Vanguard is a poorly conceived and worse very unentertaining action-thriller where the usually wonderful Jackie Chan seemingly just phoning it in with rather generic fights and really awful CGI work.
Vanguard
(2020)
Genre(s): Action, Thriller
Lionsgate| PG13 – 107 min. – $24.99 | March 9, 2021
Date Published: 03/06/2021 | Author: The Movieman
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Lionsgate provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 1½/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: Tang (JACKIE CHAN) is CEO of the covert, security company Vanguard. After wealthy businessman Qin (JACKSON LOU) rats out his corrupt partner in an arms deal gone fatally wrong, he and his family become targets of the world’s deadliest mercenary organization – and the fighting power of Tang’s team is their only hope to survive.
Quick Hit Review: Vanguard is a film that is stupid for sure and that would be fine (see the Fast and the Furious franchise) however this one, financed entirely by seemingly 20 production companies out of China, was just not very entertaining. The plot is under cooked, features some awful CGI (specifically with the cars), indiscernible characters, a lame villain and a anti-climactic climax of the villain’s goal of vengeance on a man, who we only see for a few minutes in the third act, who killed his father. Although the film is only 107-minutes long, the thin plot still felt stretched out and apparently the filmmakers, namely writer-director Stanley Tong (Supercop 1 & 2 and… Mr. Magoo), felt having an extended gun battle or a car chase with “golden” CGI’d cars would make for a thrilling film, instead I lost interest pretty early on. Even the usually charismatic Jackie Chan seemed disinterested and his few fight scenes were average, at best.
I’m all for a dumb action film but this one falls short in every regard. Skip. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 1½/5 |
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This comes with a partially glossy slip cover and inside a redemption code for the Digital HD copy. The only bonus included is The Making of Vanguard (7:51) featurette. |
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VIDEO – 4½/5 |
| Lionsgate releases Vanguard on Blu-ray presented with a 1080p high-definition transfer and a 2.39 widescreen aspect ratio. For the most part, the picture is decent, detail is sharp throughout and colors are fairly vibrant especially once the film goes to Dubai. |
AUDIO – 4¾/5 |
| The disc comes with a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which is strong, outputting crisp and clear dialogue out of the center speaker and some nice depth with the numerous action set pieces. |
OVERALL – 2/5 |
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Vanguard is a poorly conceived and worse very unentertaining action-thriller where the usually wonderful Jackie Chan seemingly just phoning it in with rather generic fights and really awful CGI work for a 2020 film. If this were fun, I’d be okay with it but it was a chore to sit through and is an easy pass. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.