines of a guy sliding down the road on his ass, then jumping up and exposing his "funny" underwear showing through his torn pants.

-One or two moments where JC's character was "preachy".

-Not all of the sight gags worked. The bit with the glider parachute was amusing while he was in the maze, but became too drawn out once he was in the street, and also looked wholly unconvincing.

-Also, the film slowed down a bit in the middle.

The upside:

-JC does more fighting in this film than he has in a long, long time. He's still very creative, flexible, fast, and funny. Though he may have been on a wire and stunt-doubled, I still found these scenes to be fantastic fun. The wire work only occasionally looked really awkward, and I still enjoyed the choreography. He does some cool stunts, and throws in some of his "signature moves" that we've seen over the years in his fight choreography. There are lots of little gadgets and "classic JC" stuff, like the return of the tricking the gum into his mouth bit. The maze scene was like something from the Buster Keaton films that influenced him in the past. And I thought the rollerblade suit was a trip. Throughout the movie I was smiling and enjoying myself. I rewound many of the action scenes (especially the fighting at the end) over and over again. This feels a lot like one of JC's old films- colorful, fun, and creative. I admit that after he started fighting towards the end, in what looked to me to be excellent work, I paused the film and ranted out loud "What the hell do people want from this guy? How could they not like this?! He's the age of most grandparents and he's still kicking ass like crazy!" I honestly think that if he shit gold and bled diamonds people would still be nay-saying and bitching about how he "sucks" now.

I just spoke to Wigsplitta, and he said "If the classics he made that everyone loves were released now- with people never having seen them before, people would probably be shitting all over those too. Those African American women in ARMOR OF GOD are really Chinese stuntmen- this movie sucks!" I certainly agree.

Anyway, I thought that for his age (which if you consider the wear and tear he's put on his body, would probably equal about 302 years worth of mileage for the average person) he was doing some amazing stuff (a lot that most people half his age couldn't do), and that the film was everything a "Jackie Chan film" is supposed to be. I really hope that other fans enjoy it as much as I did too. It's not perfect. None of his films are. But it's certainly a good time, and for me it ranks as well above average within Chan's filmography.

One thing is for sure, watching this film is a whole lot more fun for me than reading some people's seemingly never-ending supply of nasty criticism and negative whining.

[One Armed Boxer]

I just spoke to Wigsplitta, and he said "If the classics he made that everyone loves were released now- with people never having seen them before, people would probably be shitting all over those too. Those African American women in ARMOR OF GOD are really Chinese stuntmen- this movie sucks!" I certainly agree.

This is a great point and one which I've constantly argued with my friends who take internet musings as facts. I've no doubt that if the internet had been around for a lot longer than it has the chances are most of Chan's post-1990 work would probably have been ripped apart in some way or another, even some before that period.

I haven't checked out 'Chinese Zodiac' yet, but I do have the DVD on order so will be sure to weigh in with my own thoughts once I've checked it out.

[AlbertV]

I watched it tonight and to me, it was a definite mixed bag. I did enjoy some of the action, notably the long fight scene towards the end and someone really needs to get Zhang Lanxin a lead role in a martial arts flick. Some of the VFX looked absolutely atrocious and I wasn't exactly thrilled about the pirate scene, although it was nice seeing Ken Low back in a Jackie flick...I posted my review on the main site.

[KUNG FU BOB]

I watched it tonight and to me, it was a definite mixed bag. I did enjoy some of the action, notably the long fight scene towards the end and someone really needs to get Zhang Lanxin a lead role in a martial arts flick. Some of the VFX looked absolutely atrocious and I wasn't exactly thrilled about the pirate scene, although it was nice seeing Ken Low back in a Jackie flick...I posted my review on the main site.

Hey Albert, I thought the pirate scene was a groaner too.

I forgot to mention that killer one on one fight between the ladies! It reminded me of the skill display and ferocity of Cynthia Rothrock and Karen Shepard's fight from RIGHTING WRONGS, except I didn't notice any obvious stunt doubling like that classic fight had.

[SamSeed]

"What the hell do people want from this guy? How could they not like this?! He's the age of most grandparents and he's still kicking ass like crazy!" :

I agree. Like you I really enjoyed the end fight, some very inventive choreography and the move where he jumps up, locks the guy with his legs and does a :flip really impressed me (even though it was obviously wires). I really hope he does another film like this (when this one finally comes out in the UK!)

[gorhama]

I haven't been able to see Chinese Zodiac yet, but I'm looking forward to it.

I agree with KF Bob in that the "interwebs" has been too negative lately crapping on movies before they come out and then even after they are out. I'm not saying we have to be happy about everything, but what happened to looking for the positive in movies?

I will go into the movie with an open mind and hope for the classic JC moments.

