Bleeding Steel Movie Review: Jackie Chan Back In His Usual Hongkong-Style Of Action Flick With Exciting Set Pieces And Hilarious Comic Scenes

AFTER TRYING straight drama as a dad grieving over the death of his daughter in the hands of terrorists in "The Foreigner", Jackie Chan returns to his usual slambang action-comedy in "Bleeding Steel", a futuristic tale concerning a mad scientist and mutants, coupled with goofy slapstick humor and some very violent scenes where someone's heart is shown being ripped from his chest.

This is almost like a throwback to Jackie's "Police Story" films before. Set in Australia, the movie even shows Jackie doing his familiar derring-do scenes in an action scene shot on the top of the famous Sydney Opera House. He plays a special forces agent, Lin Dong, who is in a hurry to escort and protect a bio-engineering whiz, Dr. James (Kim Gyngell), to a well guarded facility so he can go and say a last goodbye to his daughter, Xixi, who's dying from leukemia.

He gives priority to his mission but he and his team faces the formidable villain, Andre (Callan Mulvey), a mutant warrior who's like a Frankenstein's monster who was transformed by radiation exposure. Andre now who wants to track down James to obtain the immortality serum that James has concocted. Andre's cohorts are called bioroids and look like the Stormtroopers of Star Wars garbed in black uniforms.



From there, the narrative jumps to the year 2020. Jackie is doing various jobs to be close to a student named Nancy (Nana Ouyang, a cellist who tries acting), who was raised in an orphanage. It is so easy to guess that she is actually Jackie's daughter we thought had died but was revived by a cybernetic heart. Several enemies who are biotech mutants then show up and we see countless frenetic chase sequences along Sydney's streets and even inside of Australian buildings.

"Bleeding Steel" offers a lot of action set pieces that fans of Jackie's Hongkong style action flicks then have gotten used to, complete with glossy production values, spectactular pyrotechnics and the usual hilarious outtakes and bloopers during the end credits. Told with very fast pacing by Director Leo Zhang, Jackie gets to face a lot of adversaries including a woman with flying daggers and a drag queen who seduces guys with plastic boobs.

Since Jackie is now in his 60s, so his production team now has to design for him action set pieces that will not overtax his physical capabilities and put him on grave danger. He's still quite nimble, but a lot more special effects are also used to enhance his stunts, unlike before when he used to everything highly physical all by himself and without any tricks at all. Actually, he'd be better off playing Nancy/Xixi's grandpa, but still he manages to have a touching reunion scene with his long lost daughter.

Jackie is generous enough to allow younger actor Show Lo as Leeson to handle a lot of comic scenes. We've seen him before in the hit comedy, "Mermaid", and he has created a smart-aleck persona that is perfect foil to Jackie's dead earnest one. All in all, the movie offers quite a lot of fun.
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Mike Tan Says He Has Valid Reasons For Keeping His Wedding A Secret And It's Not Because He's Ashamed Of His Wife

MIKE TAN felt sad when his character in "Ika-6 na Utos" was killed. "Nakakahinayang kasi ang tagal pa pala ng itatakbo ng show, tapos nawala na agad ako," he says. "But then, it turned out bibigyan naman pala ako ng kapalit na bagong show, ang 'Hindi Ko Kayang Iwan Ka', na leading man ako ni Yasmien Kurdi."

Mike got married last January 22 in a very private ceremony in Rodriguez, Rizal, to his non-showbiz girlfriend, but he decided to keep it very quiet. "More than ten years na rin kami kasi bago pa ako sumali sa Starstruck, magkakilala na kami, e. Ilang beses muna niya kong ni-reject bago siya nakipag-date sa akin. Naging tahimik kami all throughout kahit nasa showbiz na ako. Never siyang umeksena and now na kasal na kami, we prefer na maging tahimik pa rin yun as much as possible."

Someone quipped that he might appear not be proud of his wife so he's hiding her from public. "Hindi naman. Siya rin naman ang may gusto ng ganitong set up. Even our wedding was so private. Ayaw niya ng engrandeng kasal. Only close family and friends were invited and we requested them not to post our wedding pictures sa social media. Wala ngang showbiz friends na invited, so nirerespeto ko lang ang decision niya to be private."

So now, is he ready to have his own family? "Yes, kasi 31 na rin ako. It's about time bumuo ng sarili kong pamilya. Ready na kami tanggapin kung ano ang ibibigay ni God sa amin. Mas inspired nga akong magtrabaho because of my new responsibility as head of our family. Hanga nga ako sa kapareha ko in 'Hindi Ko Kayang Iwan Ka' na si Yasmien Kurdi kasi matagumpay niyang napagsasabay ang kanyang family life and career."

He's also happy to be part of an advocaserye like "Hindi Ko Kayang Iwan Ka" about the ordeals and struggles of a person who is HIV positive. This will start airing on February 26, replacing the current Sanya Lopez-starrer, "Haplos".

"The incidence of HIV in our country continues to escalate so it's alarming. Kaya kailangan ng ganitong show that will foster awareness about HIV and how to handle it. Dito, as the title shows, hindi ko iniwanan si Yasmien even after I found out na HIV positive siya. Nakuha niya yun when she was raped by Martin del Rosario. In spite of this, I supported her all the way as her husband and magkasama kaming nilabanan yung sakit niya at lahat ng mga taong nanlalait sa kanya dahil nga may HIV siya."
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