skjam

Mr. Nice Guy (1997) dir. Sammo Kam-Bo Hung

The place is Melbourne, Australia. Reporter Diana (Gabrielle Fitzpatrick) and her cameraman Richard (Peter Houghton) were secretly filming a drug deal between suit and tie mobsters lead by Giancarlo (Richard Norton) and the more street gang "Demons" led by Grank (Peter Lindsay) when the deal went very wrong and the ensuing violence revealed the presence of the press. Richard was wounded and captured, but Diana managed to get outside with the videotape.

During the ensuing chase through the city, Diana ran into television chef Jackie (Jackie Chan) who helped her with his martial arts skills. Not that he had much choice as the gangsters assumed he was her ally. The two finally escape, but not before Diana's evidence video was accidentally exchanged for a tape of one of Jackie's cooking show episodes. That tape is subsequently borrowed by the grandchildren of Jackie's foster father and cooking partner Baggio (Barry Otto).

Now the criminals are after both Diana and Jackie for the videotape, as well as fighting each other. And they're not too particular about who else they hurt in the process. Jackie may have to stop being Mr. Nice Guy for just a little while.

This action comedy is a bit more on the action side for a Jackie Chan movie. Jackie's martial arts skills are justified by having him want to be a cop growing up, and training for such, but this being forbidden by his late father, who wanted him to have a safer career path, and enforced by foster father Baggio. Baggio's own son Romeo (Vince Poletto) was more rebellious and became a police officer himself.

Side note: Despite having this direct line to the cops, Jackie refuses to get them fully involved until after his Chinese girlfriend Miki (Miki Lee) is kidnapped. At that point they become useless until the very end of the movie, easily being outsmarted by the criminals. Romeo eventually does find the videotape, but by that time both the mobsters and gangbangers have committed so many other crimes in public that it has become a moot point.

Good: Many cool action scenes and stunts. The location shooting is excellent and I suspect inhabitants of Melbourne appreciate the familiar local scenery. This movie is above average in the Jackie Chan filmography for female roles. While Miki is admittedly a shrieking damsel in distress, Diana and Lakisha (Karen McLymont), Jackie's production assistant, prove savvy and active for people not trained in combat. Also there's Sandy (Rachel Blakely), the most intelligent of the Demons and their second in command, who has a decently meaty role. However, the cut of the movie I saw just disappears Diana and Sandy towards the end.

Sammo Hung gives himself a funny cameo as a bicyclist who gets involved in one of the action scenes.

Also, just to change things up, the climax of the movie does not have Jackie Chan use his martial arts skills to resolve the plot, but a rather more spectacular method. (That got the production company banned from ever filming in that part of Australia again.) It's cathartic.

Less good: After the baddies lose track of the videotape the first time, they should have realized it was futile to chase after it. With the technology of the time, it would have taken less than an hour to make multiple copies (especially if you have access to a television studio as Jackie does). Only the fact that the tape has been misplaced keeps up the illusion that it can be captured. Cut your losses and run, fellas.

Content notes: Martial arts, gun and bomb violence; multiple deaths. Diana has to run around in her underwear for an extended period. Torture.

Overall, a decent martial arts action film, and Jackie Chan is excellent as always. Just don't think too deeply about the premise.