[TheGrimReaper]

I've finally watch the movie with 720p and updated subtitles. It was in Mandarin, which sounded a bit awkward, but once the movie took off it wasn't that annoying for me. I'd guess that I got used to the Canto tracks too much.

On to the movie itself - considering the fact that it was the last big action picture from Jackie it wasn't so bad, despite having some neutral expectations for it. It has its moments, all trademarks from Jackie's arsenal throughout the years of filmmaking was working quite well for me, and putting it next to 1911 it's light years away from it in terms of quality, approach, production values and martial arts choreography. Locations as usual exotic, the co-actors doing what they could do, some of them good, some of them boring, and others simply plain.

It was getting a good opening (no notice to the crappy CGI), energetic nad totally in the veins of early Armour of God movies, then we get to know our team, but then the movie lost its speed and boost and dragged for too long around the french girl and her troubles with the bank...

The maze scene was funny and the climbing onto the building was something I haven't seen for a long time in last 15 years of Jackie's filmography. The journey to the island was not so entertaining and I was about to take a short nap, when the pirates came on board and saw the absolute ridiculous face of Ken Low and then some decent fight.

But up to the final fight the movie went downhill once again, it was uneven in tempo (push the tempo) and it suffers from this, despite the efforts of Jackie to show us all the things he wanted to do on his last big action trip.

However, he sometimes went into propaganda mode and that wasn't improving the overall emotion I was gathering, but then the clouds lifted, the sun shined brightly in the sky and I saw some of the better action choreography from Jackie in the last final fight.

I even got my eyes wet a little bit, seenig him kicking and jumping as in the good old days, when he took a free falls from clock tower for breakfast and sliding down a bulb pole for dinner. It was a marvel to watch him being the core and heart of this movie at 58 - respect and eternal gratitude to him for his contribution to the martial arts industry...

Being a fan of Jackie and martial arts movies since '91 my personal rating of this movie is a bit high, but it's mine at least 7/10

P.S. I'm wating for him in The Expendables 3

[lillippa328]

i enjoyed this movie...it wasn't the greatest thing ever, but an entertaining watch.... i just want more fights from Chan! lol i mean that couch fight was fucking awsome!!! I showed it to one of my friends and he thought it was from around the Who Am I era, which is right what it reminded me of....

but Jackie deff still has it when he wants to use it!!! I would just love to see Jacky throw them fist more! Save the kicks even if need be, his hand work is still very nice

and agree with KFB the 2 chicks fighting was nice!

[David Rees]

Watched it last night and overall thought it was awful.

Bad pacing, terrible acting....The scene in the Jungle went on and on...

The only redeeming feature was the end fights, great inventive choreography, which just shows what Jackie can still do at his age, but by then it was too little, too late. The film was a mess and lets hope that he does at least one more film with a good director who can show him at his best with at least a decent script and good actors!

[newgen2005]

Pictures of my 2D/3D blu-ray, is anyone is interested:

[One Armed Boxer]

I just got through watching this, and have to say that, regardless of it's the fact that I went into it with low expectations or not, for me it was a classic 'Armour of God' Chan movie.

First of all, I should point out that I don't class either 'Armour of God' nor 'Armour of God 2: Operation Condor' as Chan classics from the perspective of them being well rounded movies. Both open and close strongly, however for those complaining about the pirate scene on the island, for me it was no worse than watching Chan, Alan Tam, & Lola Forner chasing each other around during the hide and seek scene that went on forever in the original....for the US release the vast majority of this scene was even removed all together.

So it's no surprise that 'CZ12' also gets a little bloated in the middle. All the stuff about the overbearing Chinese patriotism angle is simply overblown, yes of course it's brought up as it's the crux of the plot, but what many critics fail to point out is that it also involves national treasures of Egypt, Inida, and various other countries...all of whom just want to have what's theirs returned to them.

Through it all though, Chan's charisma and eye for detail is still there, and we get to see what his fans have been wanting him to get back to doing for over a decade - be it clambering in and around buildings, or involved in a multiple opponent fight scene using anything he can get his hands on - it's all there to be enjoyed. For me the comedy, although at times cringe worthy, also worked much more that I'd expected it to. From small touches like when he grabs the bread in the mansion, to the camera fight at the end....he still has it.

A lot of people have also mentioned the green screen sky diving scene is also superflous to the plot, but again I would certainly say it's no more unnecessary than the base jump at the end of the original (which he was also wired for) or the wind tunnel fight in the second...it's simply a novel and fun way to bring things to a close, and in that context it worked perfectly.

Considering the guy is almost 60, 'CZ12' delivers above and beyond what he can reasonably be expected to do, and he deserves a salute for bringing it one last time. Throw in some fun cameos from the likes of Daniel Wu, Shu Qi, and even Kenny G (yes that Kenny G), and there's really not a whole lot you can hold against 'CZ12' that you can't hold against Asian Hawk's, or whatever he wants to be called nowardays, previous outings.