How sad is this?

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

This is one of the only pre-Hollywood flicks with Jackie that I've seen, so forgive me if I comment on anything that is a staple of them. Whilst offering absolutely nothing new to the genre, this does manage to, in spite of some rather abusive use of slow-motion, a lot of really cool and, at times surprising, action. As is Chan's usual style, props are used, and there is a general comedic tone to the well-choreographed martial arts sequences. The plot is fine. I can't say I got into it all that much, perhaps because I'm just not that big on looking at cars driving. Even if they do go by fast and make that vroom-noise. It does not appeal that much to me. I'm not a race-ist, though. OK, granted, that was a terrible pun. I'm giving myself a time-out. For anyone still reading this, however... with a couple of questionable angles and edits being all that stand out to the way this is shot and cut together, this simply does not have a lot to offer other than the shoot-outs, chases, and of course, especially, fights. This is in at least two languages, but all of it is subtitled. Well, the version I saw, anyway. There is violence in this. I recommend this to fans of the star. 6/10

I normally love Jackie Chan movies but this one was terrible. There are only 2 or 3 fight scenes all of which are up to normal standard more or less. The bad thing about this movie is it focuses a lot on car chasing/racing. The car chase isn't so bad (though not as exciting as fighting) but the car racing at the end is exceptionally boring. Basically it takes all of things that make a Jackie Chan film a Jackie Chan film and leaves out everything except Jackie Chan. Even the traditional outtakes at the end lack their usual humour.I suppose to a certain extent it was made worse by the fact I saw one of those horrible dubbed versions. I usually try to see the subtitled version...I wish I could understand Chinese.I've only seen one Jackie film worse that this one and that was one of his early forays into Hollywood films that didn't turn out so well.Avoid unless really curious or a lover of motor sports.

Version: Cantonese VCD, with English SubtitlesJackie Chan + yakuza + cars + evil white guys... 'Thunderbolt' should equal pure brilliance. It doesn't. Jackie Chan plays (according to the subtitles) Jackie Chan, a mechanic working with the police. Jackie gets on the bad side of the obligatory-evil-white-guy: In this case, he is Cougar, a race-driver and all-round evil dude. Cougar kills a bunch of policemen, and kidnaps Jackie's sisters, threatening to kill them if Jackie doesn't race him.'Thunderbolt' is more serious, and darker than a lot of Jackie's movies. Unfortunately, a lot of Jackie's movies are better than 'Thunderbolt', even the other serious ones. Cougar tends to shout a fair bit - he is played by Thorsten Nickel, and I'd be lying if I said he was the most talented actor ever. I'd even be lying if I called him an actor. At least his acting ability provides some much needed comedic relief. On the other hand, the action scenes range from awesome to boring. The fights are generally pretty good, even though there is some obvious doubling and wirework. The final scene, however, is boring, and the speed-up obvious.6/10.

Jackie Loh Chan is a motor mechanic whose father helps the police identify illegally modified vehicles to confiscate them from boy racers plaguing the area. During one such confiscation Chan witnesses a car evade capture and almost kill a policeman. The police are after this car as the driver is suspected to be criminal and speed freak Cougar – wanted across the world by several different Governments. Chan gets involved in a high-speed chase that results in the capture of Cougar but when he escapes he targets Chan for a violent second race.Jackie Chan movies are never the best place to look if you're after strong plotting and well written dialogue and this is no different. The plot itself is very basic and quite full of holes – it's even pretty thin in explaining how Chan gets mixed up in the police business originally. But like I said plotting is never his main thin and only occasionally does the weakness of the plot become annoying – mainly when the drama is played out in words exchanged.At these points the weaknesses of the script are exposed – the dialogue is unconvincing and, sadly, totally lacking in humour, preferring a more hard edged approach. It's a shame cause Chan's better films mix his trademark humour and his amazing stunt work – this has him at his toughest and, while the stunts etc are all great, it's not a good look for him.While the fighting and driving are all very enjoyable the director occasionally works hard to spoil them – he doesn't do a good job here. Basically all I wanted him to do was set up two cameras and point them at the action. However instead he uses far too many edits and fast cuts to make some fight scenes almost unwatchable. I think specifically to the great scene in the games place. It starts as a tough scene with great martial arts action but the director first edits too quickly and then slows it down in some weird slowmo that blurs everything badly.The action is all good though – the main car chase on Hong Kong streets is good and most of the fight scenes show off Chan's ability and not just his willingness to put himself at risk. Chan is OK as an actor but the intense emotion required by his hard boiled character is not really him. He seems different without his usual comedy material and is at a stretch several times. Nickel is god-awful as Cougar – he looks like an 80's throwback (think Airwolf with long hair!) and delivers every line with all the character of a stapler. Yuen is better as Amy Yip and is good-looking and natural despite not having a lot in the way of lines. I was pleased to see Wong in the cast and he gets a chance to show off his John Woo credentials in a few scenes. A cheeky bit of casting has Chris Patten (not really him of course) getting blasted by Jackie's car – he was Governor of Hong Kong at the time.Overall this has sufficient good action to justify watching. However the direction is iffy and it lacks the trademark Chan humour. Still enjoyable to watch for the action but this isn't one of Chan's better efforts.