Jet Li (“Fearless”, “Last Hero In China”) stars in “High Risk” (also known as “Meltdown”), a great action film that satirises “Die Hard”, “Speed” and Jackie Chan (“Police Story”, “Project A”). The action here is as exhilarating as possible and it’s a shame that this film gets overlooked (at least outside Asia) as it’s a lot better than other films similar to “Die Hard” such as “Under Siege” and “Cliffhanger”.

After failing to save his wife from a terrorist (Kelvin Wong), Kit Li (Jet Li) is now working as a bodyguard and stuntman for action star Frankie Lone (Jacky Cheung). When the same terrorist seizes control of a skyscraper, Kit must find a way to bring him down.

Jet Li is fantastic here. He dives around, kicking and shooting at everybody in sight. The Frankie Lone character is a spoof of Jackie Chan. The director worked with Chan on “City Hunter” and the two had a feud so here, the Malone character is an alcoholic and a womaniser that does not do all his own stunts. While it is somewhat funny, it does feel a bit more like the filmmakers were just trying to get back at Chan rather than focus on making great entertainment. The other characters are okay and some of them get to show off their impressive fighting skills.

Helicopters, cars, explosions, snakes and nunchucks, “High Risk” has them all. This is probably the most explosive Hong Kong action film I’ve seen since “Hard Boiled”. A few of the gags are a little lame but you cannot deny the greatness of the action sequences. If you love Hong Kong action films such as “Supercop” and American ones such as “Die Hard” then you simply must see “High Risk”. This is sadly an overlooked film in Li’s library.