Mr. Nice Guy
New Line Cinema, Rated PG-13
Directed by Sammo Hung Kam-Bo
Written by Fime Ma and Edward Tang
Let's face it, all of Jackie Chan's movies are pretty much the same. But some are quite better than others. "Rumble in the Bronx" and "Supercop", for example, were quite extraordinary, while "Jackie Chan's First Strike" seemed a little too routine. "Operation Condor" fell somewhere in between those three, and the same can be said for his latest American release, "Mr. Nice Guy". One good point is that the actors, including Jackie, speak English a large majority of the time. The dubbing in his previous films detracted from it quite a bit, as English words were spoken so hurriedly over the Cantonese dialogue that they were sometimes unintelligible. This time everyone is speaking English (except for Jackie's token girlfriend, who speaks Cantonese, but at least she's subtitled). The plot really doesn't matter in a Jackie Chan movie, in fact it's as contrived as any of the others. Chan plays a TV chef named Jackie (what a stretch) who is also a good enough fighter that he could be a cop. When he sees some people attacking a woman outside his studio, he of course fights them off. In the confusion, the tape he was carrying of his TV shows is switched with one that the woman, a reporter, was carrying, a tape which could put away a big drug lord and his gang for good. Now the gang are after Jackie and the woman. There's plenty of action in this film, and an ending that comes close to "Rumble in the Bronx"'s fantastic climax in terms of property damage. Jackie's still wows you with his stunts and this one is more of a farce like the hotel scene in "Operation Condor". There are more laughs here than in most of his other films. But do there really need to be 3 damsels in distress (also like in "Operation Condor")? The audience I saw it with really enjoyed it and I did too, but it stll lacked the excitement of his first two American releases. Let's hope that if and when he becomes a full-fledged Hollywood star, he can recapture that magic and find a really good plot to match. ** 1/2
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