After coming to America and making the horrid The Protector, Chan came back to Hong Kong with the idea to make more modern martial arts/action movies than what he had been doing. Police Story would become a huge success and the prototype for Chan's films for nearly a decade afterwards. Not only that, many of the movie's high-powered action sequences (most notably the "mall brawl" at the end) would be used or outright copied in many other films, both in the US and HK. Even though it is almost 15 years old, Police Story still holds up very well today. It starts out with a sequence where a whole hillside village is literally demolished and then goes into one of the most exciting chase sequences ever filmed, where Chan gets onto a moving bus using only the handle of an umbrella. Besides a couple of slow bits in the middle (mostly dealing with the romantic subplots), the movie rarely slows down long enough for the viewer to catch their breath. One of Chan's all-time best (and his personal favorite movie), Police Story should not be missed by any action fan. Be aware that many US video copies have very shoddy quality; the best one (at least in terms of picture/sound quality) is the remastered Dimension version.

As a side note, this was also one of the first Jackie Chan films to feature a "blooper reel" at the end -- an element which Chan got from The Cannonball Run.

But to be honest, I can see where they're coming from. If you get the right Jackie Chan movie, like "Drunken Master 2" or "Supercop", it's a wonderful way to spend a couple of hours. Jackie is like a human slinky, getting in and out of predicaments without breaking a sweat, taking on dozens of opponents with no more that his fancy footwork and a few handy props. But if you get the wrong Jackie Chan movie, even diehard fans will be wincing before it's halfway over. "Police Force" is somewhere between the two extremes. It contains some of Jackie's most insane stunts and martial artistry. But it also contains plenty of cheese and schlock.

Jackie plays a police officer named Kevin Chan. Assigned to capture a drug dealer named Ku, he starts the movie off with a bang - a downhill carchase through a housing development. In the process, he captures Ku's secretary, Selena (Brigitte Lin). The twist comes when he is assigned to protect Selena before she is called to witness in Ku's trial. Of course, Ku can't have that so he sends his thugs to dispatch Lin. On top of that, Kevin must deal with his girlfriend, May (Maggie Cheung), who is not to pleased at the idea of Kevin watching over Selena. Of course, Jackie hams it up for the camera, getting into embarrassing situations and generally making a fool of himself in the process.

However, the movie's final third takes a darker twist when Kevin is accused of killing a fellow officer. Wanted by both the police and Ku's men, the movie escalates until the final confrontation in a shopping mall. Now, let me just say this: if you're watching "Police Story" and start to get a little frustrated, just be patient because you shall be rewarded. The fight in the shopping mall gets extremely vicious. Jackie's comedic persona disappears and it becomes an all-out brawl, complete with Jackie's trademark stuntwork.

There are several scenes that just make me wince. Watching Jackie fall over balcony, crash through a wooden lattice, and hit the concrete floor (I even think he bounces) is painful to watch. But to watch him get up and shrug it off... I tip my hat to the man. This is Jackie at his finest, doing things that ordinary people like you and me would never dream of doing. Just be patient, my friend. "Police Force" can be painful to watch at times, especially if you're not used to Jackie's humor. But just be patient, because Jackie makes it all worthwhile in the end. And noone, not even his biggest detractors, can contest that.

Jackie plays police officer Chan Ka Kui, a member of a special operations unit targetting a major crime boss. The boss is caught red handed in the film's explosive intro and Ka Kui is then given the job of protecting the key witness played by Brigitte Lin. However Ka Kui finds himself on the wrong side of the law when he is framed for the murder of a fellow police officer.

Although not quite as action packed as is often perceived (the middle section of the film does seem to lose focus with some scenes, such as the courtroom scene, going on far too long) the film does feature some of the most outrageous stunt and fight scenes of Jackie's career. The opening sequence features probably the biggest stunt of the movie as a car chase results in the total destruction of a shanty town. Apparently this scene cost 500,000 $HK and, unsurprisingly, resulted in several injuries for some of the stuntmen. This opening also includes the famous stunt scene where Jackie clings to the side of a speeding bus.

The action in the middle section of the movie is quite sparse with long sections of dialogue between the set action pieces. However there is a standout scene where Jackie and Brigitte Lin are attacked after their car is stopped. Their car, and that of their attackers, then become the main props for the fight as people are thrown through windscreens and fight on top of the cars themselves. Its a fantastic piece.

The film culminates in the awesome shopping mall fight which sees Jackie fight off the villain's henchmen while running up and down escalators and using clothes racks as weapons. There are an incredible amount of stunts crammed into this last ten minutes, all of which look extremely painful for the stuntmen. The fight choreography here is also top notch but its also probably one of the finest examples of Jackie's skill at editing action. In my opinion Jackie has only managed to better the fights in this movie once with 'Drunken Master II'...