There’s rarely a dull moment in “Crime Story”, an engaging police thriller starring Jackie Chan (“Police Story”, “Shanghai Noon”). This martial arts flick isn’t quite as comedic as most of Chan’s other films but it works surprisingly well as you never tire of Chan’s brand of action.

Based on a real-life incident, Chan plays a tough cop, Eddie Chan, who is suffering from stress when he is assigned to protect a rich businessman. When the businessman is kidnapped, Chan is teamed up with another officer as they pursue a lead in Taiwan. It soon becomes clear that somebody on the inside is dirty.

Jackie Chan is great as usual and although this film contains fewer stunts than many of other films, the fight scenes are still terrific to watch. Despite the somewhat harsher tone of this movie, Chan still manages to be likeable as always. Apparently, Chan decided to have some of the subplot scenes from the film cut and I think that was a wise decision. The other characters are okay but as is almost always the case with martial arts movies, the focus really is on the action star, whether it’s Jet Li (“Fist Of Legend”), Steven Seagal (“On Deadly Ground”) or Jackie Chan.

If you want to see shootouts, fistfights and chase scenes done right then Jackie Chan is your man and “Crime Story” is your movie. This is not a brilliant movie but it delivers exactly what you want it to. The action sequences feature a great blend of explosions and creativity and that’s what we want to see. As the film takes a more serious tone, we thankfully avoid some of the bizarre humour that plagues many Hong Kong martial arts movies (including many of Chan’s pictures). I had a good time with “Crime Story” and I think action movie fans are going to as well.