While a director should have bigger things in mind than just action, even on an action canvas, the rest of the film often feels half-hearted or perhaps just half-fleshed out.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
With heart, humor and some breathtaking special effects, Ding Sheng’s Railroad Tigers charms and thrills.
The Hollywood Reporter by Clarence Tsui
It's a throwback to Chan's wham-bam action comedies of the past, and a pretty effective one, too.
The New York Times by Glenn Kenny
It’s heartening to see Mr. Chan, who plays the avuncular leader of the guerrillas, demonstrating that he’s still game, but you wish his energy were being expended in more consistently enjoyable pictures.
The A.V. Club by Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
The Chinese film industry’s insistence on proving that it can make blockbusters that are as dull and crummy as anything to come out of Hollywood (but at only half the cost) continues unabated with Railroad Tigers.
Despite its energetic, intricately climax, Railroad Tigers is at its most entertaining when merely observing Chan’s smaller movements.
You know things are getting bad when an instantly forgettable, nearly impossible-to-follow, Chinese-language action movie manages to score a U.S. release simply because of Chan’s involvement.
It’s only the first week of January, but it will be hard to beat Hong Kong director Ding Sheng’s Railroad Tigers for the best opening credit sequence of the year.
Los Angeles Times by Robert Abele
Instead of a grand lark of fast fists and derring-do, we get a lumbering, choppy voyage of minimal excitement.
The Seattle Times by Tom Keogh
What follows is a post-setup hour of imaginative action and dazzling stunt work, all taking place on one of cinema’s great self-metaphors: a speeding train changing scenes every few seconds and heading toward an unknown destination.