3 Star

Not so S.M.A.R.T. a Move.

Charles Martin directs his first full length feature and it is set in the metropolis that is Shanghai. This brings Orlando Bloom to a new genre for the star of the Lord of the Rings series of films. Now he is a tough security expert getting high end contracts.

Danny Stratton (Orlando Bloom, Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge,The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug) runs S.M.A.R.T. (Security Management Action Recovery Team) and he is on the job transporting a Van Gogh (The Sunflowers) to London. His girlfriend Ling (Lynn Hung, Ip Man 3, All’s Well, Ends Well 2010) phones to see how he is doing, when BOOM! and the armoured van flies into the air and lands on its side. The next thing you know is that the painting is stolen and Danny’s career is over.

One year later, and Danny is still in Shanghai but now he is a bodyguard running a scam with his old crew J.Jae (Hannah Quinlivan, Gentle Bullet) and Mach Ren (Simon Yam, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life). On surveillance is DingDong Tang (Lei wu, Into the Rainbow) using high spec drones to keep an eye on convoys or the girl he is in love with, but he hasn’t plucked up the courage to ask Nana (Ruoxi Wang) out yet.

Some how Danny manages to wangle another job to London, but first they have to attend a Gala and they have to look the part as they are going to escort the ancient relic, the Zodiac Vase on its World wide tour. At the gala he meets the mysterious Tara (Jing Liang, Run for Love) a very strong minded woman and he is also contacted by Detective Di (Rong Chang, A Virtuous Widow) who believe the Van Gogh heist was masterminded by Danny.

Early the next day the convoy is off and it doesn’t take DingDong to spot the convoy being followed by motorbikes, is it going to happen all over again.

Let the action begin

“Failure is something I could never live with again – how’s that for assurance?”

There is a relic and the love of his life and his reputation to save, what can he do?

The Shanghai Job is available on DVD