Jackie Chan Double Feature


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Police Story Review

Police Story 2 Review

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Jackie Chan Double Feature 2

After languishing for a few years in America starring in sub-par releases like Battle Creek Brawl and Cannonball Run II, Jackie Chan returned to his native Hong Kong and produced two of his biggest hits, Police Story and Police Story 2, films that solidified his status as the world's biggest martial arts star. Shout! Factory has recently put out a Blu-ray containing these two classic releases, but, sadly, the presentation may leave some die-hard fans wanting more.

Like the previous Shout! Factory Jackie Chan Double Feature, which had The Protector and Crime Story, the source materials for this Blu-ray are from the versions previously released by Fortune Star in Asia, which were upconversions, rather than true HD remasters. For both movies, the picture format is 1080P in an aspect ratio of 2.33:1, and the audio mix in in DTS-HD 5.1 or Dolby Digital 2.0 in Cantonese or English. The sound mix is well-done in both languages. However, the picture quality isn't what one would expect from a Blu-ray presentation of two of Jackie Chan's most well-known films, especially for Police Story, which is fuzzy and grainy looking.

On the plus side, these are the uncut versions of the movies, with Police Story clocking in at 101 minutes and Police Story 2 at 122 minutes. And, overall, the disc has a good design. The cover artwork is, shall we say, a bit on the generic side, but, in a nice move, the Hong Kong version of the film covers are included on the other side, so you can switch them over if you're so inclined. The animated menus (which are accompanied by Jackie Chan's rendition of Police Story's theme song) are clean and easy to navigate, both before and during the playing of the disc.

The extras on this disc are a good idea on paper. However, most of them are presented in a 4:3 "windowbox" format, with video quality that looks like it was it was taken from a old VHS tape or VCD, which is extremely disappointing. I'm sure Shout! Factory did the best with what they had to work with, but the results on this part of the disc are definitely on the sub-par side.

Police Story's extras include:

  • Deleted scenes (2:18) - Not really deleted scenes per se, this is a montage of small cuts (mostly one or two lines) made from scenes throughout the movie.
  • Outtakes (2:40) - Jackie Chan fans have come to know and love the "no goods" (aka outtakes) featured at the end of his films, and here we have another collection of Jackie and his co-stars maiming themselves for our enjoyment.
  • Extended opening (6:55) - This doesn't radically change how the movie starts, rather this is more of a slight re-edit of the beginning. Completists will gobble this up, but more casual fans probably won't notice much of a difference.
  • Alternate ending (3:34) - Similar to the extended opening, this is more of a tweak to the ending instead of a different version.
  • U.S. trailer (2:21) - This is as cheesy as you might imagine a trailer coming from the mid-1980's might be.
  • Hong Kong trailer (2:45) - The only extra presented in HD, this is a fun extra. Like most Hong Kong trailers of the time, this is an extended look at the movie that almost comes like a behind the scenes featurette.

On the Police Story 2 side, we have these extras:

  • Outtakes (2:06) - Another fun collection of no goods showing why many people give Jackie Chan god-like status.
  • Alternate outtakes (3:14) - Hey, kids! Wanna see Jackie Chan nailing his head again? Well, here you go.
  • International trailer (1:53) - More semi-classic 80's cheese. Who hired these voice over announcers?
  • Hong Kong Trailer (4:01) - Again, this is the sole HD extra and it's a nice (if totally biased) look at the production.

Note: this release is also available on DVD and contains the same extras.