Jackie Chan wants a world-wide audience. He's already conquered Asia, so why he wants the western audience is not immediately clear - he doesn't need us. Yet there can be no doubt that with Rumble in the Bronx and now First Strike Chan is attempting to woo those who have traditionally ignored his films.

First Strike may not be set in the U.S., but it is even more strongly anglo-oriented than Rumble. There are still Asian faces in the cast (including Bill Tung, reprising his role as Jackie's boss from the previous Police Story films) yet you increasingly feel they might not be there if American or Australian stuntmen could handle Chan's pace (Maggie Cheung, as Chan's girlfriend Mai - last seen lying unconcious in the middle of the road after being thrown from a helicopter in Police Story 3 - is nowhere to be seen). This was the first of two Chan movies to be filmed in Australia, and setting movies here makes a lot of sense from Chan's point of view: we are culturally close to the U.S., and geographically close to Asia. This means we sit perfectly between his existing and desired markets. (Roger Ebert's theory, expressed in his Cinemania review, that Chan is chasing the Australian and Russian markets with First Strike is frankly bizarre. Since all of Australia has a population about equal to that of Southern California, and the Russian population is not exactly flush with disposable income, this would be a brave marketing move indeed).

First Strike's plot is pure James Bond, recycling the old Thunderball / Never Say Never Again conceit of stolen nuclear warheads. Chan himself makes this comparison explicitly after he chases the warheads to Brisbane ("Wow! Now I am 007!"), but the audience will have made the connection well before this, in the Ukraine sequence. Ukraine, we are already thinking, is a classic Bond location, even if when Chan trails a suspect into the mountains, it increasingly resembles an Australian ski resort (specifically, Falls Creek in Victoria). Yet Bond is most clearly evoked when things go wrong and Chan has to flee by ski: J. Peter Robinson's music fires up, and drop me in a frozen lake if we aren't listening to a just barely disguised John Barry Bond music tribute.

The Bond comparison, however, not only highlights how similar to western action First Strike is: it also throws into relief how different they are. The Bond films featured several ski sequences, and while some were very well photographed, they had an unfortunate habit of cutting back to dodgy shots of Bond rocking back and forth in front of a rear projected (or blue screen) background. Chan allows himself no such luxuries. It's central to the Chan legend that he does all his own stunts, and his cheerful self abuse knows no bounds. Not only is he actually doing the skiing, but he's wearing short sleeves as well. When he skis over a hill and grabs a helicopter, that's Chan too. And when he drops off the helicopter and lands in a half-frozen lake, you can't help but admire the man's insane dedication.

The fact that Chan is doing all this stunts completely changes your approach to the action. In a Hollywood film, it's the narrative that excites you, and you must be swept up in it to enjoy the chases, fights and stunts. Chan's films are enjoyable on a narrative level, and the recent ones, in particular, are extremely well made (Rumble and First Strike director Stanley Tong is a former stuntman, but his confident style belies his origins: he's not Hal Needham). Yet they receive an added boost beyond this, because as well as narrative involvement you are constantly marvelling at what Chan had to put himself through to make them. This is why Chan is able to get away with so much comedy and self-degradation. Unlike Schwarzenegger, Stallone, or Willis, Chan doesn't have to indulge in self-glorification to get us to admire him. His films don't try so hard to build him up as the toughest or coolest man on the planet. We know that Chan could beat the living daylights out of any American action star, and we're pretty sure that none of them ever broke bones in the name of duty. He's genuinely tough, and he knows we know.

That said, First Strike is not one of his best films. The plot is hard to follow (possibly due to the fact that about half an hour was cut from the film in the English language print), but it's the quality of action on show that is really critical. The ski sequence is impressive, but not Earth shattering, and later sequences never quite give us enough. In his search for new locations, he ventures underwater, staging his climax in a large aquarium. It's a funny sequence, but disappointing, because speed is central to Chan's style and the water slows him down too much (this is a lesson Chan should have learnt from the Bond films, several of which feature interminable underwater action scenes). After leaving the fishtank, he commandeers a car and jumps on to the villain's boat. We expect another fight here, but it never comes, giving the film an annoyingly abrupt conclusion. As it is, there is only one sequence that truly shows Chan at his most impressive. This is a long sequence where he takes on half a dozen men single handedly, and it shows Chan's best qualities. Firstly, we can see his astonishing physical strength and control, and secondly, there's his patented use of props (in this case a step-ladder).