| Now I'm a big Jackie Chan fan like anyone, even though I have only seen a few of his movies (which, I am assured, are still not as good as Project A Part 2 and Drunken Master) but I cannot recommend this movie. |
| The fight scenes were not the usual jaw-dropping gorgeousness that I have come to expect, and the silliness was more silly like a porn movie than silly like a modern-day slapstick Buster Keaton. Only one scene was what I could consider "proper" Jackie Chan, a scene in a construction area with wacky flapping doors and dangerous power tools - and I had to wait an hour and 10 minutes to get to it. |
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It wasn't directed by Stanley Tong (perhaps his DGA membership was revoked after Mr. Magoo) and maybe that is the problem, Jackie was not given the freedom to be Jackie and we the audience were not considered. Early in the movie the camera passes through a room full of brooms and ladders and my pulse raced, thinking of the fun to come. If you have seen a decent Chan movie you know of which I speak. |
| A hideously looped drug lord premise and the red headed Aussie lady from NYPD Blue attempted to fashion a movie out of the mess written by Edward Tang and Fibe Ma. Jackie is a TV chef who accidentally gets involved. YAWN. He's just a nice guy, with a woman assistant, a girlfriend, and the Aussie tabloid reporter babe, and no hilarity or ass kicking ensues. |
| Some truly awful post-principal photography decision was to make scenes that were not slo-mo into slo-mo as if that would add anything. I don't even mean like John Woo some bad boy is coming over the hill slo-mo, I mean a n d s h e ' s r u n n i n g t o c a t c h t h e b u s slomo. YAWN. Plus since it was shot with the wrong speed film, it just looked messy and pixelated, like the end of Toys. |
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| Weird blurry closeups and truly addictive use of the afterthought slo-mo combined with little or no intrigue, humor, or ass kicking, and what do you have? A big truck and $6.75 down the tubes. |
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Never mind poorly thought out details, like a cinema-quality video tape supposedly taken in secret from a corner of the room (complete with cuts and angles and music), or the painful uselessness of the bloopers at the end - a Jackie staple - but they're ACTING bloopers? Who cares? Where's the ambulance?
I was saddened. |
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