“Island Of Fire” (also known as “Island On Fire” and “The Prisoner”) is a rather violent prison movie. The marketing of the movie would have you believe that the star is Jackie Chan (“Operation Condor”). He most certainly has a role but he’s not the film’s main focus.

In “Island Of Fire”, an undercover cop (Tony Ka Fai Leung “Men Suddenly In Black”, “The Lover”) infiltrates a prison. There he must survive murderous gangsters and corrupt guards as he tries to expose a criminal network. Meanwhile, Fatty (Sammo Hung “Ip Man 2”) hopes to escape the prison to be reunited with his son. Also, Lung (Jackie Chan) becomes the target of a vicious mobster (Andy Lau “Infernal Affairs”) hoping to avenge a relative.

There are a lot of characters in this movie. The main focus is on the undercover cop and so the storylines involving the other characters can sometimes mean that the movie loses focus. Sammo Hung is quite good as Fatty, who only wants to see his son again. Jackie Chan was apparently not very satisfied with this movie and only did it as a favour. The movie is noticeably more violent than most of his other films and there is almost no comedy in here. It means that Chan feels somewhat miscast here.

As far as prison movies go, “Island On Fire” is not bad. There are plenty of grisly scenes that show the brutality of prison life. There are some emotional scenes in here, especially with Sammo Hung. While the film is bloodthirsty throughout, the ending is especially violent and I suspect those hoping for a fun martial arts picture with Jackie Chan are going to be left unhappy with what they get by the end. This is definitely a film that suffered from poor marketing. As it is, this is an okay prison flick but I cannot really recommend it.