Released Date : 28 Jul, 2023
Avg. User's Rating : 4.0/5
Story: The Highway of Death, a dangerous stretch of Baghdad, sets the stage for the 'biggest oil heist ever' and it's up to Chris Van Horn (John Cena) and Luo Feng (Jackie Chan) to stop it.
Review: Jackie Chan's Luo Feng involves a lean plot to rescue a group of civilians from a war-torn region. Feng is an experienced military soldier who leads his trained troops into battle. Meanwhile, John Cena's Chris Van Horn is committed to an obscure village far out in the desert, his heart for some reason wanting to look after the children there. However, it reflects Cena's real-life dedication to his younger fans worldwide.
The pairing of Chan and Cena is a no-brainer for an entertaining action flick. Chan's trademark style of parkour-fu goes well with Cena's devastating brawling style, but more importantly, their playful sensibilities make the pair fun to watch. Physics and logic-defying action films have become their own genre in Hollywood, for better or worse. This is the primary focus of the film, with budget reserved for specific set pieces, especially the climax. However, director Scott Waugh seems to have been inspired by the likes of 'Mad Max: Fury Road', and it shows throughout this movie, with even the background score reflecting some of the motifs from that now iconic movie. Sadly, the green screen effects aren't as seamless as they should be and some scenes bear the brunt of this slapdash VFX work.
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That said, one can always rely on Chan's decades of hand-to-hand combat skills to put together crazy fight choreography. Although his age is starting to show, he still manages to pull it off, especially in a sequence involving foam, of all things. On the other hand, Cena's ability to ad-lib and improvise dialogues is put to good use as he moves to break the tension between his spats. While one wouldn't expect an award-winning performance from either of them, they work the scenes to feed off each other's energy with hilarious results. None of the stars are expendable because of their sheer drawing power, but that's to be expected from a celebrity-driven blockbuster that could get a sequel if it does well enough. A brain-dead yet fun flick, 'Hidden Strike' makes the most of Chan and Cena's ability to entertain on-screen.
