CZ12 (2012)

Movie Info

I can barely rollerblade and now I want a skate suit

JC aka Asian Hawk (Jackie Chan) is back and searching for treasure!  With his team, he’s out to locate the twelve bronze heads of the Chinese Zodiac which were lost during looting in the Second Opium War (1856-1860).  Under the guise that he is going to return them for Japanese culture, JC teams up with a woman named Coco (  ) who is an expert on the bronze heads and another woman named Katherine (Laura Weissbecker) who also has a stake in the heads.  Finding the heads might just be the easy part…but keeping them will be a fight!

You try doing this at his age!

Directed by Jackie Chan, CZ12 (十二生肖 or Shí Èr Shēng Xiāo) is generally referred to as Chinese Zodiac.  The movie is a soft relaunch of the Jackie Chan series Armour of God which ended with Armour of God II:  Operation Condor in 1991.  The movie gained Jackie Chan a Guinness Book of World Records title for most credits in one movie (previously held by Robert Rodriguez).  The movie was a smash hit overseas and also received a small release in the United States.

I liked Operation Condor when I saw it and then enjoyed seeing Armour of God after Operation Condor.  When I learned that a new “Asian Hawk” movie had been made, I was anxious to see it.  Like the previous movies, CZ12 is an Indiana Jones style adventure…but like Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, not all is great about it.

Jackie Chan…coming at you!

I will say that the movie is for the most part more entertaining and less of a disappointment than Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but it has some of the same problems.  The story gets lost in unnecessary adventures and the main thrust of finding the zodiac heads should have been the focus…instead you get this whole substory about the who the heads belong to and the weird skydiving wrap-up.

Jackie Chan is getting older, but I still have to give him credit…the man moves better than most twenty year olds and still can hold a movie together.  His acting hasn’t improved or gotten worse but he still brings that zest to each role which keeps the movie fun.  This movie has a large supporting cast, but not many stand outs.

Ride that CGI log!!!

The stunts also play more to Chan’s age.  The old slow motion dangerous stunt seems to have mostly faded, but he still has great moves.  In this entry in particular, the skate suit is very cool and well done…and much better and more realistic than some kid swinging with monkeys.  The skydiving scene near the end isn’t quite as real.

CZ12 is a fun little action movie.  Like Jackie Chan’s other films, it isn’t very action heavy and there is a lot of humor in it.  I like the Tomb Raider/Raiders of the Lost Ark aspect to the script but it could have even been better with more “raiding” (and getting rid of that gold storyline in the middle).  With the success of the film, Asian Hawk might be back!

Related Links:

Armour of Gods (1986)

Armour of Gods II:  Operation Condor (1991)