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R: ARCHIVE, S: REVIEWS, D: 01/09/1997,

First Strike

Fans of mega kung-fu wag Jackie Chan are a pragmatic bunch who understand they may have to sit through a middling plot and maybe even an ounce or so of social conscience to get at the goods: razor-sharp, ebulliently choreographed chop-socky wrapped in generous, self-effacing physical comedy.

Chan's latest, First Strike (released to Asian audiences early last year as Police Story 4: Simple Task, and subsequently dubbed for American release), doesn't vary much from the formula, though there's much less of the pyrotechnic martial-arts flavor that made Rumble in the Bronx and Supercop (another Police Story sequel) surprise hits on these shores. Billed as the first time Chan fights for America, First Strike only peripherally involves the CIA but makes up for that by overdosing on Western action-flick references and telegraphed James Bond parodies. Chan plays a Hong Kong policeman -- named, um, Jackie Chan -- who's enlisted by the KGB to chase a stolen plutonium warhead across the globe. Double-crossing international arms dealers provide Chan with an excuse to snowboard, bare his ass, sing (in English, even in the Asian version), fight on stilts in full dragon-parade costume, battle tough guys underwater in a killer-shark tank, and, in the only straight-up hand-to-hand throwdown, hold off a handful of offended brothers with only a folding aluminum ladder at his disposal. It ain't quite Drunken Master II, but without any other readily available contenders on the kung fu circuit, what choice have you got?

-- Carly Carioli