kluseba I'm glad I didn't trust the numerous negative reviews of Railroad Tigers and decided to purchase the film. This epic war movie convinces with a set of sympathetic characters, a vivid pace and flow, stunning settings, spectacular sound and visual effects and an intriguing story partially inspired by historic events. The film includes an atmosphere reminding me of old American westerns with train robberies in isolated places, incorporates a few martial arts sequences that contrast the shooting duels and instills a few humorous elements that are though never getting annoying as they focus on situation comedy rather than misplaced slapstick moments. Railroad Tigers is entertaining from start to finish and makes you want to experience the whole film again once the vivid roller coaster ride is over. Despite its length above two hours, not one single minute is wasted here.As a matter of fact, there were so many characters with intriguing background stories such as the charismatic leader of the Railroad Tigers or the resilient noodle shop owner, that the film could have easily been even half an hour longer without getting boring. Even though a few characters weren't perfectly fleshed out, antagonists and protagonists were intriguing enough to stimulate potential spin-offs. The closing scene of the film hints at a potential sequel which would be very welcome in my book.Railroad Tigers got some unfair criticism for promoting communist propaganda which is completely exaggerated. The film features a communist soldier fleeing from Japanese troops who has about ten minutes of screen time and doesn't look too heroic and the final battle concludes with an ambush of arriving communist troops that might get five minutes of screen time but that's all. The film truly focuses on a group of railroad workers who are attempting to destroy a strategically important bridge to stop Japanese supplies to conquer the northern parts of China. The film doesn't include any obvious political propaganda and rather underlines values like courage and friendship. Other critics claimed that the Japanese weren't portrayed accurately in this film and even suggested that the movie might be slightly disrespectful or racist. Once again, this is nonsense since the film shows two quite dangerous Japanese antagonists, a brutal male military and a determined female investigator who aren't easily fooled but rather never give up and fight back until the very end. Other people criticized the film for being one of Jackie Chan's most disappointing films but along with the sinister The Foreigner, this film is the best he has made since 2011 and easily beats more shallow family entertainment in the key of Chinese Zodiac and Kung Fu Yoga. I would even consider this movie a late career highlight by Asia's most famous actor of all times.In the end, the epic Railroad Tigers is an unfairly underrated war movie that will entertain you from start to finish with its explosive mixture of intense action sequences, character development, historic inspiration, humorous elements and western atmosphere. Some of the fight scenes are slightly grisly as some blood is shown and as the body count is quite elevated, so I would rather recommend this film to older teenagers and adults since this isn't your typical Jackie Chan movie for the whole family.

Larry Silverstein Jackie Chan leads a motley crew of Chinese resistance fighters, called the Tigers, against their Japanese occupiers. Their main mission will be to sabotage and blow up a railroad bridge that is a vital Japanese supply route.Although some of the slapstick comedy works at times, I felt the movie was severely hampered by very drawn out action sequences that become quite tedious. In my opinion, this could have been a better film with a 90 minute running time, instead of being over 2 hours.All in all, this movie, directed by Ding Sheng, just meanders way too much and loses focus. Therefore, the rather low rating on my part.

Leofwine_draca RAILROAD TIGERS is another Jackie Chan action comedy made on the Chinese mainland. It was directed by Sheng Ding, who previously directed Jackie in LITTLE BIG SOLDIER (his best pairing with the star) and POLICE STORY: LOCKDOWN. The quality is about on par with the latter film, as this is a somewhat aimless production that lacks basic directorial abilities: the music is non-exciting and never fits what's taking place on screen, and the comedy simply isn't funny.Ding is a man all about style, whether it's incessant CGI shots of trains or the silly animated introductions for each character. The film is so spoon-fed that screens have to come up to tell you what's happening next. Chan is okay, but he feels like a supporting act here and he doesn't get to fight either. The usual modern-day gamut of CGI and wires are used to portray the stunts. Jaycee Chan appears to play Jackie's son, and comes across as a simpleton here, while Japanese villain Hiroyuki Ikeuchi (of IP MAN fame) is too good to be appearing in this dross. The ultra-boring first hour is the worst part of the production, and things at least pick up for the cheesy action of the extended, laboured, train battle climax.

