One of the greatest martial arts movies of all time, Police Story, is now on streaming. Martial arts movies are one of the best subgenres of action cinema, because they deliver unique fight choreography and awesome stunts, and their stories are driven entirely by kicking and punching. There are a lot of martial arts movies with nonstop action for fans of the genre to enjoy: Fist of Legend, Yes, Madam!, The Prodigal Son, The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin — and don’t forget Bruce Lee’s seminal classic Enter the Dragon.

One of the biggest names in martial arts movies is Jackie Chan. Chan is a special filmmaker in this genre in that he often directed his own starring vehicles. He could demand take after take from his stunt team, because he was in front of the camera, exhaustively doing the stunts over and over with them. And Chan isn’t just an action hero; he’s a comedian. He took just as much inspiration from the silent comedies of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton as anything in the action genre. And now, one of his best movies is streaming on Max.

Police Story Is Still One Of Jackie Chan’s Best Martial Arts Movies

It’s Currently Available To Watch On Max

In 1985, Chan helmed the first true masterpiece of his directorial career: the action comedy noir Police Story. After being disappointed by his experience making James Glickenhaus’ The Protector, which was supposed to launch him into the American movie market as a Hollywood star, Chan put everything he had into this movie. He stars as Hong Kong police detective Chan Ka-Kui, who leads the charge against a drug kingpin and has to clear his own name when he’s accused of murder. It starts off as a typical film noir, but quickly deviates into high-octane slapstick.

Police Story was a huge box office success. It kickstarted a Police Story franchise consisting of three sequels, two reboots, and a spinoff. Today, it’s consistently ranked as one of the greatest action movies ever made by fans, critics, and filmmakers. It holds a perfect 100% score among top critics on Rotten Tomatoes. The Protector may not have made Chan an international star as planned, but Police Story certainly did. Police Story is now streaming on Max, and any action fans looking for a good martial arts movie should check it out.

1985’s Police Story Has One Of The Best Action Stunts In History

Chan Slides Down A Pole Through Exploding Electric Lights

If there was an Academy Award for Best Stunts (which, arguably, there should be), then it surely would’ve gone to Police Story at the 1986 ceremony. This movie has some of the most mind-blowing stunt work in the history of the action genre. Chan and his team built the entire shoot around the action set-pieces. These mega-scale action sequences required Chan and his fellow stunt performers to pull off complex, death-defying feats on camera, and it resulted in some of the most impressive stunts ever committed to film.

The stunt team pulled off parkour-style acrobatics before parkour even had a name. Chan hangs off the side of a speeding bus in a precursor to Tom Cruise hanging off the side of an airplane. The climactic fight scene at a shopping mall has broken panes raining shards of glᴀss. The movie’s action culminates in the “Rosebud” of cinematic stunts, as Chan slides down a towering pole with electric lights exploding all around him, captured in a single take in real time. Police Story is a masterclass in action stunts; that last stunt nearly killed Chan.

Police Story Is Jackie Chan’s Favorite Movie That He Was Involved In Making

Chan Has Immodestly Called It One Of The Best Action Movies Ever Made (& He’s Not Wrong)

It can be tough for an artist to comment on the quality of their own work and how it holds up years after they made it, but Chan hasn’t hesitated to sing Police Story’s praises. When he was asked which of his own films was the best in his opinion, Chan named Police Story as his favorite movie of his career. He said it was one of the best action films, not just from his career, but from the entire history of the genre — and he’s not wrong.

As its writer, director, and star, Chan was able to make exactly the movie he wanted to make with Police Story. He had a solid vision, he stuck to that vision, and he has no regrets about how it turned out. Police Story is one of the defining masterpieces of Chan’s storied action movie career, so if you’re a fan of the genre and you’ve never seen it, give it a watch on Max.