Archives: A
- E F - N O
- Z Posters Who
We Are and Why We Do What We Do
BLU-RAY DVDs
Batman Begins
Black Hawk Down
Blade Runner
Casino Royale
Dark Knight
District Nine
Defiance
Fast and Furious
Fast and Furious movies set
Fifth Element
The Hangover
Incredible HULK
Inglorious Basterds
Iron Man
Kill Bill 1 & 2
James Bond Ultimate ed v1James Bond Ultimate ed v2James Bond Ultimate ed v3
Julie & Julia
Moon
Public Enemies
Rambo box set
Silence of the Lambs
Sin City
This is Spinal Tap
Terminator
Terminator Salvation
Terminator 2
Top Gun
Total Recall
300
Transformers: Revenge of Fallen
Ultimate Matrix coll
Twilight
Underworld
Watchmen (dir cut)
X-Men Trilogy
X-Men Wolverine
BLU-Ray for family DVDs
Bolt
A Bug's Life
Cars
Chronicles of Narnia set
Coraline
Ghostbusters
Harry Potter & Chamber of Secrets
& Goblet of Fire
& Order of Phoenix
& Prisoner of Azkaban
& Sorcerers Stone
Ice Age/Alvin + Chipmunks set
The Incredibles
Jungle Book
Juno
Kung Fu Panda
Monsters Inc
Nightmare Before Xmas
101 Dalmatians
Pinocchio
Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy
Pixar short films
Ratatouille
Santa Clause
Santa Clause 2
Sleeping Beauty
Spiderwick Chronicles
Sleeping Beauty
Snow White & 7 Dwarfs
Star Trek motion pictures set
Star Wars Prequel Trilogy (1-3)
Star Wars Trilogy (4-6)
Transformers SE
Wallace and Gromit
Wall-E SE
We're Kidlet Safe
Search engine
by FreeFind
click to search site
Now in Release:
Alice in Wonderland
An Education
Avatar
Blind Side, the
Brooklyn's Finest
Green Zone
How to Train Your Dragon
Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
The Proposal
Red Cliff
She's Out of My League
A Single Man
Waking Sleeping Beauty
DVDs on Sale:
An American in Paris
Batman
Begins
Blade
Runner
Blind Side
The Dark Knight
Day the Earth Stood Still
Die Hard collection 1-4
District Nine
Forrest
Gump
Gone
With the Wind
The Hangover
Indiana
Jones trilogy
Inglorious Basterds
Lord
of Rings trilogy
Ultimate
Matrix set
Monty
Python - Holy Grail
Moon
South
Park Movie
Star
Wars Trilogy (1-3)
Star
Wars Trilogy (4-6)
Terminator Salvation
Up
Wall-E
Watchmen - Ultimate cut
Woodstock
X-Men
Trilogy
X-Men Origins Wolverine
DisneyPixar/family DVDs
Alice
in Wonderland
Bambi
Beauty
and the Beast
Beverly Hills Chihuahua
Bolt
Cinderella
Coraline
E.T.
Harry
Potter yrs 1-4 set
Harry Potter
& Chamber of Secrets
& Goblet of Fire
& Prisoner of Azkaban
& Sorcerers Stone
& Order of Phoenix
Kung Fu Panda
The
Lion King
Mary
Poppins 45th LE
Pinocchio
Ratatouille
Shrek Trilogy
Simpsons Movie
Spider-Man Trilogy
Star Trek movies set
Star
Trek TOS (TV)
ST:TNG complete tv set
Star Wars Trilogy (1-3)
Star
Wars Trilogy (4-6)
Wallace and Gromit
Wall-E SE
Looney
Toons
Golden Age DVD
Volume
1
Volume
2
Volume
3
Volume 4
Volume 5
Volume 6
Rocky & Bullwinkle DVD
Season
1
Season
2
Season
3
Popeye the Sailor DVD
v.1 1933 - 1938
v.2 1938 - 1940
v.3 1941 - 1943
75th anniversary coll.ed.
|
|
Mr. Nice GuyStarring Jackie ChanScreenplay by Edward Tang and Fibe Ma Directed by Samo Hung Website www.newline.com |
IN SHORT: Real Good Chan.
History first: The fact of the matter is that the diehard Jackie Chan fans have already seen Mr. Nice Guy, which was made two years back and has been available on video import. That leaves us normal folk, who may have gotten our first taste of Chan with the incredibly inappropriately named (but brilliantly marketed) Rumble in the Bronx. Two studios have been battling each other with releases of other Chan product ever since and those flicks have all been, frankly, generic.
The strong point of Jackie Chan's flicks has never been the story, always a bare bones frame on which to hang his incredible fight sequences. Chan's strength has also been that he is unafraid to make fun of himself. Action and comedy work well together. The more Chan flicks you see, the more you look forward to the good parts and ignore the rest. That's straight from the mouth of continuity freak Cranky, who's learned to look the other way. Once you've seen a couple of Jackie Chan movies, the only way they get better is if the action gets bigger. Which brings us back to the present, and Mr. Nice Guy.
Jackie Chan versus a Monster Truck. [tee hee]. This is after Jackie's apartment gets grenaded and before he takes on the villainous glass house. [double tee hee].
This time out, Jackie is a television chef. Diana (Gabrielle Fitzpatrick), a red-haired knockout of a television reporter (who will spend a good hunk of time lounging in her Victoria' Secrets) has videotaped a major cocaine deal and is being chased by the usual inept, but nasty, gang. Jackie saves her butt, her videotape gets swapped with a vid of Jackie's show and soon drug lords and street gangs are after the pair, Jackie's show producer and his just off the plane from China girlfriend. There's some family stuff and a pair of cute kids but, this time out, the emphasis is less on humor than on action.
In this, director Samo Hung and Chan's stunt choreographer Cho Wing have done a great job. Mr. Nice Guy features more action than the usual flick, reprises some classic Chan stunts and introduces some very dangerous looking bits, two of which involve very sharp metal objects and their ability to separate Jackie's Crown from his Jewels. The fights are staged inside a minivan; all around a galloping out of control horsedrawn carriage; on public escalators and at tube stations in Melbourne, Australia.
Still, the acting is B-picture level and the story has fewer major errors than usual. Cranky's advice is to have the concession stand pour extra golden glop over your popcorn. That way you can lick your fingers when Jackie pauses before whipping the bad guys.
As always, just when it's all over, the outtakes reel runs. In this case, most of the humor that wasn't present in the "real" movie bursts like a damn. Jackie messes up his lines and giggles like a school kid. Jackie gets hurt and the audience I sat with giggles likewise. Go figure.
On average, a first run movie ticket will run you Eight Bucks. Were Cranky able to set his own price to Mr. Nice Guy, he would have paid . . .
$5.00
Hell, Cranky only gave Rumble in the Bronx a $4. Mr. Nice Guy, the fourth Chan flick I've seen, is a blast. Now if only we could get Chan to team with Chow Yun-Fat and John Woo. . . .
Hey, a boy can dream.