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). The problem is, that while Frankie was a decent martial arts expert at one time, his skills have atrophied to the point that he is hardly able to defend himself—much less anybody else. So when he and a number of other rich and influential people are held hostage by "the Doctor" it falls upon Kit Li to essentially save everyone. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that I thought that this was a really bad film due in large part to the bad acting, poor quality stunts and less-than-humorous comedy. Likewise, the fact that the director (Wong Jing) had an ulterior motive to discredit Jackie Chan didn't endear me to it either. In short, I found this film to be insipid and without cinematic merit and I have rated it accordingly. Below average.

After I've seen this movie, I think some things have to be said. Lets start with the bad things: -Franks character is horrible. I mean horrible. Every word he says is annoying, every time he is on the screen you want to rip out your eyes and feed them to your eyeless cat. This character was worse than Jar Jar Binks. And I hate Jar Jar Binks. Hearing the jokes of this character really made my brain bleed. I wanted him to die from the first minute. And this joke of a character was meant to be a reference to Jacky Chan?!?! Treating this legend who has done so much for the action-movies with that little amount of respect is frustrating and made me angry. I am still angry about this. What the hell? -The dialogs are awful. Not just bad. They are the worst crap you have ever heard. For real. -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. That is ... weird? -Almost all fight scenes were speeded up. It makes the action look bad sometimes, which is a pain in the ass, because the choreography was done very well and the performance is great! Sad decision though ... Now the good things: -Some kills just look amazing. Very nice gore-effects were used. -The stunts are g-r-e-a-t! -Maybe the best woman-kill-scene I've ever seen. -DEFINITIVELY the best helicopter-scene that was ever shot by any human being. Damned, why they don't do stuff like that anymore? -One of the most enjoyable fights in the movie was the last fight by the character Frank (who I still hate). It was absolutely not fitting to the role he was picturing, but done amazingly! 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. Why not more? Because of Frank. THIS CHARACTER WILL HUNT ME IN MY NIGHTMARES! It seems like I'm overreacting but I am for real when I say that my ears puked into my skull. I wanted him to die so badly, I still do ...

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). When they find themselves at the mercy of the Doctor and his goons once again, this time after priceless diamonds, it's up to everyone to do their part to foil the terrorists evil plans. 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). The version I watched is missing some footage, I hear, but I doubt it would have made the film better really. As it is you get a simply passable film, with a hopelessly derivative storyline.My Grade: C- DVD Extras: Talent files; Photo gallery with Jet Li trivia; Theatrical trailer; and Trailers for "Once Upon a Time in China" 1-3, "Red Dragon", "Gorgeous", & "the Prisoner"

I've seen this movie many times and I can't understand for the life of me why people keep giving it bad reviews. Okay, yes it's probably not an academy award winning movie but so what? People watch it for the action, not because of performance. High Risk (renamed Meltdown in the U.S.) is a great action flick in which martial arts legend Jet Li and popular Asian recording artist Jacky Cheung kick the action meter into the red zone!Jet Li portrays Lieutenant Kit Li, a military officer who is trained by the Army and skilled in various types of combat, demolitions, weapons and tactics as well. Kit lost his wife, his colleague and a school bus full of children to an evil terrorist's bomb, who called himself the Doctor. Since then, Kit has become a stunt double and bodyguard to Asian Superstar Frankie Lone. However, Frankie isn't exactly a star like he used to be. He likes to party hard and chase after women and drink so much that he's lost his ability to fight and do his own stunts. During a stunt in which Kit is caught on tape doing Frankie's stunt for him, Helen, an investigative reporter (played by the lovable Chingmy Yau) wants to get some more dirt on Frankie and so she and her producer decide to go to an expo which is holding some magnificent jewels that once belonged to a deadly Russian czar. Unfortunately, the Doctor and his team of mercenaries also have their eyes on the jewels and they go to the Hotel where the jewels are kept at, kill off the security team and hotel staff and lay siege to the Hotel. Among his team of mercenaries are Kong (played by champion kickboxer Billy Chow), Fai Fai (played by the lovely model Valerie Chow) and Rabbit (played by stuntman and bootmaster Ben Lam). Kit soon learns that the Doctor and his team are planning a robbery and races back with Detective Chow Kam to investigate,and upon getting there, the Doctor's mercenaries try to ex the both of them out, but they manage to waste the first wave of assault by the Doctor's forces. Anyway, the situation goes from bad to worse as Kit soon learns the Doctor's identity and so after more gunfire and kung fu, Kit, Frankie, Mr. Lone (Frankie's dad), and Helen manage to escape the concession room with their heads intact. Helen just happened to be filming the whole situation and now the Doctor wants the tape she has retrieved and Helen eliminated. During the time in the movie, Helen develops an attraction to Kit (at the beginning of the movie, they have kind of a bad start with each other). Later on, the Doctor's team has taken hostages and is threatening to kill people if their demands aren't met. Among these hostages is Detective Chow Kam and his uptight ex-girlfriend Joyce (played by Charlie Yeung). Even worse, Frankie is taken hostage and his being harassed by Kong, who wants a showdown with Frankie to see who is the better martial artist. As time ticks away, Kit and Frankie must both get past their inner demons and summon their inner strength to overwhelm the odds stacked against them as the terrorists get even more brutal.I loved this movie and I thought it was off the hook. I haven't seen the subtitled version yet, but the English dubbed is pretty cool. The only drawback to the English dubbed is Kit's voice dubbing. His sentences are usually cut up when he speaks and he sounds like William Shatner almost. 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. Even more funny is how he comes on to Valerie Chow's character Fai Fai, without even knowing she's one of the terrorists. Many complaints that this movie got was the underground rap music that was used in the movie. I didn't see anything wrong with that. It's cool to have rap music in a kung fu movie I think. What better way to enjoy a fight scene than to here someone freestyling while two combatants lock horns in a deadly game of fatal combat. Overall, this movie deserves a 9.5 for creativity, adrenaline pumping action and great music and humour. Watch it late night or on the weekend when you have nothing better to do sometimes though. It'll make it a lot more interesting.