MOVIE

9/10

Continuing my trip down memory lane, I recently picked up Mega Star's release of Armour Of God - the second Jackie Chan film I ever saw, and along with Wheels On Meals, still one of his most enjoyable offerings.

Jackie plays the Asian Hawk, an Indiana Jones-esque adventurer, whose ability to seek out, and steal, precious artefacts is second to none.
Unfortunately for Jackie, Alan, an old friend, turns up hoping to enlist his help in rescuing Jackie's old flame Laura, from the clutches of an evil religious cult.
Borrowing some of the pieces of the titular Armour Of God, in order to lure out the kidnappers, Jackie and Alan must find a way of rescuing Laura whilst also stealing the remaining Armour to complete the set...

Armour Of God contains everything you'd expect from a Jackie Chan film - superb stunts, intricate and imaginative fight scenes, a fantastic car-chase sequence, as well as some fine comic interplay between the leads.
The only downside to this movie, and the one element which remains a weakness in virtually all of Jackie's movies, is his apparent lack of interest in his female characters, with Rosamund Kwan and Lola Forner in nothing more than token roles.
However, this small criticism takes nothing away from Armour Of God's energy, and the overall sense of fun which radiates from the cast - a far cry from Jackie's lame efforts of the late 90's.

READ THE DVD COMPARISON HERE

PICTURE

7/10

Something which affects many HK discs is their apparent inability to reproduce solid blacks, often making dark scenes appear to be a muddy blue colour.
Thankfully, Mega Star seem to have taken great care in this aspect of the transfer, and as such, the many underground cave scenes are reproduced very well.
Although I noticed some occasional artifacting, the colour and detail found in the picture make up for this, creating a very pleasing DVD.

SOUND

7/10

Having seemingly learnt their lessons from the appallingly bad remixes of previous releases, Mega Star provide a very good 5.1 remix.
The front left and right speakers are used often, with the sound being steered around effectively, particularly in the car-chase and fight sequences.
The centre speaker handles the dialogue perfectly, with no distortion problems being evident.
For a change, the remix actually added to my enjoyment of the film - something which can't be said about some other companies attempts at "improving" the sound.

SUBTITLES

7/10

Very good clear subtitles, although the odd grammatical and syntax error creeps in from time to time.
Not as high a standard as I would have expected for a Jackie Chan DVD, but certainly better than your average subtitling job.

MENUS

7/10

As with all of Mega Star's discs, the menus are very good quality, with excellent layouts and clear pictures.
A nice touch is the instrumental music which plays during the chapter selection screen.

EXTRAS

4/10

The theatrical trailer, and fun trailers for Project A, Project A part 2 and Miracles - which often show behind-the-scenes footage.
Thankfully, we're spared the rather tired looking generic Media Asia trailer which adorned most of their previous releases.
Also included are 10 chapter stops, and biographies for Chan, Tam and Kwan.

CONCLUSION

8/10

Whilst it's never going to win awards for characterisation or plot-development, there is still a great deal of enjoyment to be garnered from this excellent slice of Wacky Jackie entertainment. - and seeing as he went to the trouble of almost killing himself during filming, the least you could do to return the favour is to go out and buy it!

MOVIE		9/10
PICTURE		7/10
SOUND		7/10
SUBTITLES		7/10
EXTRAS		4/10
MENUS		7/10
PACKAGING		7/10
OVERALL		8/10