a5c7b9f00b A railroad worker in China in 1941 leads a team of freedom fighters against the Japanese in order to get food for the poor. In December 1941, The railway from Tianjin to Nanjing in East China became a key military transportation route, heavily guarded by Japanese soldiers. Ma Yuan, a railroad worker and his group of freedom fighters find themselves on the wrong side of the tracks when they decide to ambush a heavily armed military train filled with desperately needed provisions. Unarmed and outnumbered, they must rely on their wits to battle an entire army. 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.<br/><br/>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.<br/><br/>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. 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.<br/><br/>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. Instead of a grand lark of fast fists and derring-do, we get a lumbering, choppy voyage of minimal excitement.
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