FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

SnoopyStyle Twelve bronze heads representing the Chinese zodiac were looted during the Opium War. JC aka Asian Hawk (Jackie Chan) and his action team are trying to recover them. With replicas of the heads, they travel to Paris where some of the bronzes are being auctioned. Disguised as a National Geographic photographer, he infiltrates a protest group led by Coco trying to repatriate stolen antiquities.Asian Hawk is a Jackie Chan character from the 80's in the Armour of God movies. It's not the greatest of writing but it's just simple fun action adventure. It is very much HK comedy style from the 80's and 90's. Jackie is able to excel in his outrageous stunt work. He's still fun and still half man, half amazing. It probably needs a more steady presence from a head villain and one super henchman which all good Bond movies deserve. Instead, there is a myriad of villains like The Warriors including a Pirates of the Caribbean gang. For example, Oliver Platt could have been that head villain but he only has a short cameo. Jackie fans will find a fine silly Jackie movie. Others may not appreciate the appeal.

leonblackwood Review: I really didn't have a clue about the plot in this movie but the action scenes are top class. The acting was a bit shaky in places and I did find the girl who joined the group, quite irritating, especially when she wouldn't stop screaming in the jungle. Anyway, the movie is basically about a rich man who hires Jackie Chan to retrieve 12 Chinese Zodiac animal heads which were stolen in the 1800's. After following all the clues, he ends up in France with his reliable team but the mission isn't as straight forward as they first thought. That's the bit of the plot that I did understand but when the other business men get involved, I got completely lost. Jackie Chans comedic acting wasn't bad because it was mixed up with some clever stunts but it was a bit silly in parts. Its basically a National Treasure meets Indiana Jones type movie which obviously went down well with audiences around the world, judging by the box office takings. Personally, the film did get on my nerves after a while because it jumped from one situation to another. With that aside, you can't fault the action in the movie which has proved that Jackie Chan has still got the ability to entertain audiences with his amazing Kung Fu skills. Watchable but quite confusing!Round-Up: At 61 years old, Jackie Chan is still coming out with top action movies, whilst doing most of the stunts himself, so he has definitely has made his mark in the Kung Fu entertainment world. They cleverly mixed the languages with English and Chinese so you don't have to concentrate on annoying subtitles. I'm sure they dubbed the movie for other countries because it's quite a big budget film. Anyway, I personally preferred Chan in the Drunken Master authentic days, before he decided to concentrate on his comedic movies but he still has an audience which flock to see his movies. This film was actually directed by Jackie Chan so it must have been hard to play the lead and do all of the stunts at the same time. He definitely can't complain about the profit that the movie made and I'm sure that they will come out with another part of this Armour of God series which started in 1986. Anyway, it's worth a watch just for the action and the funny Pirates that tackled them in the woods but the storyline is a bit sketchy.Budget: $26million Worldwide Gross: $145millionI recommend this movie to people who are into their action/adventure movies about a man who searches the world for 12 Chinese Zodiac artifacts which are worth a large amount of money. 4/10

cccl350 I'll keep this short and in layman's terms. This movie is terrible. I'm actually 2/3rds into the movie as I write this because I cannot focus my attention towards this disaster anymore. I don't know much about technical aspects of cinema like cinematography, vfx, or video processing, but this movie's final cut looks bad. It looks like a standard grainy DVD res on a full HD blue ray setup (which is what Im viewing)... so there's that. Where do I begin? I can start by saying that the plot is very similar to Operation Condor (the one released in the US). Chan has lost his ability to pull off amazing fight scenes. No doubt that he's in shape for his age, but the action choreography in this movie was beyond corny. Chan relies on a group of young pretty Asians to team up with to do the heavy fight scenes. Also, they can't act worth a sh*t. Even by watching a dubbed version of this movie, all I see is a bunch of hysterical people pantomiming as if it was a silent film. This brings me to another major technical problem with this movie, which is the audio dubbing. The dubbed voice audio levels are very bad. I could hardly hear the actors talk throughout the whole movie. I was guessing what was going on most of the time. Worst of all, the blu ray of this movie doesn't come with subtitles. There's also the unnecessary usage of CGI. Its everywhere in this movie, even in simple scenes where they throw stuff into a river (no kidding). Jackie Chan plays some sort of Indiana Jones grave robbing archaeologist that has to acquire a bunch of bronze busts. Along the way, a European heiress tags along with Chan's crew to go treasure hunting with them. Its Operation Condor all over again. Except this time instead of Nazis, its French aristocrats. They jet set to a bunch of expensive looking locations like Paris, and a micro island with an active volcano, but still skimp out scenes by using unconvincing CGI. Ie: the skydiving scene which was fake and entirely redone w/ VFX graphics. So after a bunch of (maybe a dozen) mediocre PG fight ballets, the movie ends. Its followed by the ending blooper scenes which weren't even good. The best part of it was the blooper montage from Chan's career where some of his old stunts were shown. I'm sure it was perceived as a master piece in his mainland China, but this movie was just an overextended and over budget crapfest.

Wizard-8 Although I am not the biggest Jackie Chan fan around, for many years I have been sure to eventually catch each new movie he puts out. So when "Chinese Zodiac" came out on Blu-ray, you can be sure that I rented it. But after watching it, I have to say that my feelings are mixed about it. I will excuse the often lousy dubbing, since that is something that Chan couldn't have controlled. But I have to say that the plot is something of a mess. It's TOO fast-paced, often with important plot details unclear at the time and you have to wait until later in the movie to understand just what was going on. Also, the central characters don't have strong personalities. Second, some of the special effects are pretty weak. Now, I know that this movie didn't have a big Hollywood studio budget, but I think Chan should have worked with what he had, like he did with many of his movies a couple of decades or so ago. Third, some of the photograph is pretty weak, boasting ugly colors that are distracting.Still, there are some positive things to be found here. The photography may be weak, but otherwise there is some skilled camera-work. The plot may be incoherent at times, but the movie doesn't have any boring or tedious moments (well, except maybe for the scene on the wrecked ship - that does go on too long.) And when it comes to martial art action and stunt sequences, the movie does delivers. Chan may be getting old and starting to slow down, but he still knows how to deliver thrills. Weighing the good with the bad, the movie winds up being okay. If you are a Jackie Chan fan, you'll probably find the movie passable entertainment. Though odds are you won't find it one of his best. However, if you haven't seen a Jackie Chan movie before, this isn't the movie to start with. Start with something like "Police Story".