Expected more

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Probably one of the weaker Jackie Chan movies of the eighties for me. I found it to be boring and only got through it as I was watching with a friend. In this one a girl Jackie is close to gets kidnapped by a cult of monks and he has to go save her along with her boyfriend. Some wacky comedy ensues along the way but it can't save the fact that the first half of the film is kind of boring. By the time you get to the second act the movie has worn out its' welcome and even the exciting car chase or final battle against martial arts Amazoness dominatrix's (I'm not kidding)can't save the movie from being merely average.I'm not too partial to this film and I think that Armour of God 2 does a better job of being an adventure movie, as well as keeping my interest.Not recommended.

This is one of the oldies that made us love Jackie Chan with his regular kung-fu, comedy and stunts, making everything at his reach a weapon, this Indiana Jones-style movie had Chan play the Asian Hawk who hunts for relics and sells them.Chan came close to death in this film during a relative routine stunt; he leaped onto a tree from a ledge, but the branch he grabbed snapped, sending Chan plummeting and cracking his skull.The movie had cool stunts as usual, and the Mitsubishi car used by Chan was so odd and grand to watch, we know very well that he does all his own stunts, but I don't think that includes car stunts.Chan's character was a little unrealistic, but after a while you get use to it. Like in all Chan movies the scenery is used to its peak and the movie set a record at its time for the highest grossing movie in Hong Kong.Jackie Chan has kinda dropped lately in his movie profile; before a Jackie Chan is coming out we expect laughs and stunts, but lately there have just been a shadow of what they use to be, his latest was 1911, which holds a 9% approval in rotten tomatoe, showed us that Chan is losing his edge.The Forbidden kingdom with fellow martial art star Jet Lee was also not much of a success.But going back to the movie, Armour of God, where Jackie was involved in saving his former girl and now his friend's girl friend from kidnappers who want him to help get the two remaining piece of the armour of God, since they already possess three.Chan new the collector who owned the remaining two armour that the kidnappers wanted. So Jackie, his friend and the collector's daughter went with the remaining two set of the armour to use to save the girl and then steal all the complete 5 set armour for the collector.All in all, it was fun watching the movie all over again and I advice that you try to do same.

This is probably one of the very first Jackie Chan movies that I ever saw, and what first intrigued me about it was that it opened like an Indiana Jones movie. Jackie is in some rain forest, dressed as a treasure hunter (who is called the Asian Hawk) and through trickery and fast reflexes, steals a sword from the natives' idol. This is where the similarities to Indiana Jones ends. An evil cult heard that Jackie managed to get the sword and decide to kidnap his ex-girlfriend to use her as a bargaining chip to get the rest of the pieces of the armour. They have two, and the other three pieces are beyond their grasp.It turns out that the sword was bought by a collector who also has the other two pieces, so they pay him a visit to his European manor to borrow the pieces of the armour so that he may rescue his ex-girlfriend.It is not as simple as that because Hawk's ex-girlfriend is now the girlfriend of his ex-best friend, who is also a rock star. The relationship between the two is that they like the same things, including girls, however Hawk is the one too step back so that he and his friend do not fighter things that are less important than their friendship.However, this is not a movie about friendship. In fact, it is not really a movie about anything beyond Jackie Chan's stunts. In fact, one of the stunts that he did, a stunt that wasn't very difficult, and had already been done once successfully, almost killed him. However Jackie was always one to take risks, though I am unsure if he still does all his own stunts, though I have noticed that in his later Hollywood movies the stunts become somewhat more low key.As with all Jackie Chan movies, this is about the martial arts and the stunts, though Jackie does like his comedy. In fact he is a big fan of Buster Keating, and since Keating's gags were always visual (this was during the era of the silent film) it enables Jackie to get over the language barrier which tends to dampen comedies in another language (though I have noticed that I have found some French and German films to be quite amusing as well).

"Armour of God" sees Chan as a kind of freelance treasure-hunter. This film was set in it's day (1987), (and already, Chan enthusiasts may already know what I'm hinting at here). We are quickly told (well, after some awkward flashbacks) that an old friend of Jackie's and Alan's (his annoying side-kick for nearly the whole film), Laura, has been kidnapped.After some fairly drawn-out and redundant sequences, we follow these guys (with another girl May) on their rescue mission. This film plot is fairly questionable to me, and the performances vary continually throughout the film.Jackie's typical comedy and impeccable action sequences are present in this film, but just to a much lesser degree than normal. I felt that the character of Alan crowded Jackie's abilities, and we are often shown Alan goofing off (quite unfunnily) while Jackie is presented as the sensible and honorable one.It's not until very late in the last reel do Chan fans get what they've been waiting for. The final fight-sequences are top-notch, but disappointingly over to soon, (there's no 30min "Young Master"-type finale here). Also, Jackie's usual extreme stunt inclusions are sub-standard in this film. The last stunt, while impressive logistically, feels quite tacked-on to the end of the film. This film, although quite patchy, is worth watching. Just be prepared for some dated comedy and a long wait for your action fix.