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Plot synopsis:
During a period of sluggish economy and high unemployment, four friends—Stone (James Brolin), Tony (Chick Vennera), Dan (Bruce Davison) and Rockney (Cleavon Little)—gather for a fishing trip. The weekend getaway is a cover: they are really planning to fly to Colombia to rob a drug lord. They meet with Clint (Ernest Borgnine), who supplies them with weapons and target practice. It becomes clear that with the exception of Stone, the men have no relevant training and are not taking the heist seriously.
The men are flown to a jungle. Their target is Serrano (James Coburn), a sadistic drug lord who lives in a large villa. The group observes Serrano, his staff and various visitors from a hidden vantage point. They discuss whether they would have the courage to actually kill someone, and what they will do with their share of the cash once they return home.
They infiltrate the villa, capture Serrano and his lover, and force Serrano to reveal the combination to his safe. They escape from the villa with five million dollars in cash. They travel on foot through the jungle, eventually finding horses to buy. Believing that they have been successful, the men camp for the night and celebrate. They are unaware that they are being observed by a rebel tracker.
When they wake the next day, Serrano’s men and the local military are approaching them in all-terrain vehicles and on horseback. They flee, but Tony and Rockney are captured by Serrano. Stone and Dan have to continue on foot and only escape their pursuers by leaping from very high rope bridge.
Serrano has Rockney beaten to force Tony to reveal the location of money. Knowing that Stone has his share of the cash and that they face better odds of escape in the open, Tony agrees to show them where the money is "hidden".
Serrano has them taken to a prison. They meet Olivia (Lindsay Wagner), the prisoner in the neighboring cell, who claims she was falsely arrested. Tony bribes a passing child to pull out the barred window of their cell with a tow truck. The child demands their clothes in payment also, and they are pursued virtually naked through the town. They lose their pursuers in a bordello. Dressed in women's clothes, Tony and Rockney make their way to a bus station and reunite with Olivia. They travel together to the rendezvous point.
Dan and Stone are captured by a local rebel leader, General Mariano (Anthony Quinn), who wants the stolen money for himself. They escape, then turn and track the rebels until nightfall. They are forced to kill several of the rebels before they retrieve the cash.
The rebels pursue them to the rendezvous point, where they expect to be airlifted to safety. Dan is wounded by Mariano’s tracker. In the ensuing firefight, Tony is shot trying to protect Stone.
Believing Tony is dead, the others continue to the airstrip without him. Serrano’s mercenaries have arrived ahead of them, and a three-way gun battle ensues. Serrano's men subdue the rebels. The retrieval plane arrives and provides covering fire, scattering Serrano’s men. The plane lands, the team boards hurriedly, and they make their escape. They are celebrating their success when the engine stalls.

Tags: absurd, revenge, cult, comedy, violence

Review:
If you are an action fan, and are able to overlook the usual, for Hong Kong movies, schizophrenic tone, which mixes excessive violence with slapstick comedy, it's practically impossible to be disappointed by "Meltdown": first-rate fight scenes, wildly over-the-top stunts, prime explosions and lots of shattered glass.
Jet Li moves with amazing speed and agility, Jacky Cheung is pretty funny, and Chingmy Yau is also around, which is always a plus.
The semi-protagonist of the film `Freddie' is a composite spoof of Chinese martial arts movie legends Bruce Li and Jackie Chan.
Freddie takes Chan's zaniness and silliness to extreme farcical levels, while wearing the yellow jumpsuit and uttering the kung fu sounds that Bruce Lee will always be remembered for.The Kung Fu in this movie is average at best.
The acting, the directing, the action, the plot all mix together into something you just got to love.Kit Li, a former commando soldier, who accidently killed his wife and a bunch of school children after cutting the wrong wire on a bomb, now works as a stand in for a shameless Kung-Fu superstar named Frankie Lone.
Its very funny at times, really.In the end they manage to take out the terrorists, of course, and Frankie Lone remembers who he really is and Kit Li gets a new girlfriend.
He is in the movie from time to time, but not enough to be called a main character.It starts out with Kit Li (Jet Li) as a army officer.
He cuts the wrong wire and the bus goes boom.We fast forward 2 years and now Kit Li acts as bodyguard for the Kung-Fu superstar Frankie Lone.
While Frankie Lone runs around the building, avoiding terrorists all the time (he is to cowardly to fight them), Kit Li rushes the building with a cop and an uzi, and mows down enough terrorists to fill a football field with (well, almost.
Its entertaining anyway).Excellent writing and goofy acting and directing (intentionally) makes up for a superb action movie.
