DVD Corner

Panda Plan Review

“Panda Plan” is a new low for Jackie Chan.

Written by Wei Xu, Meng Yida and Luan Zhang, “Panda Plan” is a 2024 Chinese action comedy in which Jackie Chan plays himself (well, a version of himself anyway). After filming a scene for a movie, Jackie Chan heads to the Noah Zoo for a public appearance/ceremony in which he adopts the rare baby panda. Unbeknownst to everyone, a client has hired a team of mercenaries to steal the baby panda. Wanting to keep the panda safe, Jackie Chan and the panda nanny (Su Xiaozhu) try to keep the panda away from the bad guys. 

Everything about director Zhang Luan’s “Panda Plan” is baffling. Who is this movie for? It would be one thing if this was a straight up family action-comedy with cutesy CGI panda shenanigans, but that’s not how this movie turned out. There’s a great deal of violence here. Granted, there’s a lot of slapstick humor and cartoony violence (including a showdown between Jackie Chan and a mercenary who wants to challenge Chan), but it’s certainly not wholesome family fare even with the happy ending. 

“Panda Plan” is also riddled with groan worthy attempts at humor and dopey sequences involving a robot named Tony, blatant Dairy Queen product placement, panda farts, rino milking, starstruck mercs with Jackie Chan tattoos, blaring pop songs, the list goes on. These moments are as bad as they sound

As for Jackie Chan, it’s puzzling why he would choose to star in this film. Sure, the concept of playing yourself and poking fun at yourself and your age is ripe with storytelling potential, but that element is entirely wasted in this cheeseball movie that amounts to little more than Chan running around with a panda. On top of that, this premise could have made for a fun action movie especially with the plotline involving Chan finding himself in an action movie esque scenario. Alas, that aspect is just too watered down here and it all feels like a gimmick that gets lost in favor of panda set pieces.

“Panda Plan” is available on Digital and Blu-ray Feb. 18 from Well Go USA.

February 5, 2025 - Posted by nicklyons1 | Movie Review | Action-Comedy, Jackie Chan, Panda, Panda Plan Movie Review, Panda Plan Review