After viewing this film, I'd say, or at least I'd hope, the Jackie Chan - Benny Chan action movie baton has been officially passed -- not to Jaycee, sweet as he is, but to Nic Tse. INVISIBLE TARGET sort of follows through with the promise of NEW POLICE STORY. The other male leads are also quite good, with Shawn Yue deservedly getting equal billing.

Not that Jackie is passing a baton to anyone -- you'll have to pry that from his cold, dead fingers -- but this sort of film has more replayability than, say, ROB-B-HOOD.

Couldn't find the thread but it was mentioned here that some fire/explosions looked fake in the trailer -- the news from seeing the film is a bit mixed: all the explosions and fire were clearly real, but also clearly augmented by CGI: shattered glass and bits of stuff flying everywhere. Probably some additional CGI fire to round it out, too. This made for a kind of funny explosion near the end, in which the CGI-explosion stuff cleared away, and we're left clearly seeing a couple small flaming balls of debris dangling clumsily on wires. That aside, though, they generally manage a good mix of old-tech wire-work (if sometimes overdone) and new tech CGI.

Thanks for the heads-up on this flick,Peter---it's nice to see that old school kung fu action is making a comeback! Plus, Nicholas Tse looks twice as hot with a mustache! Here's a YouTube clip featuring a fight bwt the 3 leads for anyone who hasn't seen it yet--this Wu Jing is certainly making one hell of an impression in HK action films now--he seems to have been making his presence known in a couple of films I can't wait to get:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sKd52s3-cI

Also found some old clips of some old kung fu action T.V. shows with a young Andy Lau kicking up a storm with some other old favorites I had a lot of fun watching.

I agree with Peter on all counts. I also want to add that wire fu and stunt teams did a great job. I liked the story too.

Also liked Wu Jing in this film. I couldn't see what the big deal was in SPL - Donnie really covered him up-. Here he has a good role and many chances to show his martial artistry. Not really a good actor though.

Same thing for Jaycee, he has screen presence and a good natured aura which makes the viewer sympathise with this guy. But I don't see any acting or good action.

Shawn is really good in action for a non martial artist actor. But sometimes he overacts. The other times he is very good. Too bad that he doesn't have that "special something" that makes idols out of men.

Nic delivers on all fronts. First and foremost he is a naturally talented dramatic actor but he is not bad at action and comedy either (not that there is much comedy in this one). He really is the star of this film but as usual he doesn't scene steal, gives room to other actors and acts in harmony. I love this guy.

This film is certainly a good purchase.

I agree about Mr. Tse being a good actor---which is why I always came to like seeing him in just about anything. Anyway, this isn't INVISIBLE TARGET related, but I just had to show this clip of a rare 1984 Thai film titled GERD MA LUI, according to the review of it on YouTube, stars Panna Rittikrai (Tony's Jaa's fight choreographer). It's a pretty exciting low-budget kung-fu actionfest with some pretty amazing stunts--I don't know any Thai kung-fu films from the 80's, so this was one heck of a discovery:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifhj7urpEwI

Hi Peter, do you mean this?
http://z8.invisionfree.com/MHVF/index.php?showtopic=8267

Hmmm, Kim, am not sure that I'd describe INVISIBLE TARGET's action as "old school kung fu". All in all, think that style is dead and buried...

Yeah, have to say that he really rocked in this movie. Hope he has a future in Hong Kong movies -- unlike other Mainland Chinese martial arts hopes like Zhou Wen Zhou and Yu Rongguang before him.

I've seen Jaycee Chan in three movies in the past three months (if that). For acting prowess, your best bet would be what might well be the least heralded of the trio -- Kenneth Bi's THE DRUMMER (which will be released in Hong Kong theatres on October 11).