In the last few years, Jackie Chan has been slowing down in making action movies, he is getting older and many fans wish for one great last action swansong before he retires. While Ride On is not an all-out classic, it has some great moments and is his best film since The Foreigner.
Jackie plays Lau Luo a once-in-demand stuntman now just living as an extra or posing with tourists at the local film studio. He has a special relationship with his horse Red Hare unlike with his daughter, who does not want anything to do with him after her mother died.
Trouble arises when a local debt collector Damo (Andy On) wants to take the horse away from Lau for debts owed. After fighting them off he is then confronted by lawyers claiming that his gift of the horse was void and also want to take it away from him.
He needs his own lawyer to fight the battle of ownership in court but does not have the finances to do so and ends up asking his estranged daughter for help, whose boyfriend happens to be newly qualified in the profession.
Meanwhile, Lau’s stuntman career gets a boost after footage of his fighting off the debt collectors goes viral. But his reckless attitude towards still doing dangerous stunts makes the relationship between him and his daughter even more strained. Will he be able to keep the horse that he loves and cherishes as well as win back his daughter’s heart?
The story does echo in some ways Jackie Chan’s own career, we see him getting upset when he finds his daughter watching old clips of his movie stunts (footage from Chan classics such as Police Story and Project A are used) and it is well known that Chan’s own family life is very complicated with a strained relationship with his real son and daughter.
While the film does get a little over-sentimental at times it has a good balance of drama, comedy and action. The fight scenes when they do appear are very well done and it shows Chan still has great talent for this sort of choreography. It has an easygoing pace if a little over long but it will certainly pull many Chan fan’s heartstrings, especially towards the end.
Ride On has had a release on DVD and Blu-ray and is well worth checking out for any true Jackie Chan fan.
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