High Risk

Violence runs rampant throughout `Meltdown'. If you're not a fan of gore there's a good chance you won't like this movie. Bouncing Betty mines, time bombs, impaling, electrocution, dismemberment by helicopter blades, graphic gunshot wounds and death are among the dark and gruesome violence that balance out the comedic spoof this film is.

`Meltdown' itself is a spoof on both Die Hard 1 and 2 (Ironically it came out the same year as Die Hard 3). Terrorists dressed exactly like those in Die hard 2, right down to the urban fatigues (and trademark sunglasses for the evil military leader) Take over a high rise building, the plot of the original Die Hard. The geeky black computer hacker is replaced in this film by an equally geeky Indian computer hacker. Fans of the Die Hard trilogy will certainly enjoy the parallels `Meltdown' makes to the `Die Hard' trilogy.

`Meltdown' goes beyond a simple movie spoof. The semi-protagonist of the film `Freddie' is a composite spoof of Chinese martial arts movie legends Bruce Li and Jackie Chan. Freddie takes Chan's zaniness and silliness to extreme farcical levels, while wearing the yellow jumpsuit and uttering the kung fu sounds that Bruce Lee will always be remembered for.

The Kung Fu in this movie is average at best. It's not one of Jet Li's best performances, but then again it isn't bad. What the movie lacks in kung fu, it makes up for with the aforementioned gratuitous violence. The parody is what makes this film worthwhile. 6/9 stars.