Jet Li Wong Jing's High Risk Meltdown

High Risk Meltdown (1995)Starting Off with a Bang: High Risk opens on a school yard during recess… a school yard that is about to become one of the World’s Most Dangerous School Yards, as a bus full of terrorists pulls in. The terrorists get out, round up the kids and their teacher and escort them to the bus… a bus we soon find out has a bomb underneath it! The bomb squad is called in, led by Lt. Kit Li (Jet Li)… this is the latest terrorist act by a group led by a mysterious man known only as The Doctor. Even though the mayor has paid The Doctor’s ransom demands, The Doctor does not tell Kit Li how to disarm the bomb, instead telling Kit he has a 50/50 chance of making the right call. So Kit is force to make a judgement call that ends up killing his man under the bus attempting to disarm the bomb, all the kids inside and the teacher, who just so happened to be Kit Li’s wife! The Fall Guy: It has been two years since the horrific tragedy, Kit Li now finds himself working as a bodyguard for action movie superstar Frankie Lone (not to be confused with Frankie Laine). Frankie (Jacky Cheung) has the reputation of doing his own stunts… something reporter Helen Vu discovers is not the case when her cameraman picks up Frankie and his bodyguard Kit Li pulling the ol’ switcheroo for a big fall stunt. Suddenly the puff piece she didn’t want to cover has hander her a lead to a much bigger story… exposing Frankie Lone as a fraud! With sweeps right around the corner, Helen and her producer hatch a plan to tail Frankie to see what other dirt they can get on him! Meanwhile, we also see how disappointed Frankie’s dad is. His son used to be a great martial artist, now he’s a drunken womanizing goof. Which sounds like the perfect setup for a Frankie redemption arc.Die Hard at a Hotel: Helen and her producer manage to get an invite to a jewel exhibition that is being held at the luxurious Grandeur Hotel. An exhibition that Frankie and two guests (his director and his father) are attending… but so is The Doctor. And it isn’t long before The Doctor’s associates, including the Frankie Lone obsessed Kong and the beautiful but deadly Fai-Fai, infiltrate The Grandeur in an attempt to pull off the heist of the century, yes folks we’ve got “Die Hard at a Hotel” with a few twists throw in, like Kit Li realizing something bad is about to go down, but finding himself on the outside looking in. Frustrated that hotel security are ignoring his concerns, Kit goes to the police where rookie Detective Kam is willing to look into the situation (especially since Detective Kam’s estranged girlfriend Joyce works at The Grandeur) and this is when business really picks up!Dude, Where’s My Helicopter?: When the now fake hotel security guards don’t let Kam and Kit up to the jewel exhibition, we get Kit driving into the hotel lobby, where he proceeds to do donuts before he and Kam take the elevator up to the exhibition… did I mention they are still in the car when they take the elevator?! To add to the frustrations of The Doctor and his terrorist crew, is the fact that Helen had smuggled in a hidden camera for her planned Frankie Lone exposé and ended up capturing the terrorist activity instead. That makes Helen a target, but I was not expecting the terrorists to fight back quite the way they did as Helen finds herself in one of the World’s Most Dangerous Bathrooms until Kit, Frankie and Frankie’s dad manage to save her (and find the tape that she stashed). When Kit makes his way out of the hotel and delivers the tape to the police, that at this point are surrounding the hotel, they refuse to let him Kit back inside… so Kit takes matters into his own hands, commandeering the police helicopter and flying his way back INTO the hotel! This leads to one of the most spectacular exploding helicopter sequences I have ever seen!High Risk is an over the top action extravaganza that has been hiding from me in plain sight for years. Who knew Jet Li had his own “Die Hard movie”?!? I certainly didn’t, but I I know now! And hopefully this review enlightened others who may have been in the dark like me. It’s always a dark day when I don’t have any Bonus Bullet Points to share, fortunately today is not one of those days… Bastard Count: There were a total of five “bastards” in High Risk. If You Ever: …wanted to see Jet Li suck snake venom out of a woman’s leg, then High Risk is the movie for you. Grudge Match: High Risk was Director Wong Jing’s response to Jackie Chan denouncing the film they made together a few years earlier, City Hunter.

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