RAILROAD TIGERS (Ding Sheng) 124 minutes. Subtitled. Opens Friday (January 6). See listing. Rating: NN
Railroad Tigers is a Jackie Chan caper picture set inside a war movie. That sounds like a great idea until you actually watch the thing.
Chan’s third collaboration with director Ding Sheng – after Little Big Soldier and Police Story: Lockdown – is set in mainland China in 1941, during the second Sino-Japanese War. The aging action star plays Ma Yuan, the leader of a ragtag group of petty Chinese bandits (among them a character played by Chan’s real-life son Jaycee) who make their living raiding passenger trains and annoying the Japanese authorities.
When an injured Chinese soldier shows up at their hideaway, the bandits wind up taking on his mission: blowing up a bridge crucial to the Japanese war effort. It’s a suicide run, but it’ll really stick it to the local commandant (Hiroyuki Ikeuchi).
Chan has made this sort of movie a dozen times over, but he’s older now and clearly struggling with the action beats, something director/editor Ding can’t fully hide. But ultimately more damaging is the film’s slack pacing and weirdly broad tone. Imagine The Bridge On The River Kwai pitched at very small children. Not the best idea, right?
For all of its expensive sets and elaborate action sequences, Railroad Tigers is a tonal mess that never figures out a way to reconcile its serious subject matter with the wacky-fun-times vibe Chan and company are putting out. Much of the film just feels off.
