Director Kirk Wong, known for such classics as "The Club", "Organized Crime And Triad Bureau", and others, was at the helm for this rather dark and edgy crime drama based on the real life kidnapping of HK businessman Teddy Wang. And due to the serious source material, Jackie's trademark physical comedy and general sunny disposition is nowhere to be found here. And the film is all the better for it.

I like that it is played very straight, giving Jackie ample opportunity to show that he is a much better actor than his usual mugging and goofing around would have us believe. He has of course done more serious roles before and after this one, but I think that this is his finest performance in terms of dramatic acting.

It is really nice to see him as more of a thinking man, doing some actual police work instead of just stumbling into the bad guys at random. Of course Jackie can't help being Jackie, and there are traces of his usual style in some of the fight and action scenes. But not to the point where it feels out of place.

The other great performance of the film is that of Kent Cheng. He manages to find humanity, desperation, and a certain sadness in what could have been a garden variety bad guy. I really sympathize with this guy, to a point, and think that his character brings the movie up quite a few notches. Plus, the interplay between him and Jackie is really good, especially in the scenes where there is no dialogue, just looks of suspicion and contempt.

Just because this is a "serious" movie doesn't mean that it is void of action. There is plenty: all high caliber stuff that puts Jackie and his stunt team through the wringer, again and again. The intense car chase, the Taiwan raid, the underwater escape, and nothing less than the total destruction of the Kowloon walled city for the big finale.

A different but excellent effort from the Chanster. Highly recommended to those that slept on this classic.

"Crime Story" was also Chan's first film based on a true story and one of his first major dramatic roles. The action was also pretty good as Chan took more of a streetfighting approach and showed no sign of his normal lighthearted sense of humor which is probably why some fans do not like this film. There was a lot of intensity in the fighting and Chan and his stunt team took many nasty falls. The explosions and fires were also well done as the old Kowloon walled city was burned and leveled.

The acting throughout the film was very good as Jackie Chan more than proved he can pull off this type of role. Kent Chang was great as always as police inspector/kidnapper Hung. It was also amazing how actor Law Kar Ying and actress Au-Yeung Pooi San looked like the real Teddy and Nina Wang.

I think this is a good film that allowed Jackie Chan to take on a new and challenging role that could be used as an example to critics who think Chan cannot act or take dramatic roles as he progresses in age.

The trailer promised action--more action than I could shake a chopstick at. This film didn't have any though. It was a long, boring police drama based on a true story (supposedly) of a high profile kidnapping in which Chan plays a relentless cop. It's dialog heavy and the acting is terrible.

On one hand, as a Jackie Chan film, it's easily among his worst, and I can't understand why people like it so much. I've come to expect over-the-top action, stunts and fighting with amazing set pieces from his films. This was a bit of a departure from his other films at the time as he played a darker and more serious realistic character. That doesn't mean it's good. He's played a darker character in other films where it totally works. Here it's just a waste of talent.

As a police drama, it fails as well because the story is cliched and dull. It's also mostly a failure as an action film--until the end, that is, where it earns that extra half a star.

I recommend watching this like a porn: just fast forward through all the talking and watch the action. Basically, skip the first 4/5ths of this movie until you get to the end--and even then, it's barely worth your time. The action and set-pieces scattered throughout were weak for the most part and nothing you haven't seen. It's not until the very end that we finally get to see some classic JC--it's pretty clear which scenes he directed.

Even when things were exploding everywhere and the story had reached its ultimate climax, I was catching myself drifting off and just thinking about how Jackie Chan's hair kept changing length throughout the film, as though they had to do a bunch of reshoots or else they shot it out of sequence. That's probably why it felt so uneven.

Ultimately I'd say skip it, but most people out there seem to think this is some quality genius work. I'm a Jackie Chan enthusiast, but his comedic energy isn't what was missing here--what was missing was a good movie. There's literally nothing worth seeing that they don't show in the trailer. I'd suggest picking up "New Police Story" for a better example of a darker side of Chan, or "Thunderbolt" for some of the most fantastic stunts in a Chan film ever (just try to ignore the actual car racing scenes) instead.

Crime Story however is, in my opinion, Jackie's finest performance to date where he plays a cop of flesh and blood who must fight his own inner demons and even needs to see a shrink after he encounters a heavy shoot-out and kills most of the gangsters. When a wealthy businessman is kidnapped, Chan is assigned to the case in order to hunt down the criminals and rescue the businessman. Chan is aided by Inspector Hung (Kent Cheng), who seems to work against him in every moment. When Chan finally discovers Hung's real motive behind the case it's almost too late for him and for the kidnapped businessman.

Crime Story took three years to complete and is based on a real life kidnapping case that took place in HongKong in 1990.

The producers where trying to be as true as possible to the story altough the policework had to be shown in a simplyfied way as it is highly confidential.

Not less than 5!! Scriptwriters where responsible for the screenplay but not as one would expect, it didn't harm the outcome of the movie although some scenens seemed to be a little far fetched like in the finale where the kidnappers throwing their hostage overboard, tied to a anchor, to prevent being arrested and in the next scene the businessman is standing on the HongKong - Chinese border. In the condition he was before it could simply not be possible for the police to find him on time!

But it's possible that some scenes where cut out in the final print, even some scenes that could have helped answer questions like this one. Actually Kirk Wong's first version of Crime Story was also much darker and more violent than the one released.

When he planned doing this movie Kirk Wong had Tony Leung Chiu Wai in mind playing the lead role but for some reasons it didn't work out. He should be replaced by Jet Li but after Jet's agent, Jim Choi, was killed by some triad-killers, who wanted Jet to play a role in one of their own movie productions, whitch Jim Choi didn't agree to, he had to leave HongKong for a while and so Jackie Chan came to that part.

For Jackie the script was way to dark and violent and after a serious dispute with Kirk Wong, who left the production halfway trough, Jackie finished the movie himself. It seems to be quite a common problem that Jackie has with most of the Directors he works with;City Hunter, Accidental Spy, Drunken Master 2 to name just a few.

Still, Crime Story came out to be Jackie's most violent but also most realistic and serious film to date that no Jackie Chan Fan should miss.

Crime Story also features some truly amazing stuntwork and action sequences that are more based on streetfighting rather than kung fu moves. The most outstanding scenes are the superb car chase during the kidnapping, Jackie's awesome stunt in an abandoned ship and the explosive finale in the Walled City.

On the actors side there are Kent Cheng, who also gives an intense performance as the ruthless Inspector Hung Ting Bong, Law Kar Ying as the kidnapped businessman Wong Yat Fei, Christine Ng as Kent Cheng's mistress KaKa and also a guest appearance by Blackie Ko. The role of the psychologist plays Singapore actress Pan Ling Ling but her role is reduced to a minimum in the HongKong version. The Singapore print features some more scenes with her and Jackie. These scenes can be seen on the Fortune Star DVD. Crime Story exists in around three different versions;the Singapore version that includes the above mentioned scenes and a Thailand version that features some scenes from the unreleased Director's Cut but this version is censored in some other scenes, and of course the HongKong Cut that got a worldwide release.