Jackie Chan plays a cop in a plot of double-dealing, based on a high profile real-life kidnap story in Hong Kong. Significantly darker to Chan's other movies and featuring his use of guns, this different side to Jackie gets a brilliant showcase on DVD.

TECHNICAL FEATURES

Picture Although a little soft at times, this transfer remains detailed. It is a vast improvement on the old rental release tape.

Sound This 5.1 mix doesn't feature much in the way of effects, but the music score is effectively split between the front speakers and enjoys sturdy bass support.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Audio Commentary Bey Logan is once again on hand to turn you into an expert on the film. He starts by commenting that this film was shot back to back with "City Hunter". These two films are like night and day, with the infinitely sillier (if more fun) "City Hunter" grossing more money on release than "Crime Story".

Jackie would spend the day shooting "City Hunter" and then spend the evening making "Crime Story". As Bey reveals, Jackie was under pressure from Golden Harvest to turn out his films faster, which Jackie naturally took to the max.

Bruce Law Interview Bruce Law was the action director on the movie. His speciality is blowing things up and or creating effective fire effects.

This 24-minute interview with him is interesting because it's rare you get an insight into the work of an action director. Throughout the feature, you'll see footage of Bruce setting up explosions for other movies. He got into the business because he didn't trust the people in charge on other movies. As a result he created a company expert in creating the best pyrotechnic effects in Hong Kong.

Teddy Chan Interview It was Teddy Chan's job to write a screenplay based on the idea brought to him by director Kirk Wong. He chats a little about his career and the long development process of "Crime Story", which originally had Jet Li attached to star in it.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION
Region: 2
Chapters: 30
Ratio: 1.85:1 (anamorphic)
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Audio Tracks: English dub and original Cantonese (both 5.1)
Subtitles: English and Dutch
Captions: English
Menus: Animated, with music
Special Features Subtitles: All of the special features come with subtitles apart from the commentary and trailer galleries.

This DVD was reviewed on a JVC XV-S57 DVD player.