Might not be Jet Li's best, but at least it doesn't use CGI like so many movies today.
The final fight scene between Frankie Lone and that long haired terrorist dude is really awesome (and funny).I give this movie a 9 out of 10 stars.
As you probably know, Wong Jing is an Hong Kong director, famous for mix various styles in his features, in this case we have a mix of Die Hard and a martial arts movie.The action scenes are cool, with martial arts fights and a mixture of violence, slapstick comedy and awesome stunt work, with the choreography of Corey Yuen (the main reason why i saw this film)!The cast is cool, Jet Li was awesome, Jacky Cheung was funny and awesome, his performance went beyond my expectations.The rhythm is fast paced, even in the scenes without action it's still entertaining, because the characters are worked and well structured.Better than expected, recommended to everybody !.
Most of the film was a shootouts and explosions which looked great, but when I'm watching Jet Li's film, I'm expecting to see a lot of well choreographed fighting scenes.
It's worth watching for action fans, but if you wanna see some really good Jet Li's fighting scenes, I suggest you to watch Fist of Legend instead of this one..
Jet Li is a police officer who is asked to fill in for a stunt-man, who is a Jackie Chan-persona, one fine day.
The next couple of days, the cop's supposed to be a bodyguard for the spoiled star who's to meet with his managers a couple of business partners in a huge rich, business building with a lot of people.All of a sudden, the party is crashed by some jewel thieves who have been wanted for various terrorist acts in Hong Kong, including one where a bus armed w/ explosives & had a ton of hostages on it was blown to pieces.
Good Hong Kong Action Movie Remastered Badly For American Market.
Wong Jing, the director of High Risk, made an over the top action movie that borrowed heavily from Die Hard.
Jet Li is good in this movie, and Jackie Cheung is even better, as a Jackie Chan type actor who is supposed to do all his stunts, but never does.
After failing to save his wife from the Doctor, Kit Li is working as a bodyguard and secret stunt double for the cowardly martial arts film star Frankie Lane.
Frankie attends an exhibition of the crown jewels of Russia at a Hong Kong hotel, and when the Doctor's gang take over the building in attempt to steal them, Kit is the only thing standing in their way.The film is a parody of some of Hollywood's most influential action films, such as "Die Hard" and "Speed".
The movie might have been Hong Kong's version of "Rush Hour" if Jackie Chan was playing the role of Frankie.
Him, Frankie, (Jackie Cheung) and others battle the gangs to save the day.Jet Li was still unknown in the west at the time, but he puts in a great performance.
While this movie is a number of things--a standalone Hong Kong cops and robbers flick, a parody of or comment upon or theft from the "Die Hard" moves" it is also, more than anything else, director Wong Jing's vehicle to run over Jackie Chan.
Based on what we know of the work habits of both, they probably both had good reason to dislike the other.Wong Jing is very powerful in Hong Kong movies.
I enjoyed it thoroughly back then, and having seen countless snnipets on re-runs and re-re-runs on tv, and just watching it in its entirety again most recently, I still find it satisfyingly entertaining.Compared to the other run on the mill Hong Kong action/ comedy movies, this ranks as one of those with a much larger budget, hence higher production values.
However I must say, action aside, the most impressive thing about this movie is still the writing, thanks to the very talented and much maligned Wong Jing.
I always considered Wong Jing a wizard of Hong Kong cinema, contributing to almost all of Stephen Chow's earlier works, and still having more spells to unleash from his bag.The postmodern take on Jacky Cheung doing a Bruce Lee 'Game of Death' yellow outfit, and of course even Jackie Chan's 'I always do my own stunts' is not only refreshingly funny, but also a biting satirical commentary.
Top that with very good performances from Cheung himself, and his supporting cast which includes Wu Ma parodying 'Jackie Chan's father' and Charlie Cho as Jackie's manager, and the always beautiful Chingmy Yau and Valerie CHow upping the good/ bad babe factor plus the high doses of slapstick, suspense and mind-blowing action...it doesn't get any more and any better~'High Risks' (it's original English title) is a Jet Lee vehicle...as well as Jacky Cheung's.
This movie, despite its rich cast of HK martial arts stars, has more Die Hard-style action in it than anything else.
If you're planning on seeing this movie hoping for a Jet Li kung-fu flick, you will be disappointed.However, the film has no end of action.
There's the usual dash of HK-humor in there, highlighted by Jackie Cheung looking and acting like Bruce Lee.
