a5c7b9f00b A detective from Hong Kong teams up with an American gambler to battle against a notorious Chinese criminal. It&#39;s always a crap shoot whenever a Hollywood film tries to bring martial arts into mainstream North America. Jackie Chan has for the most part bridged that gap successfully while integrating comedy. Unlike with his past comedic partners in crime from Owen Wilson and Chris Tucker. Johnny Knoxville fails miserably. It&#39;s not entirely his fault. It&#39;s the film itself. It seems to me Renny Harlin is trying to mash bits of Shanghai Noon with Rush Hour with a dab of Supercop. The film doesn&#39;t gel at all. The flow is all over the place and scenes are too implausible. Each scene, seems to be a gag. There&#39;s conversation/joke/story line implied then at the end of the scene, the punchline. Then it moves on. Action scenes are obvious Chan-born, which sometimes do not feel unique unlike his past Hollywood films. Feels too contrived, not original enough. I am a big fan of Jackie Chan - Johnny Knoxville is coming along trying to be taken seriously, but Renny can&#39;t seems to improve either actors and that shows in this outing. His last decent film, Long Kiss Goodnight should be usedreference to make better action movies. Skiptrace finds Jackie Chan trying that odd Chinese-American combination yet again, but unfortunately he fails miserably this time. Johnny Knoxville fails to fire up that natural flair of comedy that Owen Wilson had so effortlessly aced in the Shanghai franchise. Unfortunately the movie falls like dominoes owing to a bland plot and an unvarying disconnect that rips apart whatever Skiptrace was trying to walk upon.<br/><br/>DIRECTION OF SKIPTRACE <br/><br/>The direction of Skiptrace is absolutely pathetic. Renny Harlin isn&#39;t really sure what he wishes to show. You can see that confusion in his frames. Or maybe that element of clarity is missing from his head that clouds his judgment. Editing will compel you to shake your head. It is that bad.<br/><br/>Humour is quite confined, always acting contrary to our expectations. With Johnny Knoxville in the vanguard to staythe primary entertainer of Skiptrace, expectations naturally shot up high. But Johnny made it all mediocre. You keep waiting for something funny, but then the wait becomes punishing.<br/><br/>The plot is forced upon to entertain a deliberate road trip. You feel the emptiness of it all when you see nothing substantial emanate from any corner. We are always heading towards something, so that&#39;s kind of good.<br/><br/>Chan and Knoxville create an okay chemistry though it is hard to compare their pairing up with the likes of what you have seen over the years.<br/><br/>NOSTALGIC OLD TIMES <br/><br/>Gone are those days when Jackie used to be young, and his fight scenes used to be the ogling kind. It always sends me back in time, when I try to remember all of his arresting fight sequences from the likes of Project A series, Who Am I, City Hunter, Armour of God and Police Story franchise. He still manages to entertain us nevertheless, but the quantum of combat bits in his movies has seen a gradual decline over the years. Maybe old age is doing that to him. It is in a way sad, because even when his movies didn&#39;t bank on a good storyline, he used to still uplift them with his jaw-dropping brawls. We miss that profusely.<br/><br/>Now that I think of it every Jackie Chan movie is ending up like that. Maybe for a change he should use a stunt double so that he doesn&#39;t hurt himself delivering those parkour like stunts,is quite evident from his end credit scenes.<br/><br/>THE FINAL VERDICT <br/><br/>Skiptrace makes for a passable watch, preferable when you are fine with your brain taking a holiday for a change. You cannot help but think, it is time Jackie Chan amp up his entertaining quotient, by partnering up with either Owen Wilson or Tucker again. At least that magic was working for him. Its story iscommonsunlight, but the entertainment can be justwarm.
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360 weeks ago