Movie Review: Hidden Strike (2023)
Synopsis: A former United States marine, Chris Van Home, now lives in a small village in Iraq after spending some time as a mercenary. Needing money to fix the well, Chris agrees to join his brother, Henry, on a mission to abduct employees being evacuated from a Chinese-owned oil refinery, believing they are hunting down a man who attacked them years earlier. Instead, he learns he is inadvertently helping a mercenary group led by Owen Paddock, who is looking to re-start the refinery and steal oil. When Henry is killed by Owen, Chris reluctantly teams up with Luo Feng, an ex-Chinese special forces officer who was tasked with protecting the evacuees, to stop Owen.
Who's in it? The movie stars John Cena, Jackie Chan, Chunrui Ma, Pilou Asbæk and Wenli Jiang.
Review: I came across Hidden Strike on Netflix a couple days ago and since the John Cena/Jackie Chan team up sounded intriguing, my wife and I ended up watching it yesterday evening. Overall, it ended up being an entertaining choice.
The film does take a bit of time to process. There's a lot going on in the first 10-15 minutes and the various objectives of the main characters don't come fully clear until Owen's (Asbæk) is finally explained. Even then, there were times when I wondered if this was going to be a Cena/Chan team up movie or if their respective characters, Chris and Feng, would remain on opposing sides for the majority of the film.
What makes this movie worth watching are the fight scenes. There's a ton of action in the film and those scenes don't disappoint, both because of some of the incredible stunts and the way the movie manages to mix in quite a bit of comedy as Chris and Feng attempt to work together.
The mix of fighting styles from the two men are also fun to watch. Feng performs the typical Jackie Chan martial arts you would expect while Cena's Chris loves to pull/throw people through walls. Some of it is a bit much, forcing you to suspend belief a bit. For example, while I'm sure Cena, a former professional wrestler, is strong, I'm not so sure he is as strong (and able to withstand as much punishment) as this movie indicated. However, even those unbelievable scenes are still fun.
If I had any complaints about the film, it would be the ending seemed a bit dragged out. Feng's fight with one of the mercenaries seemed to go on forever and was getting very repetitive while Owen just didn't seem to be able to die, even after a flaming oil tanker landed on him. It kind of felt like the movie was just trying to pad its runtime by throwing in as much as it could.
Final Opinion: I wouldn't describe it as one of Cena or Chan's best films but the team up of the two actors and the almost non-stop action did make it an entertaining film to watch. I'd recommend it solely for that.
My Grade: B
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Here are some reviews of other movies from 2023:
Movie Review: The Secret Gift of Christmas (2023)
Movie Review: Scream VI (2023)
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