His one real fight scene manages to steal the show; it's a lot like a "best of" compilation of Lee's fight scenes.The movie doesn't break any ground in the action genre, the martial arts is sparse and for the most part so-so, and the ending is anti-climactic.
The best description of High Risk would be a homage to Die Hard and a parody of Jackie Chan.
Frankie is a cowardly, boozing, womanizer who has forgotten how he achieved his stardom.Various elements play like Die Hard scenes including the characters and dialog.
The video quality is average, audio Dolby Digital 2.0/Pro-Logic.Any fan of Jet Li, Hong Kong films or action in general will enjoy this a lot.
High Risk AKA Meltdown is Jing's blatant clone of Die Hard, a movie full of explosions, gunfire, death and destruction, with some dumb slapstick comedy for good measure, but totally devoid of originality, completely lacking in artistic merit, and a tragic waste of star Jet Li's incredible fighting abilities.Li plays Kit, a fearless bomb disposal expert who quits the business after his wife is blown to smithereens by a terrorist organisation led by the evil Dr. David Wang (Kelvin Wong, who, thanks to the atrocious dubbing, is more Tim Curry than Alan Rickman).
Two years later, Kit is working as bodyguard and secret stunt double for drunken, womanising martial arts movie star Frankie Lone (Jacky Cheung, mercilessly lampooning Jackie Chan) when The Doctor and his henchmen take over the new hotel where Frankie is attending an exhibition of priceless jewels.While the terrorists try to break the security code for the exhibits, Kit, aided by police detective Chow Kam (Chung-Hsien Yang), tries to rescue the hostages, whose numbers include sexy news reporter Helen (the lovely Chingmy Yau), Chow Kam's feisty girlfriend Joyce (Charlie Yeung), and Frankie's father (Ma Wu)—as well as the cowardly kung fu star himself, who spends most of the film hiding from the villains.While Meltdown certainly delivers its fair share of chaotic action, including a car and a helicopter crashing into the hotel to cause untold damage, endless shootouts and numerous explosions, the whole thing soon becoming tiresome thanks to the total absence of originality and the excruciatingly bad comedy.
Fans of Jet Li will also be disappointed by the lack of martial arts action from the star, the film's only notable fight scene occurring between Frankie and Wang's head henchman Kong, played by Billy Chow, who sports the mother of all mullets!4.5 out of 10, generously rounded up to 5 for the excessive violence (there are countless squibs, a guy has his hand cut off by a machete, Dr. Wang's sexy squeeze Fai Fai gets her head shot off, and one extra is cut in half by the helicopter's rotor blade)..
He becomes employed  as a bodyguard to a Jackie Chan type Action Movie Star who is a drunken, lazy bum.
I have seen better Jet Li movies..
First and foremost is Wong Jing's decision to use the film to strike out at Jackie Chan.
Which is unfortunate - when you have a stunt crew like this, action choreography as good as this, not to mention Jet Li at the top of his form, so much could have been done, yet it is here left unaccomplished.Oh, well.
After witnessing the murder of his wife and daughter at the hands of a mysterious terrorist known as "the Doctor" (Kelvin Wong), a military officer named "Kit Li" (Jet Li) resigns and becomes a bodyguard/stunt man for a martial arts actor by the name of "Frankie Lone" (Jacky Cheong).
Review: I really found it hard to get into this oriental Die Hard/Blown Away type movie, because the acting was pretty bad, along with the shoddy storyline.
The baddie was trying to hard to be like Alan Rickman in the first Die Hard movie and Jet Li, who plays an actors bodyguard, looked uncomfortable in this American style movie.
There are some scenes that are a blatantly the same as Die Hard but you have to really know the film to notice them.
Jet Li is Kit Li, a man who after his wife is killed by a terrorist with the moniker of 'The Doctor', finds himself working for Frankie Lone, the drunk action star who doesn't do his own stunts (Jacky Cheung lampooning Jackie Chan).
Like a Chinese Die Hard, this film lacks the spirit that made the Bruce Willis action extravaganza such a classic.
The humor falls flat, and granted some of the action stunts and martial arts work, there's not enough of the latter, and only a few nice set pieces of the former (the helicopter scene is the only one that sticks out in my mind).
This was the worst piece of eastern garbage I have ever seen.I was hoping for a decent action flick, at least, when I bought the DVD for my wife, who is into martial arts.I WAS SO WRONG!It is a rip-off of "Die Hard" Movies, spiced with some Jackie Chan Seasoning - and jazzed up with some "Speed"It's a simple waste of time and patience.
I am not a huge fan of Jet Li, but I do enjoy to watch some his martial art fights.
