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The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

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Mr. Nice Guy (1997)

Rating: 2 Stars (out of 4)

Too Many Cooks

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Mr. Nice Guy on DVD

Mr. Nice Guy is the fifth Jackie Chan film to show in American theaters, in its dubbed, refurbished form. And while I am one of the world's biggest Jackie Chan admirers, it seems to me that lately they've just been getting dumb.

Mr. Nice Guy has Jackie as a character named Jackie who is a TV chef in Melbourne, Australia. He inadvertantly gets involved with some gangsters who are after a videotape showing them making a drug transaction with some hoods. An attractive TV newswoman who shot the videotape bumps into Jackie while running for her life, and he saves her. Then, of course, the tape gets switched, and blah, blah...

The movie is directed by longtime Chan collaborator Sammo Hung, who is a popular actor himself. (Hung appears in Mr. Nice Guy in a funny bit as a put-upon bicyclist.) Unfortunately, Hung has a taste for melodrama that he doesnÕt know how to control. Halfway through, Mr. Nice Guy tries to turn itself into melodrama. The characters, dialogue, and situation are so ludicrous and one-dimensional, they canÕt survive in any other form except comedy. As a result, Mr. Nice Guy fails to deliver on the one ingredient we came for. And thatÕs not forgivable.

Starring: Jackie Chan, Richard Norton, Miki Lee, Karen McLymont, Gabrielle Fitzpatrick, Vince Poletto, Barry Otto, Sammo Hung
Written by: Fibe Ma, Edward Tang
Directed by: Sammo Hung Kam-Bo
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for pervasive action violence, some sensuality and drug content
Running Time: 88 minutes
Date: March 20, 1998