High Risk (1995)

You have to appreciate a director who can open a comedy film by toasting two dozen schoolkids in an exploding bus.

I'm not sure this one would actually qualify as a martial arts genre film -- definitely not typical. A lot of Jet Li rolling around on the floor JUST faster than badly-aimed, opposition-party bullets -- and a whole lot more of Jet Li firing many, many Uzis rather than giving the old, say for instance, boot-to-the-face etal kinda whushu-butt-kicking stuff . . .

BUT: It's Jet Li, sooooo . . . And have you ever seen an elevator-sized car take an elevator ride like that? Possibly not, yes? Whooohooo!

My for-real flixster friends already know that this one will get no fewer than three stars from me. And so it goes : )

Arbitrary, I hear some say.

Not, I say.

A year after Speed, eh? No problem: It's not as egregious as, maybe, Martin Scorsese's ripping off of Infernal Affairs.

Yes?

Think about one of my future-wife possibilities, Sandra Bullock's, line: "You didn't leave me alone." Keanu Reeves does his best acting with the come-back line about not needing to be anywhere else . . .

No, really, please actually think about Sandra Bullock's line -- and not because she's stunningly good-looking -- especially now for someone who's grown into 46 or 47 years old : )

Pretty heavy movie cross-referential influence, wouldn't you say? Not being left alone. Yes? No? Blowing up bus?

Yes! Great movie, accordingly : )

Ripping off intellectual property seems to be a movie industry standard nowadays. So WTBorat. This one is a great Hollywood-gets-reverse-ripped-off.

Like Die Hard if John McTiernan despised Jackie Chan. Overall, a pretty fun action film.