The sheer ferocity of the airstream contorts his face into hilarious expressions. As our hero tries fearlessly to take on an opponent before a giant turbine, a gust hurls Condor through the air like Superman, before pinning him to a high wall like a bug on the windshield. A dazzling climax in which Chan struggles valiantly to stay upright in a giant wind tunnel within the Nazi bunker recalls the storm sequence in Keaton’s classic Steamboat Bill, Jr. There are moments of inspired slapstick here that even evoke memories of the silent era genius of Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. The gags can be a little hit and miss in Chan’s films, but they work here more often than not, managing to raise a smile. While none of the characters have much depth, his three co-stars work hard to at least make the comedy routines work. Much of the humour is engagingly silly too, with Condor in one scene feigning a scorpion sting to evade capture, twitching his limbs and shamelessly gurning. As you might expect given the stars reputation as a perfectionist, the martial arts on display is performed with all the grace and precision of a Busby Berkeley dance routine. This brilliantly executed set piece also manages to incorporate both a runaway pram and an incredible motorcycle leap from the harbour.Īs with many of Chan’s films, logic takes a back seat and dialogue is often perfunctory – seemingly prepared on the hoof, with far more emphasis given to the visual spectacle. Nowadays such a dangerous sequence would be achieved safely with green screen, but these were the days where scant regard was given to health and safety. There is a heart stopping moment when Chan flips across the rafters of a building as vehicles jump perilously close underneath. An early breakneck car chase through the streets of Barcelona, expertly staged by veteran stunt co-ordinator Remy Julienne, gets the adrenaline pumping.
This provides Chan with ample opportunity to showcase his extraordinary lightning-fast acrobatic skills, combined with plenty of comedic flourishes. This treasure appears to be the worst kept secret, as there is soon a pair of bungling Middle Eastern thieves persistently on their tail, not to mention a gang of mercenaries, all intent on getting their hands on the stash. A third female companion, Japanese street seller Momoko (Shôko Ikeda), joins them along the way – Chan clearly trying to make his film appeal to a wide international audience. Accompanying him on the mission is special agent Ada (Carol Cheng), together with a German woman named Elsa (played by Spanish actress Eva Cobo), who we learn has a connection to the gold. Operation Condor finds our intrepid adventurer hired to retrieve a huge cache of Nazi gold, cunningly stashed away in a military base below the Sahara, decades before at the end of World War II. I’m just thankful they avoided calling him Condorman, which might bring back unwanted memories of that truly dreadful Disney film starring Michael Crawford. Confusingly, in the sequel Hawk is known as “Condor”, or even referred to simply as Jackie. Anxious for a hit next time around, Chan decided to play safe and revisit a successful formula, bringing back his globe-trotting fortune hunter Asian Hawk from the original Armour of God (1986), a character very much in the style of Indiana Jones. The sweeping desert vistas seen later in the film certainly make this look very grand scale, compared to the star’s considerably cheaper early work filmed closer to home.Ĭhan’s previous film to this as director, the underrated 1930s set comedy drama Miracles (1989) – inspired by Frank Capra’s classic Lady for a Day – had performed poorly at the Asian box office. It is easy to see where the money was spent, by way of lavish sets, combined with extensive location work across Spain, Morocco and the Philippines. Filmed over a period of 9 months, it cost a whopping $HK 115 million to make which, at that time, was the most expensive Hong Kong production ever. More accustomed to working with relatively modest budgets, Hong Kong studio Golden Harvest decided to pull out all the stops for Jackie Chan’s Armour of God 2: Operation Condor (1991).
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