by Curtis Edmonds -- blueduck@hsbr.org
The greatest thing about Mr. Nice Guy is the anticipation. We at one point see a mass biker wedding, complete with great big balloons and this huge giant wedding cake. This shot is intercut with the usual footage of Jackie Chan being chased by an army of gangsters. And for a moment, we see the biker wedding the way that Jackie Chan, filmmaker, sees it, as a grand and glorious opportunity for comic chaos. And sure enough, Jackie gets one of the balloons airborne, the bad guys shoot it down, and he falls splat in the middle of the cake while the biker grooms do some damage to the party-crashing gangsters. Even better, we see the splashy, trendy house of the chief gangster (who gets in a snit if people track in dirt) and we know, we just know, that there is going to be some major remodeling done before the movie's through. It's exactly the same sensation you get when you see a table filled with pies in a Three Stooges movie.
There are people who don't like Jackie Chan movies, and I'm not surprised. You can always find someone to criticize things that are pure and good and fine. There are people out there who don't like Dr. Pepper and drink carrot juice or coffee or some other nasty beverage. There's a percentage of people that will watch old people play golf on TV while the Cowboys play the Packers. I know people who don't like peach cobbler. The criticism of the good things in life by some ought not to discourage the rest of us from enjoying them.
You will hear people say that Jackie Chan movies are poorly dubbed. This problem has been (mostly) solved in Mr. Nice Guy, where all the action takes place in Melbourne and everybody (even the Australians!) speaks at least some English. You will hear people say that Jackie Chan doesn't speak English very well. So what. You will hear people say that the movies are repetitive and formulaic. What's your point? So are most of the movies coming out of mainstream Hollywood nowadays.
You will hear people say that Jackie Chan movies don't have a plot. Does a Roadrunner cartoon have a plot? A plot would only spoil things. This outing, the fifth Jackie Chan movie placed in wide release in America, accidentally places Jackie in possession of a tape showing a drug deal by two rival gangs. The gangs chase Jackie all around Melbourne (which looks like a neat little town, someone call my travel agent) in pursuit of the tape. Unfortunately, Jackie's cop friend's kids swipe the tape -- so since Jackie can't produce the tape, he gets chased some more until the movie ends.
(The tape is hilarious, by the way. It's ostensibly shot by two repoters hiding upstairs, but when we see the tape, it looks like it's been shot from three different angles -- including an angle which shows the tape being made.)
The whole purpose of a Jackie Chan movie is to let Jackie show off his impressive kung-fu skills and his impeccable comic timing. Jackie is fast with his fists, but he knows that he can't whip the entire gangster army with his bare hands. So he uses his brain and his quick feet and the things he finds around him -- a portable cement mixer, a parked 18-wheeler, wooden pallets, the emergency brake -- to beat up the bad guys and make them look foolish so we all have a good laugh. More than anything else, it's the sheer inventiveness that Jackie brings to the fight scenes that makes the movie work.
The only thing lacking in Mr. Nice Guy is the climactic scene, which features Jackie's duel with a giant earth-moving machine. It's a perfectly good bit, but it pales in comparison to the climactic chase scene in Supercop, or the hoverboat chase in Rumble in the Bronx. However, there's a lot for Jackie Chan purists to like -- for example, when Jackie proves that, yes, he can beat up bad guys with his arms and legs tied behind his back.
If you've still decided not to like Jackie Chan movies, I can't change your mind. But if you haven't ever seen one -- and most of you haven't -- at least try one, OK? Jackie Chan is a great talent, he's always watchable, and there's never a dull moment in his movies. Now, if he just had a big budget and a decent supporting cast for a change....
Rating: A- -- Curtis "BlueDuck" Edmonds blueduck@hsbr.org
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