Even Jackie Chan energy cannot save Renny Harlins 'Skiptrace' with Johnny Knoxville [Review]

Montreal – Jackie Chan had Chris Tucker And Owen Wilson Help him in earlier Buddy-COP comedies. Films like “Rush Hour” and “Shanghai Noon” were fun to see, but they always had to rely on the chemistry that Chan would have with his co-star. The scripts always played in the conventions of the genre, but never had enough material that could be described as “original”. Nevertheless, the stunts and fights were always inventive, and how could they not be with Chan, who continues to use a double to carry out the sequences themselves, and often risk its limb, if not his life.

Read more: The 25 best buddy -COP films of all time

With the right co-stars Chan and Co., a rotten script could actually get running, but unfortunately Johnny Knoxville doesn't belong. director Renny Harlin“Skiptrace”, makes its North American premiere Fantasy Film FestivalThe stars Jackie Chan as Cop Bennie Chan Chan and Johnny Knoxville in Hong Kong as American player Connor Watts, and it only depends on the fact that they are both unknowingly the goals of an evil Chinese criminal. Chans Bennie is obsessed to catch the drug dealer Kingpin “The Matador”, who is responsible for the murder of his partner. In Macau, Watts is persecuted by Russian gangsters Watts is the valuable witness to Chan, but also the main goal for Chinese henchmen, both of which will be followed for the rest of the film.

Chan and Knoxville share moments when their partnership works, even if they feel like shades of better scenes that we have seen in older films, but one in a Russian packaging plant in which a matryoshka doll is used as a request is not only enormously exciting things, but also the stuff and the humor that you can find in a better Jackie -chan film. But mostly the plot is almost a props in itself, a kind of apology that the next fight occurs at some point. Chan's characteristic comedy combat style is contagious and there is a reason why this man has been involved in the game for more than five decades and has had so much success. Chan is the product of what would probably have happened if Charlie Chaplin and/or Buster Keaton Were equipped with a litany of combat competencies.

The locations in “Skiptrace”, which include the provinces of Guangxi and Guizhou and parts of the Mongolia China, are beautifully observed and sometimes distracted from the lazy action that Harlin has put together here. Harlin, now 57 years old, is not a Sllouch in giving us stinkers. He made a living in a career that “contains” titles like “how” contains “Cutthroat Island” And “Deep blue sea. ““ His direction here is competent and exceptionally safe, but if you expect something other than Harlin under-book entertainment, she does not find out enough about his past.

Knoxville is not necessarily a bad actor, but his skills are more bold films and not in those who are conventional. In “Skiptrace”, his role is filled with lame individuals and not a real feeling for a developed personality. The king of “Jackass” when he knows what he does during combat sequences is an absurd suggestion to believe in the audience. He always seems to be out of place, and the inconsistent tone he brings to Watts is a bad service for the comedic elements that the film tries to create.

On the other hand, Chan stumbles, dives, skirts, flakes, climbs and jumps so professionally for the combat sequences. His physical endurance is remarkable, especially when you realize that the man is 62 years old, and although his acrobatic nature was always part of his Shtick, the endless river and rhythm that goes with every movement also has. It brings energy into a film that urgently needs any life, but there is only as much chan. [C-]

Click here for the rest of our reporting from the Fantasia Film Festival 2016.

“Skiptrace” is now available in the DirectV cinema.