Movie Review: The Armour of God (1986) directed by Jackie Chan
Jackie (Jackie Chan) used to belong to a pop singing group called The Losers. But his best friend Alan (Alan Tam) and sweetheart Lorelei (Rosamund Kwan) fell in love and the group broke up. Jackie switched careers entirely and became a soldier of fortune codenamed “Asian Hawk.” Recently, Jackie stole a large sword from an African tribe to sell to the highest bidder.
It turns out that this sword is special; it’s known as The Sword of God, part of the regalia known as The Armour of God. On this alternate Earth, King Arthur led the Crusades against the Satanists, supposedly using this set of armor to vanquish the dark forces. A remnant of the Satanists, posing as a monastery in Yugoslavia, have two of the pieces, and based on Jackie’s success with the sword, decide he’s a good candidate to acquire the remaining pieces so that they can plunge the world into darkness again.
One of the Satanists sensibly suggests simply paying Jackie a large sum of money for the task, but this approach is immediately shot down as not evil enough. Instead, the Satanists will kidnap Lorelei and force Jackie to fetch the armor for them.
By the time Jackie learns of the kidnapping from Alan, he’s already sold the Sword. But he knows the other two pieces are in the possession of millionaire antiquities collector Bannon (Bozidar Smiljanic), so he and Alan head there to try to persuade that man to help them. It turns out Bannon’s daughter May (Lola Forner) is the one who bought the Sword on her father’s behalf. After some silliness, Bannon agrees to lend his parts of the Armour of God to our protagonists in hope of capturing the missing pieces for himself, so May is now on the mission too.
Can this unlikely trio infiltrate the monastery, rescue Lorelei and secure the Armour of God?
This is a lighthearted action film, full of spectacular stunts, including a chase scene with a tricked out Mitsubishi Colt. The full on martial arts scenes are concentrated at the end.
Good: Spectacular stunts and self-deprecating comedy are still Jackie Chan’s strong suits. Jackie’s directing skills are well-shown. Oh, and professional singer Jackie Chan gets to sing the song over the closing credits!
Less good: Seeing the movie again after many years, it occurs to me that Jackie’s character is an outright thief. He’s not even collecting for a museum, just money! And the opening sequence treats Africans poorly for what is supposed to be “the present day”; I can only assume they were deliberately dressing down and not using modern weaponry because it was a religious ceremony.
Lorelei is a useless damsel in distress type; May is bossy but not actually competent as a sidekick, as her marksmanship medals turn out to mean nothing when the targets are moving. May’s only consolation is that the cowardly and weak Alan is no more use than she is. Some actual competent women, black women at that, do show up towards the end, but they have no actual lines and their outfits are impractical. And yet, this movie still feels less hostile towards the female characters than the sequel, Operation Condor.
There’s a waiter who’s a pretty obvious gay stereotype, but other than being comical he’s not treated negatively.
Overall, a fun movie with a lot of good points, but it is sorely dated, which may make it less attractive to younger audiences.
