Jackie Chan Can't Save Spy Next Door

Chan, 58, says new goal is to be 'Asian Robert De Niro'

(NEWSER) - The Kung Fu superstar is hanging up his black belt. Jackie Chan says he's done making action movies, reports US Weekly . Chan revealed his decision at the Cannes film festival, where he was promoting his 100th film—Chinese Zodiac. "This will be my last action movie," said Chan, 58. "I will ask my body how long I can go. ... I tell you, I am not young any more. I'm really, really tired." More»

Action flick less than the sum of its all-star parts

(NEWSER) - Sylvester Stallone directed and co-stars, alongside a Magnificent Seven-style roster of action-film legends—Bruce Willis, Dolph Lundgren, Jet Li, Steve Austin, Mickey Rourke, and Jason Statham—but critics have some issues with The Expendables.

• James Verniere (and a friend), Boston Herald : "Hulk like Expendables. It SMASH. Guns go BANG-BANG. Things go BOOM. Fire EVERYWHERE. Cars crash and make even MORE FIRE. HA-HA-HA. Hulk no like Rourke, though. Rourke NUTS."

Not everybody's sold on the new action thriller Salt

(NEWSER) - If you rely on critics for your movie-viewing choices, just flip a coin on Angelina Jolie's new save-the-world thriller, Salt. They're about evenly split:

• Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle : "When exploited properly—as Salt does, keeping her human and vulnerable, so that the character's amazing ability and ingenuity continue to surprise—this thing that Jolie does is, well, very cool. Making us believe in the woman who can do anything, and I mean anything, is Jolie's distinct contribution to today's cinema."
• Wesley Morris, Boston Globe : "Salt appears to have been assembled in the same food processor as most mainstream action films. So much of its fights and chases share a generic sameness both in their sloppy construction and where they’re situated."

Cruise is at his manic best in spy thriller

(NEWSER) - Lighthearted spy thriller Knight and Day is an entertaining, if not especially memorable, summer movie, say critics. How much you'll like it, they say, depends very much on how much you like Tom Cruise, who plays a crackpot CIA agent.

• Knight and Day "is hardly a perfect film, not even close, but it is the most entertaining made-for-adults studio movie of the summer, writes Kenneth Turan at the Los Angeles Times . "One of the reasons it works at all is the great skill and commitment Cruise brings to the starring role."

Will Smith's son, Jaden, impresses critics; Jackie Chan, too

(NEWSER) - The Karate Kid remake starring Jackie Chan and Will Smith's son, Jaden, is getting mostly decent reviews:

• Mike Russell, Oregonian : Sometimes, "formulaic" works. It's "charming, thoughtfully paced and even a bit emotionally involving, with what might be a movie-star turn by a movie star's son."
• Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer : Chan gives "a subdued performance of surprising grace," while Jaden "is suitably prickly as the forlorn tween terrified of an unknown country and an unknown language."