By Naomi Larkin
* *
Cast:Jackie Chan, Richard Norton, Miki Lee, Gabrielle Fitzpatrick, Barry Otto
Director:Samo Hung
Rating: M
Mr Nice Guy has all the right moves - Chan style - but though plot and quality acting have never been a strong point in his films, they are glaringly absent here.
Chan plays a chef
called Jackie who works with an Italian chef call Baggio (Otto). By accident, Chan gets caught up with journalist Diana (Fitzpatrick), who is running from a bunch of baddies, including a biker gang called the Demons and a drug lord called Giancarlo (Norton).
She has a video which will put the lot behind bars, but a mix-up results in that tape being in Jackie's car while she gets a video of his cooking show.
The mix-up, and some of the subsequent police "tracking" methods, mimic Enemy of the State - minus the sophistication.
The rest of the film sees Jackie and his bevy of beautiful women intermittently dodging or dealing to the baddies..
As expected, there are some terrific Hong Kong-style action scenes: a hair-raising chase with a horse and carriage, and some tricky moves on escalators and in the back of a panel van.
The best scenes involve a building site, wooden pallets, a buzzsaw, pvc piping and a huge mining truck.
Mr Nice Guy is the first collaboration in 10 years between Chan and director Hung (he makes a cameo appearance as a bicycle courier) who previously directed Chan in seven hit films.
The pair have no set script and actors are told what to do each morning before filming. This lack of rehearsal is said to ensure spontaneity. Perhaps it also accounts for the bad acting.
Mr Nice Guy, filmed in Melbourne, lacks Chan's trademark humour. The villains are unfunny goons, the women are portrayed as pathetic or bitchy and the bikers are a bad joke.
But the Chan action magic is still there and if that's all that matters then you won't be disappointed.