If they had just concentrated on the Jet li character,who plays his part as if in a straight action movie,and forgot about trying to make a comedy at the same time(!!!!!)maybe this would have been a good action flick.Just imagine Die Hard with some characters in it behaving like they are in Police Academy.Thats about it.BAD..
Story line was an aye ok plot, acting was also decent; but that's ok, because the fighting took the prize home!Basically the movie is about Jet Li playing a bodyguard/stunt for a famous actor after losing his wife along with some school kids on a terrorist attack.The set of the movie is much similar to the Die Hard movie except for the John Woo style of gun fights and the mediocre use of wires in fighting scene (excellent, not too much and not too little use of it)However, what dissappoints me for the very first time is the last fighting scene....very surprising....that's all i'm going to say about it, just let you guys watch it and see for yourselfAnother dissappoint (as usual) is the poor....VERY POOR perfromance once again by Jet Li during the romantic scenes...he really need to work on it!Other than that, the movie is a really nice change, this is a must see if you ACTUALLY enjoyed Hitman which lack in many things ranging from fighting to characteristics.i gave this movie an 8/10 (could've been better if the dissappointsments mentioned above could've been mastered a bit).
this would have been a good film if it was played seriously...Jet gives a good serious performance but its completely let down by the stupid comedy that is so badly unfunny outside of Hong Kong!
The fight scenes are simply fantastic!, and i really liked all of the characters!, plus This has got to be one of Jet's best acting performances in my opinion!.
It's got some very funny but really bizarre humor, and, the opening is very memorable and quite disturbing!, plus i cheered out loud when Jacky Cheung's character Frankie Lone's character stopped being a wuss and took action!.
The character development is actually really good, and i thought Valerie Chow(Fai-Fai),Billy Chow(Kong),Ben Lam(Rabbit),Kelvin Wong(Doctor), were all very menacing as the main villains!, plus the finale was fantastic and very exciting!.
The ending is great, and it has some of the coolest action scenes ever!, plus i thought Jet played one of his coolest characters!.
Jet Li is amazing as always and is amazing here, he is extremely likable, fantastic in the acting department, gives one of his best performances, had a really haunted character, had great chemistry with all of the cast, kicked that ass, is very charismatic, and played one of his coolest characters!
Billy Chow is as always one intense dude, and played his role very well, he had an awesome fight scene with Jacky Cheung!.
-The loss of Jet Lis family at the beginning of the movie is just not of any interest for the character at any point of the film.
Cool ideas, again an awesome performance (this time not by Jet Li) shot in a brilliant way.I gave 6 of 10 because I LOVE action movies and I LOVE martial arts, stunts, explosions, flying bullets and dying people.
Die Hard in Hong Kong....
"Meltdown", or "Total Risk" is pretty much a Die Hard clone with a sprinkle "Speed", and Bruce Lee/Jackie Chan-parody mixed in.That may sound like a trashy combination of famous stuff, and like a cheap B-movie, but it's surprisingly entertaining to watch and most of all, very good.The Speed-references are obvious: At the start of the film is a bomb on a bus and at the end then damsel-in-distress get's one on her chest that the hero has to stop.
The rest of the movie is basically the story of Die Hard starring Jet Li, with a comedy-driven subplot about a martial arts actor who 's a women loving alcoholic and acts like he would do all of his stunts on it's own, even though he's a coward.And this mix of genres and ideas it what makes this movie a bit more than just one of hundred Die Hard-clones, it makes it a fun movie with exceptionally great action sequences, which are brilliantly choreographed, filmed and edited, and characters you care about, even when they get pretty goofy at times, but that's the Asian style i expected anyway....
This movie looks like a typical block buster action movie but plays out much better.The plot is simple and themes are really non-existent.
In a lot of cases, themes, and even plots, are something that don't play out in Hong Kong Movies (as this is what this movie is).
I am not saying that Hong Kong movies are full of pointless violence; by no means, it is just some movies concentrate more on the action than on anything else.
The movie plays out for a while before the thieves take the hotel, but once they do, the action is almost non-stop.
The fight scenes are especially great and the action couldn't be more fantastic.
There is lots of humor in the movie, especially with Jacky Cheung's character Frankie who goes from zero to hero as he struggles to become the action hero he once was.
Jacky Cheung does a great impression of Chan, but it turns out he's a coward with Li his secret stuntman.The second half of the film turns into a straight-up copy of DIE HARD with many similar situations and characters.
The cast is very good and the humour mixes ably with the action, something that Hong Kong always pulls off very well.