Review | Netflix movie review: Hidden Strike – Jackie Chan, John Cena in dreadful 1-star Netflix ‘thriller’
- Hidden Strike is yet another barely satisfactory attempt from Chan to stay relevant in a fast-changing action-cinema landscape
- There’s no chemistry between Chan and Cena, the action set pieces are underwhelming, and the story is a tired, by-the-numbers affair
1/5 stars
Five years after production wrapped, Jackie Chan action thriller Hidden Strike finally makes its muted debut on Netflix.
Previously known as Project X-traction, the film pairs Chan with John Cena (after Sylvester Stallone jumped ship) in a lighthearted, high-octane adventure to rescue Chinese scientists from a gang of oil-hungry terrorists, with China doubling for war-torn Iraq.
But Hidden Strike is yet another barely satisfactory attempt from Chan, who would have been 64 at the time of filming, to stay relevant in a fast-changing action-cinema landscape.
He plays Dragon Luo, a Chinese military operative who is tasked with leading a rescue team into the hostile deserts of the Middle East to escort 500 Chinese oil workers to the relative safety of the neutral Green Zone.
Among them is Luo’s estranged daughter Wei (Ma Chunrui) and Professor Cheng (Jiang Wenli), who literally holds the keys to the refinery’s billion-dollar oil reserves. When Cheng is snatched by Pilou Asbaek’s trigger-happy gang, Luo is forced to turn to Cena’s retired US marine Chris Van Horne for help.
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Over the years, Chan has found that his success in Western English-language films works best when he partners with a wisecracking American and they play off their clashing personalities. Chris Tucker, Owen Wilson and even Johnny Knoxville have all assumed this role in the past, with varying degrees of success.
Yet try as he might, Cena fails to create a single spark of on-screen chemistry with his veteran acting partner. Their interactions are stilted and awkward – even when the former pro-wrestler busts out some passable Mandarin.
That in itself could have created a workable dynamic between the film’s leads, but as with almost everything else in this tired, by-the-numbers genre offering, the lack of creativity hangs heavy in the dusty air.
Chan also falls back on his other go-to on-screen persona of recent years: the absent father. Luo’s unwavering loyalty to his country has been at the expense of everything else in his life, including his family. Again, this yields an underused dynamic, as Wei is a mostly passive on-screen entity, even after Chris declares a romantic interest in her.
Hidden Strike is primarily concerned with its sputtering convoy of underwhelming action set pieces, be they desert car chases, shoot-outs or fistfights.
The film’s American director, Scott Waugh – whose next film, Expendables 4, arrives in September – can do little more than maintain an even keel as Chan lazily goes through the motions once again.
Hidden Strike is streaming on Netflix.
