So it’s been a wild few months for Jackie Chan releases between Shout Factory’s Jackie Chan Collection Volume 2 (1983-1993) and 88 Films Police Story III Supercop 4K UHD release. Between the two sets I am in an ecstatic place as far as our favorite Hong Kong funnyman goes. It has been more than a few years since I have binged on classic Jackie Chan films, so I was more than happy to hit upon many of the actor’s classics and between films like Armour of God 1-2 and Supercop I was treated to a huge buffet of them.

Like many 90’s kids I was introduced to Jackie Chan through his American breakthrough film Rumble in the Bronx in 1995. I can’t entirely remember my first viewing of the film, but I believe it was the “palette cleanser” (we didn’t actually call it that) after an all night horror movie marathon.

I’m going to start this review block off with the Shout Factory collection. These cover Jackie’s career in the years 1983-1993. Supercop is a 1992 film which fits within these years is a separate release, and I’ll double back to it.

The Shout Collection opens with a two-fer of Winners and Sinners and Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Stars. These are parts 1 and 3 of the Lucky Stars trilogy, unfortunately, they could not get My Lucky Stars for this collection, but I digress. Winners and Sinners involves a group of criminals led by Sammo Hung who meet in prison and decide to work together in prison on a criminal enterprise that involves starting a cleaning crew as a front for burglary. Jackie Chan plays a cop who bumps into the crew here and there, and isn’t really the focus of this one. Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Stars is another one that features a Jackie cameo rather than a full starring situation. This features the gang from the prior film in a less-criminal situation where they have to prevent the assassination of a popular actress. Both of these blend elements of drama and slapstick comedy, and do it reasonably well.

Wheels on Meals brings together Jackie, Sammo, and Yuen Biao together in an action comedy where a pair of friends played by Jackie and Yuen start a food truck in a plaza in Barcelona end up running afoul of a motorcycle gang who terrorize the tourist in the area. Sammo plays a PI that gets involved with the 2 to solve the issue, and also track down a missing woman. This one has some great action and a concluding epic fight scene.

Following on from this is The Protector from 1985. The Protector is one of the early attempts to break Jackie Chan in American following the Big Brawl and Cannonball Run. This one is directed by violent sleaze maestro James Glickenhaus who did the classic The Exterminator. The film stars Jackie as a New York detective whose partner is killed. While working a fashion show with his new partner (Danny Aiello from Do the Right Thing), there is a kidnapping that causes Aiello and Chan to fly to Hong Kong to sort things out. This is not the best film in set, but there is a re-cut that Jackie did in Hong Kong that plays MUCHHHHH better than the original cut of the film.

Armour of God 1 and 2 are the collection highlights for me. This is Jackie Chan in full on Indiana Jones mode playing “Asian Hawk”. In the first film he has to help rescue the girlfriend of a friend by retrieving 3 pieces of the “Armour of God” and bringing them to a a weirdo cult so they can complete the armour. Of course, Asian Hawk has other plans to retrieve the whole set, and not let ’em have it. The second film released in the U.S. By Miramax in a “Harvey Scissorhands” cut as Operation Condor (don’t watch that one watch the kickass extended cut here). This one has Asian Hawk sent into the Sahara to find missing Nazi gold. Both of these are GOLD themselves (sorry, I digress) with loads of fun and over the top action. The first is notorious for Jackie nearly dying while doing a simple stunt that sees him jumping into a tree.

Crime Story from 1993 might have a similar title to “Police Story” but the vibe is anything but. This is based on a true crime case in Hong Kong from 1990, and while the stunts are totally full on Jackie Chan mode, the vibe is that of a totally serious crime thriller. It’s an excellent film, while not one I’ve gone back to frequently over the years it is an absolute Chan delight.

City Hunter is RIDICULOUS, and I mean that in the best way possible. In this film Jackie has to find a kidnapped newspapper owner’s daughter or something like that, he finds her, and she escapes onto a ship. However, in full on ridiculous mode, the ship is targeted by terrorist, and so Jackie now has to save her AND THE SHIP. In the midst of this there is a full Street Fighter II parody. This is just great.

So as far as A/V goes this release is solid, the least of the bunch if the Protector, but overall all releases are either 2:35:1 or 1:85:1 which I assume are the OAR’s. These aren’t full on restorations from the top down, but way better than what Golden Harvest was given their classics just a few years ago. Things look natural, nicely corrected, and I don’t see many complaints coming from fans on these. Audio tracks for these include multiple language tracks including Cantonese, Mandarin (on most) and English dubs, all sound pretty solid for the most part and include DTS-HD and Mono tracks.

Extras are INSANE throughout, there are commentaries, and on-camera interviews, documentaries, extended and alternate cuts for Operation Condor and the Protector. This set is so super easy to recommend, so much classic Chan in one place…

… and speaking of classic Chan you can’t get more classic and over the top then Police Story 3 – Super Cop (MAYYYYBBBEEEEE Drunken Master 2). This film follows Chan as his Chan Ka-Kui character (Kevin Chan in the original Police Story dub). He is sent to mainland China to work with Interpol and Michelle Yeoh’s Yang Chien Hua to bust up a drug smuggling ring run by Pua and a Big Boss Chaibat. Of course, the situation is messy both in the interactions with the smugglers, and in Chan’s personal life.

This film doesn’t have the HUGEEEE over the top stunts of the first Police Story, but it shows both Chan and Michelle Yeoh in top physical form, and there are some INSANE stunts here (Michelle Yeoh with the motorcycle on the train at the end is still one of the most memorable things and it stuck in my head for nearly 30 years). This could be considered a Jackie Chan’s greatest hits in one film.

88 Films UHD is a true thing on beauty, I never expected the film to look this good the 4K scan with HDR just brings out details that I thought I’d never see, while keeping a film like naturalness to the presentation. Audio is handled a Cantonese Atmos track that just kills and also a few other audio options that also sound clear and concise. The main discs includes a commentary with Frank Djeng the Blu-ray includes interviews with Chan and Yeoh alongside other on camera crew and cast interviews behind the scenes featurettes, teasers, trailers, promos and MORE. Highly recommended (of course).