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.
