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Released by: Well Go USA
Released on: October 24th, 2023.
Director: Larry Yang
Cast: Jackie Chan, Haocun Liu, Kevin Guo, Yueting Lang
Year: 2023
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Ride On – Movie Review:
Written and directed by Larry Yang, 2023’s Ride On tells the story of a man named Lao Luo (Jackie Chan), a movie stuntman who often works with a horse he's named Red Hare, who was born with a birth defect and was to be put down until Luo saved him. Lao's life, however, is a bit of a mess these days. Since he got injured on the job a few years ago, he had to declare bankruptcy and in doing so, went through a divorce and lost custody of his daughter, Xiao Bao (Haocun Liu).
When some debt collectors come looking for Lao Luo, he gets into a fight with them and learns that Red Hare is slated to be auctioned off. With no one else to turn to, he tries to get Bao to him out and with some help from her boyfriend, a lawyer named Naihua (Guo Qilin), she agrees.
Lao's fight, however, goes viral and that brings with it a resurgence in popularity. Soon enough, he's working again, with Bao taking on the role of his agent. As his career starts to take off again, she starts to worry about the dangers inherent in his work, leading to problems between them - and on top of that, those debt collectors are still out to grab Red Hare and settle the score.
Ride On has its moments and, to be fair, Jackie Chan is really good here but the movie really tries way too hard to tug at the audience’s heart strings and that is to the picture’s detriment. The movie incorporates a bit of a highlight reel in a scene where father and daughter watch some clips of complex stunts he did in his prime (allowing Ride On to use footage from some of Chan’s better known pictures) that actually works well in terms of bridging the relationship between father and daughter, until Yang overdoes it and the pair winds up in tear together. It’s a bit much in a movie that is tonally all over the place, never sure if it wants to be a straight action picture, an action comedy or a heartfelt drama about familiar relations.
Still, the movie isn’t a complete waste of time. Again, Chan plays his character well – and how could he not? The part was written specifically for him and plays to his strengths. While he’s no longer a young man and not capable of the insane, death defying stunts he did in his younger days and that have permanently solidified his status as one of the greats, there are a couple of scenes in Ride On where he does pull off some pretty fun set pieces. Additionally, the fight scenes – some of which do involve Red Hare – show that the guy can still move like no other, demonstrating his remarkable fluidity and unmatched knack for incorporating physical comedy into the martial arts.
There are moments where the movie has some interesting things to say about the way that the current film industry treats its older guard and sometimes the sugary father/daughter relationship moments land well enough, but not surprisingly, the movie is at its most entertaining when it focuses on the action scenes and the comedy scenes, leaving a lot of the melodrama feeling unnecessary.
Ride On – Blu-ray Review:
Well Go USA presents Ride On on a 50GB Blu-ray disc, with the feature using 40.5Gbs of space, in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer properly framed at 2.39.1 widescreen and it looks excellent. The digitally shot feature is pristine, just as you'd expect, while fine detail is excellent throughout. Color reproduction is great throughout, while skin tones look nice and lifelike and there are strong black levels as well. No complaints, the movie looks great on Blu-ray.
Mandarin and English language options are offered in offered in 16-bit DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio with removable subtitles offered up in English and Chinese. For review purposes, the movie was watched with the Mandarin DTS-HD mix, and it's quite strong. The action scenes make the most of the surround channels while there's decent LFE action present throughout. The score sounds strong without burying the performers while dialogue remains nicely balanced. Mandarin and English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo tracks are also provided.
Extras include a nine minute Behind The Scenes featurette that includes interviews with writer/director Larry Yang and Jackie Chan that mostly goes over what went into the stunt and action set pieces as well as Chan's importance to the movie.
A three minuet featurette titled On My Horse sees Yang and Chan talk about what it was like working with and acting alongside a horse in the movie, what made it difficult at times and some of the challenges that arose from this.
The disc also includes a trailer for the feature and trailers for a few other Well Go USA properties.
Ride On - The Final Word:
Ride On is uneven but despite its flaws, still worth seeing for Jackie Chan fans because it does feature a few pretty memorably moments and lets the actors inimitable charm shine through. The Blu-ray edition from Well Go USA looks and sounds very nice and while the extras are light, this is still a pretty solid release.