Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

Extraordinary Mission Blu-ray Movie Review

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 6, 2018

Hey, who gives a flying fig about handicapping the upcoming Academy Awards when we have the Jackie Chan Action Movie Awards to talk about? As I mentioned yesterday in the Reset Blu-ray review, I had frankly never even heard of the Jackie Chan Action Movie Awards until I started doing some background research on Reset in preparation for writing that review and discovered that Yang Mi from that film had been named Best Action Movie Actress at the 2017 ceremony (one wonders what the actual statuette for a Jackie Chan Action Movie Award might look like, but I digress). The Jackie Chan Action Movie Awards have evidently been around since 2015, tied to the similarly named Jackie Chan Action Movie Week which is part of the Shanghai International Film Festival. In looking over the just three years of awards thus far, several of the films feted have been reviewed by yours truly, including Wolf Warrior (Best Action Movie, Best Action Movie Actor — Wu Jing, Best Special Effects and Best Fight), Ip Man 3 (Best Action Movie, Best Action Movie Director — Wilson Yip, and Best Fight), and Operation Mekong (Best Action Movie Director — Lin Chaoxian). Extraordinary Mission now joins that august (?) group as a multiple winner of the Jackie Chan Action Movie Awards, having taken home trophies for Best Action Choreographer — Li Zhongzhi, Best Action Movie New Performer — Huang Xuan, and Best Special Effects. Not to disparage the Jackie Chan Action Movie Awards, but it’s probably a good thing that Extraordinary Mission was able to score a trifecta at that ceremony, since my hunch is it probably won’t be showing up on many nomination lists for major awards like, you know, the Oscars. Extraordinary Mission is in fact rather like Operation Mekong in at least a couple of ways, as it deals with the notorious drug trade in the so-called Golden Triangle.

Lin Kai (Huang Xuan) is an undercover cop (whose real name isn’t even Lin Kai) who has volunteered to be supposedly “stripped” of his police rank, assigned a new identity, and thrust out into the chaotic world of drug dealers, where he’s become part of a gang that is heavily involved in the heroin trade. The film opens with a brief vignette that seems to suggest Lin isn’t just dealing drugs, he’s using them as well, something that plays into the often pretty overheated plot dynamics of Extraordinary Mission. The film has a somewhat curious structure at times, one which tends to leap forward and backward over various timeframes, something that adds to a generally disorganized feeling.

One way or the other, anyone watching Extraordinary Mission is most likely going to come away from the film wondering about the police forces on display throughout the film. While Lin Kai and even at least a couple of other cops are shown to be basically honorable (Lin Kai’s drug habit notwithstanding), there are both corrupt cops on the take in the film as well as the necessary ineptitude on the part of chasing policemen that repeatedly allow the bad guys to escape.

It turns out the main target of all this undercover work, a nefarious drug cartel bigwig known as Eagle (Duan Yihong), has a (predictable) history with the police force and with Lin Kai’s main liaison to the police force, a guy who not so coincidentally was an undercover officer a decade or so ago and got within spitting distance of catching Eagle. It’s all by the numbers stuff, and Extraordinary Mission doesn’t really do all that much to try to push this particular envelope in any startling new directions, but there’s a rather appealing grittiness to parts of this film, especially as it details the various effects of addictive behavior and its aftermath.

If the narrative aspects of Extraordinary Mission are decidedly on the, well, ordinary side, the action side of things is considerably more exciting. There are a number of well staged set pieces here, including a couple involving a number of different vehicles, and directors Alan Mak and Anthony Pun keep their camera peripatetic enough that it may help to divert attentions from the fact that this story has been told many times before, and often with a lot more emotional resonance.

Extraordinary Mission Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Extraordinary Mission is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cinedigm and Crimson Forest with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The IMDb lists the Red Epic Dragon as having digitally captured the imagery at resolutions of up to 6K, with a 2K DI from which I assume this transfer was culled. This is a rather nice looking transfer on the whole, at least within the context of a kind of drab, dark and kind of "medical green" grading strategy that can tend to skew the palette in a kind of odd way. Several longish outdoor sequences offer excellent renderings of complex patterns like foliage and swirling water. Close-ups also offer abundant fine detail, at least when lighting conditions allow. All of this said, this has a curiously "digitally tweaked" look at times, with moments that almost look like upscales. It's an intermittent and transitory issue and I really can't account for it (other than that the IMDb does list several source resolutions of the original digital capture), but it did catch my eye on occasion.

Extraordinary Mission Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Extraordinary Mission features a nicely vigorous sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix that has a lot of low end courtesy of both LFE and regular use of kind of rolling synth pads in the lowest frequencies that spill through the surround channels. Things like car (and other vehicle) chases offer great opportunities for excellent immersion and well placed effects. Dialogue (including some voiceover narration by Lin Kai) is rendered cleanly and clearly on this problem free track.

Extraordinary Mission Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Making of Extraordinary Mission (1080p; 4:28) is a very ordinary EPK with a bunch of very brief interviews intercut with scenes from the film and some equally brief behind the scenes material.


• Trailer (1080p; 1:12)

Extraordinary Mission Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It's probably too easy to dismiss Extraordinary Mission as anything but extraordinary, but it does deliver several well staged and exciting set pieces that may deliver enough of an adrenaline jolt that viewers will be willing to let the film's other manifest shortcomings slide. Video has some kind of oddities on occasion, but audio is great for those considering a purchase.