New Police Story Rankings And Opinions

When people talk about the Police Story franchise, the first images are usually
1980s Jackie Chan hanging from a bus with an umbrella or sliding down a pole wrapped
in exploding lightbulbs. Then along comes New Police Story (2004) – same
hero, same basic premise, but suddenly everything got darker, sadder, and just a bit
emo. It’s a reboot, a mid-career reinvention, and a very different vibe from the
original trilogy.

Two decades later, fans still argue: where should New Police Story rank in the
franchise? Is it underrated, overhyped, or sitting comfortably in the middle of
Jackie Chan’s long filmography? Let’s dig into critic scores, fan polls, and the
movie’s strengths and weaknesses to see where it really belongs.

What Is New Police Story, Exactly?

Released in 2004 and directed by Benny Chan, New Police Story is a Hong Kong
action thriller that serves as a reboot and the fifth installment in the
Police Story series. Jackie Chan plays Senior Inspector Chan Kwok-wing, a once
legendary cop who leads his elite squad into a disastrous mission against a group
of thrill-seeking rich kids obsessed with killing police officers. The entire team is
wiped out in a carefully planned ambush, and Chan is left as the sole survivor,
drowning in guilt and alcohol until a mysterious rookie, Frank (Nicholas Tse),
pushes him back into the case.

The film leans much harder into drama than the earlier entries. Instead of the
mostly breezy, slapstick-infused hero of the 1980s, we get a broken protagonist:
Chan is traumatized, self-destructive, and haunted by his failures. The villains
aren’t gangsters with business suits and sunglasses – they’re entitled youths who
turn their crimes into an online game. The result is an intense mix of emotional
breakdowns, skyscraper stunts, and highly choreographed shootouts and chases.

How Critics and Aggregators Rank New Police Story

Rotten Tomatoes and the Mid-Table Slot

On Rotten Tomatoes, New Police Story holds an approval rating in the low 60%
range – respectable, but not earth-shattering. It typically lands around the mid-20s
when all Jackie Chan films are ranked by Tomatometer, meaning it’s far from his
worst, but also not close to the top tier occupied by classics like the original
Police Story, Police Story 2, Drunken Master II, and Rumble in the Bronx.

Critics tend to agree on a few things:

• The stunt work is still impressive and often spectacular.
• Jackie Chan’s performance is more dramatic than usual and surprisingly
  effective.
• The story can feel melodramatic and overcooked, especially in the middle act.
• The villains are visually striking but can come across as cartoonishly sadistic.

In written reviews, many praise the emotional ambition but note that the shift in
tone might be jarring for fans who associate Jackie Chan with lighter, more
comedic action.

Box Office: Solid but Not Legendary

At the Hong Kong box office, New Police Story pulled in just over HK$21 million,
making it a solid domestic hit but not a runaway phenomenon. Internationally, its
theatrical footprint was limited, with a small UK release and later a straight-to-DVD
debut in the United States.

In terms of financial performance within Chan’s career, it sits firmly in the
“successful but not iconic blockbuster” category – a film that did well enough to
justify its existence and future sequel plans, but not one that redefined his
stardom or the franchise’s global reach.

Where Fans Rank New Police Story in the Franchise

If you drop into fan forums, Reddit threads, and informal ranking lists, you’ll
notice something interesting: New Police Story often lands near the top, even
when critics are more reserved.

Among the Police Story Movies

In one popular fan ranking of the Police Story films, the top three often look
something like:

1. Police Story 2
2. New Police Story
3. Police Story (the 1985 original)

Classic entries like Supercop (Police Story 3) and First Strike typically fill
out the next positions, while later spin-offs like Police Story: Lockdown tend to
land lower.

Why do a lot of fans put New Police Story so high? It comes down to the mix of
modern action filmmaking and emotional stakes. For viewers who discovered Jackie Chan
in the 2000s rather than the 1980s, this movie often becomes “their” Police Story –
the one that feels contemporary, slick, and emotionally heavy in a way that
resonates with a newer generation.

