Fool is a young man in the ghetto whose whole family is about to be evicted by an uncaring wealthy landlord. In desperation he joins his sister’s boyfriend to burgle the landlord’s mansion. However, once trapped inside, they quickly learn that the landlords are evil and their home is a house of horrors, full of traps and the terrifying secret of the people under the stairs.
I have to admit, I wasn’t a huge fan of this film when it was first released; primarily, I think, because of its vast differences in tone from A Nightmare on Elm Street. However, seeing it again now I see the film is atmospheric, gory, and the landlords are deliciously crazy. People also features an early role of Ving Rhames, he has apparently always been awesome. Scream Factory’s Collector Edition also sports multiple commentaries, behind-the-scenes footage, trailer, and many interviews with cast and crew.
Jackie Chan remains one of the most entertaining action stars the world has ever seen. What he does on screen goes beyond acting; his fight scenes are a visual art all their own. He’s back with a gritty reboot of his famous Police Story series. In America, previous entries in this series were edited and retitled as Supercop and First Strike. While the earlier films ran more comedic, Lockdown is definitely a hard hitting drama.
Chan plays Police Captain Zhong Wen, a man about to be reunited with his estranged daughter and meet her fiancé Wu. Unbeknownst to Wen the fiancé is plotting a trap and, using Wen’s daughter as bait, takes them all hostage inside a nightclub. Now Wen must figure out why Wu has kidnapped him and help the hostages escape before it’s too late.
Police Story: Lockdown is a great action film with elements reminiscent of ‘Die Hard’ and a wonderful ‘Usual suspects’ type mystery plot. Chan is still at the top of his game and delivers fight choreography like no one else. The vibrant night club setting and action look best in Hi Def so definitely go for the Blu-ray version. Also included in the disc are cast and crew interviews, a behind the scenes look, and trailers.
Adam Ruhl is a writer and life long Cinephile. He is the Executive
Cinema Editor of Pop Culture Beast’s Austin branch; covering festivals,
conventions, and new releases. When not filing reports, Adam can be
found stalking Alamo Drafthouse Programmers for leads on upcoming
DrafthouseFilms titles. Adam once blocked Harry Knowles entrance to a
theater until he was given extra tickets to a Roman Polanski movie.