Operation Condor

Years before he became a genuine Hollywood action star in Rush Hour, Jackie Chan played a daredevil secret agent out to recover a lost cache of Nazi gold, in this globe-trotting 1990 action comedy--with a trio of beautiful women at his side (one Chinese, one Japanese, and one German) and a stereotyped bumbling Arab terrorist hot on his heels. Condor is still one of the most expensive Hong Kong movies ever made, and looks it: there are actual Spanish castles and huge vistas of North African desert sand. (Months later, several planeloads of the stuff were shipped back to Hong Kong for some pick-up shots). A full-size set depicting an underground German wind tunnel was constructed on a Hong Kong sound stage. But there's also an extended car-and-motorcycle chase that employs an obvious stunt double, and episodes of bawdy farce (trimmed for the U.S. release) that feel like padding. Chan was already 36 when he directed this superstar vehicle, and he'd sensibly decided to soft-peddle the hard action stunt work---until the finale, that is, an all-out head-kicking kung-fu battle that moves back and forth across huge seesawing slabs of clockwork machinery. Chan seems to be working harder than ever in other areas, too; he's never given a more energetic or engaging comic performance. For pure mind-boggling entertainment value, the peak Jackie experiences are still Project A Part II, and the original Police Story and its semi-sequel, Supercop, in which Chan costarred with Tomorrow Never Dies Bond girl Michelle Yeoh. --David Chute

Movie Details

Cast: Jackie Chan, Carol 'Do Do' Cheng
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Running time: 90 min
DVD Aspect Ratios: 2.35:1

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DVD Features:

• Color
• Closed-captioned
• Widescreen

DVD International release dates:
North America: Sep 14, 99