Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

Interesteg What makes it different from others?

LouHomey From my favorite movies..

Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Leofwine_draca MELTDOWN is one of the contemporary action thrillers that Jet Li knocked out during the 1990s. This one's written and directed by Wong Jing so you know it won't take an entirely serious approach to the material despite the violence inherent in the story. The first half is the usual cheesy comedy in which Jing hilariously takes many swipes at Jackie Chan (the two fell out after making CITY HUNTER). Jacky Cheung does a great impression of Chan, but it turns out he's a coward with Li his secret stuntman.The second half of the film turns into a straight-up copy of DIE HARD with many similar situations and characters. The cast is very good and the humour mixes ably with the action, something that Hong Kong always pulls off very well. Li doesn't get to do much martial arts here but he runs around heroically a lot. Cheung turns into a Bruce Lee imitator late on and is both funny and very physical. Chingmy Lau is an attractive reporter, Wu Ma plays Cheung's dad, and Billy Chow is one of the very imposing villains. It all ends up with a big mix of explosive stunts, breakneck action, and bloody violence, and I loved every bit of it.

david-sarkies This movie is not a blockbuster Hollywood movie, but it makes much of the action flicks that come out of the United States seem nothing more and a boring romance in which nothing happens. High Risk is Die Hard with more guts than anybody in Hollywood could even consider. This movie looks like a typical block buster action movie but plays out much better.The plot is simple and themes are really non-existent. In a lot of cases, themes, and even plots, are something that don't play out in Hong Kong Movies (as this is what this movie is). I am not saying that Hong Kong movies are full of pointless violence; by no means, it is just some movies concentrate more on the action than on anything else. As Des Mangan said once, "why let the plot get in the way of a good stunt" or even "why let the plot get in the way of a good sequel." High Risk does have a plot though and does play out quite well.A bunch of thieves armed with some incredibly powerful weapons, storm a hotel in which a collection of priceless jewels are on display. The movie plays out for a while before the thieves take the hotel, but once they do, the action is almost non-stop. In this hotel is an actor named Frankie and his bodyguard named Bold (I think). Bold watched his wife and daughter die when a criminal named the Doctor put a bomb on it and he failed to defuse it. This memory has haunted him his entire life, so when the Doctor is found to be behind this robbery, Bold sees it as a chance to redeem himself. Frankie is brilliant. He is supposed to be an action hero, and is referred to throughout the movie as a superhero, but when it comes down to it, he is nothing more than a coward. Frankie spends most of the movie running away from the bad guys and when he goes to confront them, he constantly bumbles. Though Frankie loves his father, and if anybody even considers beating him up then Frankie really gets mad. Oh, and he spends half the movie running around without any pants on. Don't ask me why.Another great character is a female terrorist. This woman is a bitch, yet acts so innocent, everybody is willing to trust her with their lives. The heroes try to rescue her, kiss her, and generally attempt to sweep her off her feet like a typical heroine. All the while she is working with the terrorists and plotting the heroes' downfall. The action is just awesome. Hollywood would simply drive a car through a window and have the hero jump out and gun down all the bad guys inside. Not so in High Risk. The hero drives the car into the foyer, runs over heaps of baddies, shots others with an uzi, and when the light machine gun comes out. He drives the car into the elevator and goes to the top floor, where he wrecks further havoc among the thieves up there before sending it flying out of the window. If that doesn't satisfy anybodies' taste, then there is the scene with the helicopter.To be honest, it is impossible to describe how awesome this movie is so my best option is to suggest you go and try and find it and watch it for yourself.

