Official Synopsis
For years, by-the-book Hong Kong detective Benny Chan (Jackie Chan) has tried to avenge his partner’s murder at the hands of a drug lord. When Benny learns that freewheeling American gambler Connor Watts (Johnny Knoxville) has the evidence he needs, he teams with Connor to get justice. Now all Benny and Connor have to do is survive the fight of their lives — and each other!
Skiptrace is an interesting film that is light on content, but heavy on personality. Is that a bad thing? Probably, but the charm of the lead characters in the movie is how this film stays afloat for nearly two hours. The script is a bit of disaster, though stays focused in its mess, which can get quite confusing once things get going. Anyway, let’s break this thing down.
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The first act of Skiptrace does a helluva job of setting the film’s lighthearted, yet somewhat brutal style. The film starts with Hong Kong detective Benny Chan (Jackie Chan) losing one of his best friends, Yung, to a nefarious outlaw named Matador. Never fully recovering from his death, and responsible for Yung’s daughter Samanatha, Benny does his best to try to pin down the villain through the little leads that he has since his friend’s death. The weak leads all point to a high-profile public figure named Victor Wong. Desperate to catch him in the act, Chan tracks him down to boat dock and waits patiently for a shady transaction to go down, but accidentally messes things up and finds himself in trouble with his police superior. Suspended, Benny goes home and lands into another mess with Samantha when Wong’s people accuse her of helping out an American thief named Connor Watts (Johnny Knoxville) escape and who had witnessed Wong’s people murdering a girl before he made his quick exit.
Watts has his own problems, you know outside of running from Wong’s people, with a Russian mafia, who is looking for him he because owes them money…and because Watts has gotten the head of the Russian mafia’s daughter pregnant. Caught between killers and killers, Connor ends up choosing the Russians and is quickly whisked away to Russia.
At the end of act one, we have Benny traveling to Russia in hopes of rescuing Watts, so that he can turn Watts in to Wong’s group in hopes of freeing Samantha from any harm. For the record, Benny believes that Connor stole money from Wong and doesn’t know he is wanted because he witnessed (and has a phone recording) Wong’s atrocities.
Yes, this is all act one.
Act one packs a lot of material into one third of the film. It really overstuffs on exposition, while not actually providing deep details for characters, their personal situation or background. There are so many plot points in the film to keep up with at the beginning that the story can’t possibly hold onto them and give them proper time to cultivate into true substance, nor can it cultivate the characters that live within those points. We don’t understand a lot of things, such as how Samantha got into Wong’s casino. We don’t know how Samantha grew up searching for clues that led to her father’s death. We don’t know anything about our antagonists, other than the are bad, which isn’t enough to completely dislike them. I mean, hell, have them kick a dog or something while they’re chasing Connor, then we’ll hate them. Speaking of which, Connor Watts is completely undersold and short of explanation. We get some clever moments of shadiness from him, but mostly we’re trying to figure out whether he is good or bad and what exactly makes him bad. There’s simply not enough development time and the first act doesn’t even try to make room for it.
Anyway, onto the second act!
The second act is completely dedicated to Benny and Connor getting to know each other, and trust each other, on the road back to China. Along the way, outside of being occasionally tracked down and chased by Wong’s people, the trip back allows the audience to see different cultures — from Russia to China, which is somewhat neat and entertaining. There is a spot in the trip where the duo ends up in a Mongolian camp, where they’re forced to fight their way through, which also turns into a drinking celebration (you’ll have to see it). Once they get their tour of the countryside of different countries, the chase from the Russians and the Chinese is back on again. Along the way, towards the end of the second act, the pair finally open up to each other a bit, which is some good interaction between the two stars, but far from believable due to the first and second act build. I know director Benny Harlin might have thought this moment to be appropriate for the leads to come together and finally understand each other, but nothing was established or built up in the first and second acts to bring the audience to that point. In short, it was forced. The second act ends with the Chinese finally catching up to the pair and a big reveal of the Matador occurs.
The second act, while completely disjointed in regards to places that Benny and Connor come across, the places seem random and built for the entertainment value of the moment, rather than the story, is endearing due to Chan and Knoxville’s warm personalities, so some value is retained. On a positive note, we do get a bit of backstory about both characters while also getting some lovable moments that make us feel warm and cuddly inside, such as the sing-along with the Mongolian settlers. Beyond that, the real beef of the story doesn’t rear its head until the end when the duo come face-to-face again with Wong and crew, which sets up the third act quite nicely.
The third act gets intense, a tremendous fight ensues, one that is worthy of a Jackie Chan led film, and the film concludes on a somber, yet fitting note — then gets happy again. Despite the great fight, the film’s shallow story hinders it from becoming a great Jackie Chan film. If the story was a bit more beefy, then maybe the outcome would have been better. As it stands, it’s a film with fun fights, neat moments, but not much else.
On the Blu-ray side of things, Skiptrace is a gorgeous release with wonderful locations that are fitting of the high definition treatment. Most of the colors stand out quite well, especially during the Mongolian scene. In addition, I have always been impressed with how nicely Jackie Chan police story films are lit, so it’s no surprise that the lighting literally shines through beautifully in the HD format. I’m not sure I have talked about lighting before in a Blu-ray review, but it’s well done in this one and worthy of a mention. All in all, the Blu-ray looked gorgeous.s
On the special features side of things, here’s what you’re getting:
· “When Jackie Met Johnny” Featurette
· Director Commentary with Renny Harlin
Not a lot here, but it’s fitting for the release.
Anyway, onto the summary.