Versus Other Jackie Chan Movies

When ranked against Jackie Chan’s entire career output, New Police Story usually
lands just below the absolute top-tier classics. On large ranked lists of Chan’s
filmography, it tends to sit in the upper-middle pack, around the 20–30 range out
of dozens of titles.

That’s not bad company. It’s rubbing shoulders with well-liked but not universally
adored films: ones that fans will happily rewatch but won’t necessarily cite as the
single greatest introduction to Jackie Chan’s body of work.

What New Police Story Does Really Well

1. Darker, More Vulnerable Jackie Chan

The biggest selling point of New Police Story is Jackie Chan’s performance. He
plays Chan Kwok-wing as a shattered hero – a man crushed by guilt, who spends a
chunk of the film drunk, broken, and lashing out at people trying to help him. This
is a far cry from the cheerful supercop of the earlier installments, and the result
is one of Chan’s more emotionally raw roles.

For longtime fans, it’s fun to watch him stretch. Yes, he still performs impressive
stunts, but the heart of the film is his struggle to forgive himself and step back
into the role of protector, not just punchline.

2. Big, Cleanly Shot Action Sequences

This is still a Jackie Chan movie, and the action is front and center. Among the
standout sequences:

• The opening disaster, which brutally wipes out Chan’s team inside a booby-trapped
  warehouse.
• The bank heist and urban chase, which combine gunfights, rappelling, and
  Jackie-style improvisation with props and architecture.
• The finale atop a skyscraper, complete with dangling heroes, rooftop confrontations,
  and a grim “game” with a pistol that decides the villain’s fate.

The action isn’t as playful as in earlier entries, but it’s polished, intense, and
easy to follow. The camera is mostly steady, the geography is clear, and you can
actually see the stunt work being done – a refreshing contrast to the quick-cut style
that dominates some modern action movies.

3. A Surprisingly Thematic Story

Beneath the explosions and shattered glass, New Police Story flirts with some
big ideas:

• Redemption and guilt: Chan’s journey is about owning his mistakes
  and rediscovering his sense of duty.
• Generational conflict: the villains are disillusioned rich kids
  who treat violence as sport, clashing with older, duty-driven cops.
• The gamification of violence: the gang builds online “games”
  based on their crimes and body counts, echoing early concerns about internet
  culture and voyeurism.

The movie doesn’t explore these themes with the depth of a serious drama, but they
give the story more emotional weight than a generic cop-versus-criminal plot.

Where New Police Story Stumbles

1. The Melodrama Dialed Up to 11

Subtlety is not this film’s strong suit. Emotions are delivered with big speeches,
tearful confrontations, and lingering flashbacks. Some viewers find the dramatic
tone refreshing; others feel like they’re watching a soap opera with grenades.

The guilt, betrayal, tragic romance, and emotional reveals just keep coming, and
if you’re here purely for classic Chan-style comedy and fight choreography, the
heavy drama can feel like overkill.

2. Cartoonishly Evil Villains

The villain Joe and his gang are undeniably memorable: wealthy, thrill-seeking, and
obsessed with killing cops for points in a twisted game. But their motivations are
thin, and their cruelty is so exaggerated that it occasionally breaks the emotional
realism the movie is reaching for.

When your antagonists feel like they escaped from a comic book, it can undercut the
grounded sadness of your broken hero. It’s entertaining, but dramatically uneven.

3. Not the Most Original Plot

Peel away the emotions and the stylized X-games flavor, and the core story is
fairly familiar: disgraced cop seeks redemption by taking down the crew that
destroyed his life. The movie’s strength lies less in the originality of its plot
and more in the energy of its execution and the charm of its lead.

So, Where Should New Police Story Rank?

Taking into account critic scores, fan rankings, box office performance, and the
movie’s strengths and weaknesses, here’s a reasonable placement:

• Within the Police Story series: comfortably top three or four,
  behind the original Police Story and Police Story 2, and neck-and-neck with
  Supercop, depending on your taste for either gritty drama or wild
  Hong Kong–meets–Hollywood action.
• Within Jackie Chan’s full career: upper-middle tier – a strong
  recommendation for fans, but not the single best starting point if someone has
  never seen a Chan movie before.

