Ride On - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Ride On



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
There are few martial arts superstars that have the status that Jackie Chan has gained over the years. The man is on the level of Bruce Lee, but for different reasons, and has a career that has spanned over 60 years focusing on high level stunts and comedic martial arts. In fact, Jackie is widely considered to be the godfather of comedic Martial Arts, pretty much founding the style with Drunken Master and shooting into super stardom soon after. He was a god in the 80s and 90s, and then broken into the American box office during the mid 90s and stayed relevant in huge blockbusters like Rush Hour and Shanghai Noon until the end of the 2000’s. After that the aging actor started taking a step back from his legendary stunts (he was kind of NEVER using a stuntman) and then started semi retiring in the mid 2010s. He still came out with a few films here and there, but they were rumored to be films he only took on as side projects in order to keep his stunt team and employees employed, or projects that he owed someone a favor for (who knows how much of it is true though). Needless to say his film out put become more and more sparse, and weaker and weaker as well. It got to the point where he was putting out the Chinese equivalent of John Travolta and John Cusack DTV films, with just as much energy into the acting, and just as cheap looking. As someone who spent most of his 40 years on Earth watching Jackie Chan movies, it was disheartening to see one of the legends reduced to cheap DTV films and side projects.

So naturally I was not expecting anything even remotely decent with 2023’s Ride On. I saw the trailer, and it looked overly cheesy, and reeked of another quick cash grab. But watching the film netted a different experience. Yes, this is a cheaper budgeted film, and yes this is not going to be Jackie in his prime. But the rote and cheesy story turned out to have a nugget of gold hidden in the center. A sweet father/daughter bonding event coupled with an aging action star having to come to grips with the fact that the hardest thing isn’t sacrificing your body for your craft, but rather stepping down when its time and accepting that your life has taken a different turn.

Jackie plays Luo Zhilong, an aging stunt man whose only link to his past happens to be a stunted horse that he saved from death during it’s birth and trained to be one of his stunt animals. Zhilong is living on the outskirts of town offering rides on his horse for $50, and running around entertaining children with mild stunts. However, a viral cell phone video of him having to fight off some debt collectors has suddenly shot the ex stuntman into the public eye. Now Stunt directors are calling to have him be int their movies, and his life is looking up. Only thing is, the company he formerly worked for has laid claim to his horse, Red Hare, leaving the elderly man to seek out legal representation in the only way he knows how. This way turns out to be his daughter, who is a senior in college getting her law degree, and she wants nothing to do with him. Zhilong’s wife had left him with his daughter Xiaobao years ago after he had fallen into a slump after being forced out of the stunt business, and she’s not exactly fond of her old man. However, Xiaobao begrudgingly agrees to help her father and enlists the help of her boyfriend Naihua, who just so happens to be a first year Jr. Lawyer at his firm looking for his big break.

While Naihua searches for a way for the old man to keep his beloved horse, Zhilong is skyrocketing upwards as mentioned. He’s pulling stunt after stunt in new movies, and by utilizing Xiaobao as his agent, he’s allowed the chance to finally connect with her after all these years. The two grow closer and closer, but Zhilong’s addiction to the stunt man lifestyle soon begins to push its way in between the father and daughter once more, forcing the old man to reconcile his future with his past, and make a present that doesn’t rob him of whatever time he has left with his daughter.

As I said above, Ride On is not super high cinema. The story is a bit cheesy and overly slapstick (even for Jackie Chan), but it’s really obvious that Jackie is pouring his heart and soul into a film that acts almost as tribute to the lifestyle that he crafted his entire career around. Personally I watched parallel after parallel of what I think Jackie is actually thinking about his own life. Coming to grips that he can’t pull off the insane stunts he did in his 20s and even 50s (you can tell when he uses a stunt man for the fights and flips, as a 69 year old is not going to jumping off of buildings like he did in the 80s), and giving tribute to the world of stunt men that have largely been retired due to the rise of technology and CGI. The supporting cast is filled with some classic stunt men and Hong Kong action legends like Jing Wu (Jacky Wu), Xing Yu (Ip Man), Andy On, Rongguang Yu (a Hong Kong kind), and several more come to give tribute to Jackie and the careers they’ve all enjoyed as a result.

Again, the movie isn’t amazing, but I had a good time with the underlying themes and attempts that were made. The scene where Zhilong was showing Xiaobao all of the stunts he had done over his career (actual scenes from Jackie’s insane littany of classic films) had me in tears, just watching all of the clips of films that I had grown up watching, and seeing the pain and sadness, and joy on Jackie’s face as he watched his life literally flash before his eyes. Maybe not perfection, but the movie is way better than most of the drek he’s put out recently and you can tell these guys tried their heart out to make some good, especially Jackie who is putting more energy into the role than I’ve seen in over a decade from the legendary martial artist.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:

Ride On comes to Blu-ray a with a spectacular looking 2.39:1 framed AVC encode. There’s very little information online about the master and the cameras used, but it’s pretty obvious that this was a digital shoot with a fairly high resolution encode for it to look this good. Fine details abound just about everywhere, with the brightly lit honey colored daylight scenes, and the great black levels. Honestly, this is a fantastic encode and I would nearly consider it 5/5 except for the fact that they started using CGI for some of the horse stunts (like really OBVIOUS Chinese CGI, not Hollywood level stuff) and it sort of brings down the score due to the softness of blending live action and CGI in one. Other than that, this is a great looking disc.









Audio:

The disc features a pair of English and Mandarin tracks in 5.1 DTS-HD MA (along with their 2.0 Dolby Digital down mixes for night listening) that are both pretty much even with each other in terms of sonic capabilities. The dub for the English mix is pretty good, but still nowhere near the quality of the original Mandarin track (Jackie seems to be dubbing his own lines as usual, but his voice has changed so much it doesn’t sound NEARLY as recognizable in English). Vocals are crisp and cleanly replicated up front, and the surround mix is very aggressive and immersive once Jackie gets going with all his stunts. The bass was incredibly robust and powerful (that scene with Red Hare kicking the trolley car was incredible), and probably one of the most stand out and vibrant elements of the entire mix. Simply put, this is a superb audio mix that I don’t think anyone is going to find fault with.












Extras:

• Theatrical Trailer
• Well Go USA Previews
• Behind the Scenes
• On My Horse

Final Score:
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I’ve been pretty critical of Jackie Chan’s films the last 10 years. He’s basically retired from most big time work and seems to only be working projects that give his stunt team and employees a job. His heart hasn’t been in it for years, and it really shows in the film output (I think the last Police Story film was the last one where I actually saw him REALLY try). However, this was a nice change of pace to see Jackie stretching his acting wings, and putting in some genuine effort to his films. It may not be peak Jackie Chan, but I was genuinely surprised and rather pleased by how Ride On turned out. It has great video, great audio, the standard minimalist extras associated with these releases, and overall a fun watch.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Jackie Chan, Haocun Liu, Kevin Guo, Jing Wu, Andy On, Xing Yu, Rongguna Yu, Joey Yung
Directed by: Larry Yang
Written by: Larry Yang
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, Mandarin DTS-HD MA 5.1, English, Mandarin DD 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH, English, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional)
Studio: Well Go USA
Rated: NR
Runtime: 126 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: October 24th, 2023

Recommendation: Decent Watch