The prospect of the director behind The Expendables 4 overseeing an action-packed blockbuster that partners up Jackie Chan and John Cena sounds like genre junkie’s dream made reality, but Hidden Strike is doing a great job of hiding the fact it’s one of the most cursed productions to come along in a while.
You might not be able to tell from watching the trailer, but the big budget adventure wrapped shooting all the way back in September of 2018. Even though it’s gotten a full-length promo at long last, there still hasn’t been an official release date confirmed, which sums up the project in microcosm.
Through a combination of factors – which include but aren’t limited to the pandemic, frostier relations between American and Chinese studios when it comes to collaborating on major titles, the latter country’s desire to step away from Hollywood stars in favor of local faces, Chan’s waning box office drawing power, and Cena being forced to issue an apology after referring to Taiwan as an independent nation – Hidden Strike has been sitting on the shelf gathering dust for almost half a decade.
It looks as though there is a light at the end of the tunnel for the film previously known as Snafu, Project X, and Project X-Traction, but don’t be surprised if the wait proves to be for nothing and it flops at the box office both at home and abroad, which it has every chance of doing. It wouldn’t be the greatest conclusion to the long-running story, but it would be a fitting one.