With a budget of around 35millions dollars, this movie had roughly half the budget of a Jackie Chan Hollywood movie. You've got to bear that in mind when you see this film. It doesn't have the finesse or production values of a 'Shanghai Noon' or 'Rush Hour', but is perhaps superior (in it's look, anyway) to your run of the mill HK movie. This is supposed to be Hong Kong movie and some of the frenetic style of a HK action film can still be seen, despite considerable changes made by Sony. In particular the cargo ship shoot-out and the Dublin foot chase are pacey and have some pretty good stunts in them, and there are some humorous moments in the hospital when Lee Evans starts to realize there is something very strange about his recently deceased partner. The decision to go VFX-crazy for this movie was an experiment for Jackie that, I guess, won't be repeated.
Reviews
2 Reviews
Stay Hungry
(1976)
A property buyer's plan to purchase and demolish a gym leads to a life-changing experience.
7 August 1998
I stumbled across this movie on the UK's little-watched TV network Channel 5. Initially intrigued by the idea of seeing Arnold Schwarzenegger's screen debut, I was quickly engrossed in this excellent and almost unknown film and the way in which the disparate characters inter-relate over the course of the story. The film manages to appear beguilingly simple and yet it deals with such issues as class, aspiration, loyalty, identity and love.
The way in which all the characters slowly but surely reveal their flaws and weaknesses is quite brilliant. Stand-out scenes include Arnie's bodybuilder character playing the fiddle (yes, the fiddle!) with a bunch of hillbillies out in the woods, Jeff Bridges' drunken jig, and the sight of about a hundred pumped-up bodybuilders running almost naked through rush hour traffic, which for me is one of the classic and most unexpected comic moments in cinema.
I may think more of this film because I 'discovered' it almost by chance, but I will always see it as an underrated classic and I urge everyone to seek it out.
The way in which all the characters slowly but surely reveal their flaws and weaknesses is quite brilliant. Stand-out scenes include Arnie's bodybuilder character playing the fiddle (yes, the fiddle!) with a bunch of hillbillies out in the woods, Jeff Bridges' drunken jig, and the sight of about a hundred pumped-up bodybuilders running almost naked through rush hour traffic, which for me is one of the classic and most unexpected comic moments in cinema.
I may think more of this film because I 'discovered' it almost by chance, but I will always see it as an underrated classic and I urge everyone to seek it out.
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