If you love emotional, darker action with a still-physical Jackie Chan pushing
himself both as an actor and stunt performer, New Police Story deserves a high
spot on your personal list. If your heart belongs to the looser, funnier chaos of
the 1980s, you might rank it lower – but it’s still hard to argue that this movie
isn’t a bold and important chapter in the franchise.

My Personal Opinion: A Bridge Between Eras

For many viewers, New Police Story feels like a bridge between “classic Hong
Kong Jackie” and “modern serious Jackie.” It keeps the physical risk and practical
stunt work that made him a legend, but layers in a level of emotional vulnerability
and darkness that would show up again in later projects.

It’s not perfect – the villains can be too theatrical, and the melodrama occasionally
overshoots – but if you watch it as a reinvention rather than a retread, its place
near the top of fan rankings starts to make a lot of sense.

Experiences and Reflections on New Police Story Rankings

Rankings are fun until you realize they’re also incredibly personal. Ask ten Jackie
Chan fans to list their top five movies, and you’ll get at least twelve different
answers. That’s especially true with New Police Story, because it sits at a
crossroads of nostalgia, tone, and timing.

For older fans who grew up renting grainy VHS copies of the original Police Story,
the 2004 reboot arrived with a faint sense of suspicion. Here was a more polished,
digital-era Hong Kong, a more somber Jackie, and a story that didn’t lean on goofy
gags and slapstick. If your mental picture of Chan involves him crashing through
a shopping mall while yelling in frustration, the brooding, hungover inspector in
New Police Story can feel almost like an alternate-universe version of the
character.

Younger viewers often have the opposite experience. For them, this was the movie
sitting on the DVD shelf, the one that played on late-night TV, or the one a friend
brought over and said, “You’ve got to see this – Jackie Chan, but serious.” Their
nostalgia isn’t for the 1980s wire-fu era; it’s for early-2000s thrillers with slick
cinematography, slightly over-the-top villains, and angst-ridden heroes. No wonder
their rankings put New Police Story so high – it was their gateway drug.

In online discussions, you can almost chart someone’s movie-watching era based on
where they place this film. If they tell you their absolute top Chan movies are
Police Story, Drunken Master II, and Project A, they’ll probably slot
New Police Story in the middle – “good, not classic.” If their list leans more
toward New Police Story, Who Am I?, and the Rush Hour series, you’ll see
it bump up a few spots, maybe even into the “all-time favorite” tier.

Another factor is how you feel about tonal shifts in long-running franchises. Some
viewers love when a series grows up with them: darker themes, more flawed heroes,
higher emotional stakes. Others prefer consistency – they want the same charming
blend of humor and action every time. New Police Story plants itself firmly in the
first camp. It asks you to accept that time has passed, that heroes can break, and
that the world they’re policing has changed. If that resonates with you, it’s easy
to rank this film very high.

Rewatching it alongside the original trilogy also changes your perspective. Seeing
the young, acrobatic Jackie Chan of the 1980s and then jumping forward to the
battered, emotionally worn-down Chan of 2004 gives the reboot a kind of meta layer.
It’s not just the character who has aged and collected scars – it’s the performer
himself. You’re watching an action legend wrestle with his own legacy on screen,
and that carries emotional weight even when the script isn’t subtle about it.

In the end, my experience with New Police Story rankings always comes back to one
simple rule: it’s less about a “correct” position and more about what version of
Jackie Chan you personally connect with. If you want the wild, improvisational
physical comedy that made him famous, you’re going to rank other films higher.
But if you’re fascinated by the idea of a broken, haunted supercop fighting his way
back to dignity, you might find yourself championing this movie every time someone
posts a “Top 10 Jackie Chan Films” thread.

And honestly, that’s the fun of rankings and opinions: not creating a universal
scoreboard, but sparking the conversation. New Police Story might not be
universally crowned the best, but it’s one of the films that reliably gets people
talking, debating, and rewatching – and for a 2004 reboot in a long-running
franchise, that’s a pretty impressive legacy.

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