Jackie Chan - Mister Nice Guy (DVD)

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Liked it
Story	Very ordinary
Characters / Performances	Satisfactory
Special Effects	Standard
Soundtrack	Unmemorable

Advantages:	Good comedy action scenes, good acting from Chan, pretty entertaining
Disadvantages:	The story is predictable/formulaic, the acting (apart from Chan) wasn't great, some parts subtitled

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I spotted this movie listed in Radio Times as being shown on channel 4 quite late at night a week or so back. I wouldn't have paid any attention to it, if it weren't for the fact that I spotted the cast and saw that it starred Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung (both of which I like, Jackie Chan is one of my favourite actors and I was a fan of the TV show Martial Law that starred Sammo Hung), which made me think - a-ha! yet another use for my trusty and heavily used new hard disk recorder lol and what a useful piece of equipment that is... anyway, I read the basic plotline from the listing, which basically set the story in a few lines, though I'll explain it now in a bit more detail. The movie is about Jackie (who, incidentally, plays someone with his same name, Jackie) is a TV chef in Australia (as random as that is! which is possibly the only original part of the story I must say unfortunately), who accidentally ends up being in the wrong place at the wrong time, as he (being the nice guy that he is, as indicated by the movie name) spots a lady in peril (oh no!), that lady being a reporter who had filmed some very dodgy goings ons by a drug gang. So Jackie spots this lady and manages to help get her away from them.

However, as you might imagine, this isn't the end of the story and instead Jackie finds himself being constantly pursued by actually two gangs of thugs, who are I think in competition with one another. They believe that Jackie has got ahold of a video tape, which the reporter and her male friend that gets caught by one of the gangs at the start (and presumably is killed by them), that will incriminate them, so they'll do anything to get it back...

Later in on the movie, poor Jackie suffers even more as not only does he have to try to escape from these thugs but one of them manage to kidnap his beloved girlfriend Miki and so its up to him to get her back.

Okay so the plot is a little confused and not entirely original *ahem* well ok not very original at all to be honest but this is still a very entertaining film because of the action scenes. Its a movie where really you don't need to work hard to follow the plot, just sit back and enjoy the well choreographed action sequences and the explosion scenes, which, although the move is over 10 years old now, are still pretty impressive.

This movie features alot more of Jackie's trademark fighting/martial arts action, than his current films tend to have nowadays, as, obviously, he was younger back then and probably physically able to do more. There is the usual comedic exaggeration aspects to the fight scenes, or at least most of them and they are very impressive. Watching the blooper reel shown at the end of the movie (something thats added to all of Jackies movies I believe, always well worth a watch, in this movie the blooper reel is shown before the credits rather than alongside them and it goes on for quite some time) really reminds you that he does pretty much all his scenes by himself, there are some bloopers where your shown scenes that he didn't quite manage to do first time presumably and you think wow that must have been a bit sore or awkward! you can also tell from the blooper reel that it was a fun film set to be on and everyone seemed to be having fun filming it...

I believe that Sammo Hung is a good friend of Jackie Chans and its Sammo that directed this movie (like I mentioned briefly above, he went on to appear in the US show Martial Law, a show that I always think as being similar to the Rush Hour movies Jackie went on to appear in). He also has an appearance in the movie, quite a funny one too as a bicyclist who accidentally comes across the van where Jackie is being held and he tries to help him but ends up getting beaten. There's a very funny scene later on when one of the bad guys is being dragged away by police and the bad guy says something like 'somebody slap me!' or 'somebody just hit me!' and Sammo's character, pissed off at being hurt by them, goes 'my pleasure!' and starts whacking him!. Okay I know this sounds very violent and not particularly funny but it isn't too violent really, I guess you'd have to watch it to see... there is violence in the movie but its mainly a sort of slapstick violence, the kind that you see in most of Jackies movies, there isn't any gore and there are no scenes that would really make you want to look away in disgust or anything that strong... its what I would call as being slapstick, fairly comedic action/comedy violence, with nothing really over the top.

I did feel like some of the other characters, well most apart from Jackie, were just there to keep the story going (which is pretty flimsy and by far the least important aspect of the movie I felt). The acting, by the sort of background characters, was ok at best but nothing more. Oh and just to mention, incase you wonder why I haven't mentioned any of the other actors or actresses in the movie, thats because personally I didn't recognise them, I think that Chan and Hung are the only two really well known people, at least to us in the West anyway. I have read on IMDBs entry for this movie that the women that plays Jackies girlfriend, Miki, in the movie, an actress called Miki Lee (yet another character with the same name as the actor/actress may I note!), is a well known Taiwanese singer, so some may know her, though I think she isn't as well known for acting. The only other name that may be recognisable is Richard Norton, who plays Giancarlo, who is the 'head honcho' bad guy, basically.

