“Hidden Strike” Theatrical Poster
Jackie Chan (Police Story 2013, Vanguard) and John Cena (F9: The Fast Saga 5, The Marine) are joining forces for Hidden Strike (which also goes under the titles SNAFU, Project X-Traction and Ex-Baghdad), an $80M budget, Iraq-based thriller directed by Scott Waugh (The Expendables 4, Need for Speed) and written by Arash Amel (Erased).
Hidden Strike (read our review) also stars Pilou Asbæk (Ghost in the Shell) and Jiang Wenli (The Final Master). Sylvester Stallone was originally set to star alongside Chan, but was replaced by Cena for reasons unknown.
Even though Hidden Strike wrapped production nearly 5 years ago, the anticipated film is finally getting a U,S, release date on July 28th, 2023 on Netflix.
Here what’s you can expect from the film’s plot (via Deadline): When a China-run oil refinery is attacked in Mosul, Iraq, a Chinese private security contractor (Chan) is called in to extract the oil workers. He learns, however, that the attackers’ real plan is to steal a fortune in oil, and teams up with an American former Marine (Cena) to stop them.
Catch Hidden Strike on Netflix on July 28th, 2023. Until then, don’t miss the film’s recent Trailer below.
Seriously, when does Jackie sleep??
Stallone has left the expendables franchise?? I missed that one….😳😳
Yep, check out this link: http://deadline.com/2017/03/sylvester-stallone-departs-the-expendables-franchise-1202057171/
The Marine vs. The Foreigner
So a meh movie is now potentially an awful one? Cena is horrible.
I might have actually been down with this if it were Bautista. He’s turning into quite the character actor.
Hope we get a trailer soon. With the exception of The Foreigner most of Jackie’s recent films aren’t much to talk about.
I learned from WWE’s Super Showdown PPV that John Cena spent some time training with the Jackie Chan stunt team. I hope it all paid off for him.
Despite Stallone and Chan’s years long friendship, it’s disappointing that they haven’t had a meaningful collaboration. (The Oscar winning Burn Hollywood Burn is not it.)
JC Stunt Team speak very highly of Cena with regards to attitude and skillset, he also some rocks some very good Mandarin language skills….and with Tim Man getting to let loose action wise on screen in this one too, I’m hoping for more of a Foreigner with moe more action vibe than a messy Bleeding Steel one
“Project Trash-can” would be more appropriate.
Hmmm. Kinda interesting. It’s sort of like a more comedic version of Wolf Warrior 2.
Well, the tone of that clip definitely feels more ‘Skiptrace’ than ‘The Foreigner’ that’s for sure! I don’t think anyone will be in a real hurry to see this one based on the trailer.
I personally don’t feel that this seems much like Skip Trace. It only does in the sense that Jackie teams up with an American/ English speaking co- star and they go on an adventure. That’s just the setup for most of Jackie’s English language flicks.
Just from this teaser alone, you can tell that the action is way bigger and better than in Skip Trace. The editing on ST’s fights were so bad that even the trailers couldn’t hide their inadequacies. It also at least seems through this teaser, that the dialogue is not just read off the page but the actors are immersed in the characters and speak their lines with intent and aplomb, something that Skip Trace couldn’t claim within its wildest dreams. Being simply a comedy doesn’t make this that different from The Foreigner necessarily because even if Quan is somewhat the antithesis of the stock Jackie Chan character, he still maintains that underdog spirit which I’m sure will be prevalent in both features. Now, I can’t say these positive qualities will necessarily make this a great film but I can say with 95 percent certainty that it will be better than Skip Trace.
I hope you’re right Jacob! Either way, whoever thought that “FROM THE DIRECTOR OF NEED FOR SPEED & THE EXPENDABLES 4” was an endorsement of Scott Waugh’s capabilities (even in 2017!) probably needs to be fired. It’d have been better to have said nothing at all!
i love it looks like i am the only one
I think it looks great too. Looks like Jackie’s best since The Foreigner. Probably will be one of his best of the last two decades.
I accidentally gave the film the title SNAFU. I hope they keep the name! It doesn’t look that bad, but it doesn’t look great.
Looks good!
Some other observations: It looks like this video was a flip phone recording of a screener. It’s also funny that it’s advertised as “From the director of another movie that’s still in production!”
According to Todd Brown, Scott Waugh gave action director Alan Ng full control in the action scenes. Waugh seems to have an understanding of allowing the choreography team creative control. Mr Leeder has said that the rough cuts of Expendables 4 look promising in that regard as well.
so great it sat on a shelf for 5 years, if you do that with a tin of beans is it still consumbake