Armour of God

Often seen as Jackie Chan’s answer to the Indiana Jones films, Armour of God sees him playing – get this – a pop singer turned treasure hunting adventurer, the Asian Hawk.

The film opens on a high note, as the Hawk steals a piece of the Armour of God from a native tribe. (Well, they’re native to somewhere – Hong Kong, by the looks of things.)Along the way is the stunt that almost killed Chan, a 40 foot fall resulting in a skull fracture and a metal plate he still wears…

Then things settle down a bit to explain the plot, such as it is. The Hawk sells the piece of the Armour to a wealth collector, who already has two pieces. Then his old friend Alan – the man who kicked him out the band and stole his girlfriend – turns up with a problem: said girlfriend, Lorelei (Rosamund Kwan) has been kidnapped by an evil cult.

They possess two pieces of the Armour and want the Hawk to give them the other three. If he does, the cultists will have unimaginable power at their disposal. If he doesn’t Lorelei will die…

So it’s back down to action, including a ridiculously over the top car chase and an acrobatic battle between the Hawk and four leather clad rejects from some disco group, before our hero blows up the cultists lair and escapes by jumping off the mountain side onto a waiting hot air balloon, ready for Operation Condor…

Same old Jackie Chan, then: Amazing action and stunt sequences redeeming perfunctory characterisation and plotting. But who’s complaining? Chan delivers what his constituency expects and takes risks that his leaden footed Hollywood counterparts wouldn’t dream of. In the customary outtakes reel that plays over the end credits, you can see his elation at the climactic stunt coming off; you shudder to think what would have happened had it not.