moviexclusive If you've seen 'Little Big Soldier' or 'Police Story 2013', you'll know better than to expect Jackie Chan's third collaboration with Mainland filmmaker Ding Sheng to be a martial arts showcase of the former's acrobatic stunts. And sure enough, despite being billed as 'a Jackie Chan action-comedy blockbuster', 'Railroad Tigers' is really an ensemble piece set against the backdrop of the Japanese invasion of East China in the early 1940s. Based upon true events, Chan plays a humble railroad worker named Ma Yuan who leads a ragtag team from his village to blow up a critical transportation route across the Hanzhuang bridge for the Japanese to send supplies to their troops at the frontlines. Once again assuming both writing and directing duties, Ding Sheng keeps the premise appealingly simple. Not content to toil for the invading Japanese in their respective jobs, Ma Yuan and his fellow railroad workers as well as a bunch of other working-class village folk take to robbing them every now and then – indeed, it is in the midst of one such daring midday robbery of a passenger train carrying a group of Japanese soldiers and their pillages that the members of the titular ragtag team are introduced via title cards. An Eighth Route army soldier Daguo (Darren Wang) stumbles into Ma Yuan's humble but cosy village house one night while evading capture by the Japanese, the former recounting how his platoon had tried but failed to detonate the aforementioned bridge. Upon his recovery, Daguo insists on returning to his platoon. Alas, Daguo fails to make it back before being shot by the Japanese, so Ma Yuan decides to assemble the team to complete his assignment – and in so doing, realises their collective hopes of 'doing something big' or '干票大 的'.Though his previous movies seemed to demonstrate his predilection for character-driven storytelling, Ding Sheng is all out for visual spectacle here, structuring his narrative around a series of extended action sequences– the opening train robbery is an ambitious start that also sets a playful tone, followed by a raid on the armoury warehouse at Shaguo station to procure the explosives needed to blow up the bridge, then a heroic attempt to rescue Ma Yuan and his associate Rui (Jaycee Chan) imprisoned by the Japanese in a square metal cell on board another moving train, and last but not least the loudest, longest and undeniably overblown (pardon the pun) setpiece to hijack a Japanese military transport locomotive intended as the very 'bomb' itself. In between are scenes meant to emphasise the camaraderie between the ragtag team of revolutionaries, arguably too short and too sparse for any individual character – except Ma Yuan and Rui – to make much impression.That said, 'Railroad Tigers' probably bears the least character work among all of Ding Sheng's movies so far. Ma Yuan's status as leader seems premised solely on his age and paternal instincts, and other than hinting at a slow-burn romance with the village pancake seller Auntie Qin, there is little else that defines him. The same goes for the other railroad workers Rui and Dagui (Ping Sang) as well as the other members of the 'Tigers' – amateur tailor Dahai (Huang Zitao), handywoman Xing'er (Xu Fan) and serial pickpocketer San Laizi (Alan Ng). Because Chan plays Ma Yuan low-key and unassuming, it is former warlord bodyguard Fan Chuan (Wang Kai) who steals his thunder whenever the latter is on screen, putting his sharpshooting skills to good use especially during shootouts with the Japanese. Next to the Tigers, the Japanese are defined by the cocky military police captain Yamaguchi (Hiroyuki Ikeuchi), his stern no-nonsense female colleague Yuko (Zhang Lanxin) and to a lesser extent the bumbling station master Sakamoto (Kôji Yano). With the sheer number of characters, it is not difficult to see why there is little time to develop any of them, such that each becomes known by and large by his or her relation to the unfolding narrative. Like we said earlier, the action takes centrestage, interspersed now and then with slapstick gags that do not always hit the mark. Chan's good-natured goofiness is still amusing, but the humour borders on childish at times, and undercuts the build-up of dramatic tension especially during the supposedly tense and dangerous situations. In fact, an extended gag that sees Yamaguchi consume not one but two drugged pancakes prepared by Auntie Qin which causes him fall asleep while the Tigers act to rescue Ma Yuan and Rui as well as turn lecherous against the male deputy station master held for interrogation is downright farcical – besides raising suspicions of the filmmakers' disdain towards the Japanese, it also diminishes the intended display of bravery of the Tigers. It doesn't matter that 'Railroad Tigers' contains next to none of Jackie Chan's death-defying stunts; in fact, true fans of the martial arts actor should be happy that his films are not solely defined by how high he jumps or how far he leaps. Oh no, Ding Sheng's latest collaboration with Chan is underwhelming because it seems no more than an excuse for the former to live out his childhood fantasies of trains in a big-budget motion picture, disguising his fancies under a purported celebration of the heroism of a group of ordinary civilians displayed in the anti-Japanese war effort. Ironically, his latest film could have benefited with more of the self-seriousness in 'Police Story 2013' (which was accused of being too sombre), instead of letting the often foolish and even self-indulgent humour to dilute the action and drama. Ding's inspiration is also the Hollywood Westerns of trains and train heists, and on that level alone, 'Railroad Tigers' is certainly watchable; but for a Jackie Chan movie, it is undeniably disappointing, not least because Chan doesn't even get to do much beyond appearing next to his son and/or a whole bunch of other Mainland actors.