It might also be worth mentioning to anyone interested in seeing/buying this movie that there are parts of the movie where Jackie talks to his girlfriend in Mandarin and during those scenes, English subtitles are used, so you have to read those to understand whats being said. Thats not too difficult to do really, there aren't too many subtitles but I thought perhaps its worth mentioning. There are also some funny scenes where another character is trying to figure out what Jackie and Miki are saying and doesn't quite get the right interpretation. Apart from those scenes, which there aren't too many of really, however, Jackie talks in his English accent (which is easy to understand) and everyone else talks English too, so its generally pretty easy to follow.

Having had a quick look on IMDBs entry for this movie, I noticed that it has whats presumably a Chinese title, which is 'Yat goh hiu yan'. Its also known as 'A Nice Guy', 'No More Mr. Nice Guy' 'SuperChef' and the Mandarin title that it was named in Hong Kong is 'Yi ge hao ren'.

This is one of Jackies earlier movies, dating from 1997 (though I think it said in the Radio Times that it was from 1996 and on IMDB it says that its release date was in March 1998), well ok its from the mid to late 1990s anyway!, this was back when Jackie was really aiming to make it big in American movies, so this is one of the earlier movies he did which mixes his usual slapstick partly martial arts action violence and comedy with a predominatly English spoken and slightly more Western style movie. Its quite worth watching if your a fan of Chan, especially if you haven't seen many of his movies before he hit it big in the West, as you get an idea of what he used to be capable of action wise when he was younger and this movie features alot of action and some pretty cool special effects (mainly explosions) too!.

To give you some sort of idea of the scale of some of the scenes, well there's one that features Jackie and his girlfriend on a horse drawn carriage trying to get away from the ever present bad guys, though of course its difficult as the bad guys gain on them quickly and they have to try and stay low to avoid them... there's one part in the movie where Jackie, his girlfriend and the reporter, trying to escape from the baddies, have to try and inch their way over a very narrow long piece of steel, which isn't too easy considering their very high up trying to get from an apartment window to another building nearby and one of them has a fear of heights! during this difficult task, one of the baddies throws a grenade and there's quite a big explosion.

The other impressive part is right at the end of the movie, where Jackie manages to make a bit of a mess of things with a rather powerful vehicle, put it that way! now that really was rather impressive, I must say. In fact, I read on IMDBs entry for this movie that such a mess was caused by filming this in the area it was filmed, that the film crew were subsequently banned from filming there again! So there is definately plenty of visual treats within this movie...

Its rated 15, although im pretty sure that the Radio Times indicated it was a 12 rated movie, which seems a bit more appropriate. Like I say, it isn't gory and the violence isn't too over the top, I don't remember there being very many instances of bad language, I think its only worth adding that certificate (12) for the action violence really, thats the only or certainly the main element to be aware of, so I wouldn't recommend showing this movie in front of very small or young children...

I wouldn't say that this is an entirely brilliant, flawless movie but if its an entertaining 'leave your brain to rest at the door' movie with plenty of thrills and spills and the usual trademark Chan moves, that your looking for, or really any mix or any single one of those elements mentioned, then this movie should do.

I thought it was well worth watching as something to get my mind off other stuff, it isn't too boring and even if you do wince at the plotline (which, in my opinion, is far from original and rather cheesy) and are not too impressed by the acting, other than Chan's, you should still enjoy it for the basic light entertainment, comedy action and visual 'treats' it provides. Don't get me wrong, its by no means an entirely modern special effects blockbuster but it works well for what it is and not everything has to be done by CGI to be impressive. Knowing that Jackie basically does all his stunts by himself, without a stunt double, is reason to appreciate the work he does even more so and I also enjoyed it for the cameo/appearance Sammo makes as the cyclist. I don't feel like I'd be exaggerating if I said that this movie features non-stop action and its that, that really makes up for the formulaic/predictable and rather cheesy plot and the not too impressive cast (apart from Chan).

One last tip, incase you forgot I thought I'd mention it again, after the end of the movie itself, the blooper reel is shown and this is well worth watching, the one for this movie is quite long, definately worth a watch!

As I watched the movie from a recording from TV, I don't have the DVD so I can't comment on what the DVD contains, hence this is a 'film only' review. Also im recommending it as anyone who enjoys Chan's work should enjoy this and anyone who wants to watch a movie for some basic light entertainment and nothing more, should also quite enjoy this. Just watch it for what it is, some visual effects, some comedy and a bit of a laugh, not much else im afraid! Still I enjoyed watching it. I hope this review is helpful, thanks for reading it!