spywatcher459 I've seen this movie many times and I can't understand for the life of me why people keep giving it bad reviews. Okay, yes it's probably not an academy award winning movie but so what? People watch it for the action, not because of performance. High Risk (renamed Meltdown in the U.S.) is a great action flick in which martial arts legend Jet Li and popular Asian recording artist Jacky Cheung kick the action meter into the red zone!Jet Li portrays Lieutenant Kit Li, a military officer who is trained by the Army and skilled in various types of combat, demolitions, weapons and tactics as well. Kit lost his wife, his colleague and a school bus full of children to an evil terrorist's bomb, who called himself the Doctor. Since then, Kit has become a stunt double and bodyguard to Asian Superstar Frankie Lone. However, Frankie isn't exactly a star like he used to be. He likes to party hard and chase after women and drink so much that he's lost his ability to fight and do his own stunts. During a stunt in which Kit is caught on tape doing Frankie's stunt for him, Helen, an investigative reporter (played by the lovable Chingmy Yau) wants to get some more dirt on Frankie and so she and her producer decide to go to an expo which is holding some magnificent jewels that once belonged to a deadly Russian czar. Unfortunately, the Doctor and his team of mercenaries also have their eyes on the jewels and they go to the Hotel where the jewels are kept at, kill off the security team and hotel staff and lay siege to the Hotel. Among his team of mercenaries are Kong (played by champion kickboxer Billy Chow), Fai Fai (played by the lovely model Valerie Chow) and Rabbit (played by stuntman and bootmaster Ben Lam). Kit soon learns that the Doctor and his team are planning a robbery and races back with Detective Chow Kam to investigate,and upon getting there, the Doctor's mercenaries try to ex the both of them out, but they manage to waste the first wave of assault by the Doctor's forces. Anyway, the situation goes from bad to worse as Kit soon learns the Doctor's identity and so after more gunfire and kung fu, Kit, Frankie, Mr. Lone (Frankie's dad), and Helen manage to escape the concession room with their heads intact. Helen just happened to be filming the whole situation and now the Doctor wants the tape she has retrieved and Helen eliminated. During the time in the movie, Helen develops an attraction to Kit (at the beginning of the movie, they have kind of a bad start with each other). Later on, the Doctor's team has taken hostages and is threatening to kill people if their demands aren't met. Among these hostages is Detective Chow Kam and his uptight ex-girlfriend Joyce (played by Charlie Yeung). Even worse, Frankie is taken hostage and his being harassed by Kong, who wants a showdown with Frankie to see who is the better martial artist. As time ticks away, Kit and Frankie must both get past their inner demons and summon their inner strength to overwhelm the odds stacked against them as the terrorists get even more brutal.I loved this movie and I thought it was off the hook. I haven't seen the subtitled version yet, but the English dubbed is pretty cool. The only drawback to the English dubbed is Kit's voice dubbing. His sentences are usually cut up when he speaks and he sounds like William Shatner almost. The fight scenes are especially great and the action couldn't be more fantastic. There is lots of humor in the movie, especially with Jacky Cheung's character Frankie who goes from zero to hero as he struggles to become the action hero he once was. Even more funny is how he comes on to Valerie Chow's character Fai Fai, without even knowing she's one of the terrorists. Many complaints that this movie got was the underground rap music that was used in the movie. I didn't see anything wrong with that. It's cool to have rap music in a kung fu movie I think. What better way to enjoy a fight scene than to here someone freestyling while two combatants lock horns in a deadly game of fatal combat. Overall, this movie deserves a 9.5 for creativity, adrenaline pumping action and great music and humour. Watch it late night or on the weekend when you have nothing better to do sometimes though. It'll make it a lot more interesting.

m0rg16 Some people might think that this is a Jet Li film. Well, it is not. Jet Li IS there, and he kills a bunch of bad guys and causes trouble for the bad guy (The Doctor). But he is not the head character. He is in the movie from time to time, but not enough to be called a main character.It starts out with Kit Li (Jet Li) as a army officer. His wife and some school children are trapped in a bus and Jet Li needs to disarm the bomb beneath the bus. He cuts the wrong wire and the bus goes boom.We fast forward 2 years and now Kit Li acts as bodyguard for the Kung-Fu superstar Frankie Lone. Frankie Lone is known for making all of his own stunts (when infact, Kit Li, or some stunt double, is the one who makes the stunts).One day Frankie Lone goes to see some Tzar jewels from Russia, displayed in a skyscraper. And then Terrorists run in, kill everyone on floor one and go up to the Tzar jewels and takes everyone hostage... But not Kit Li or Frankie Lone. While Frankie Lone runs around the building, avoiding terrorists all the time (he is to cowardly to fight them), Kit Li rushes the building with a cop and an uzi, and mows down enough terrorists to fill a football field with (well, almost. Its entertaining anyway).Excellent writing and goofy acting and directing (intentionally) makes up for a superb action movie. I have seen people here complain about the Kung-Fu just being average in this movie, but I disagree. Its very good indeed. Might not be Jet Li's best, but at least it doesn't use CGI like so many movies today. its fast and entertaining. The final fight scene between Frankie Lone and that long haired terrorist dude is really awesome (and funny).I give this movie a 9 out of 10 stars. Rent it, or even better, buy it!