Jacky Chan is 'Mr. Nice Guy'

By Yenni Kwok

JAKARTA (JP): Jacky Chan seems to love Australia. After First Strike, which was mostly shot around Queensland, his most recent movie, Mr. Nice Guy, was also filmed on the continent. This time, the setting is in the arts capital of Australia, Melbourne.

The familiar ingredients of Chan's flicks are here: exciting fights and slapstick comedy. If you don't speak Mandarin, don't worry. Most of the conversations are in English because this time, Chan's character mostly interacts with Australians.

However, even if you are a Jacky Chan fan, be prepared for a disappointment. The fights are still exciting and funny, but they pale in comparison to those in his previous film, First Strike.

In Mr. Nice Guy, Jacky (Jacky Chan) is the host of a TV cooking program, partnered with an Italian chef, Baggio. His quiet life turns into a roller-coaster ride when he bumps into a reporter (Gabriela Fitzpatrick), who is being chased by a gang of Mafia scum.

The Mafia is after Diana, the reporter, because of the videotape she has. Diana has managed to tape a cocaine dispute between a punk gang and members of the Italian Mafia, which ends in violent shootings.

However, Jacky pays a high price for being such a nice guy. The cocaine tape gets swapped with Jacky's cooking tape. When the Mafia and the punk gang realize this, they begin terrorizing Jacky and his friends.

Jacky is ready to give up the tape. This time, he does not care much about justice. The problem is his friend's toddler son took the tape without anyone knowing about it.

Of course, the bad guys do not believe him. They chase Jacky and his friends, try to kill him, blow up his condominium (almost every character in the film lives in a lavish home) and kidnap his girlfriend Miki (Miki Lee) and his friend, Lakeisha (Karen McLymont). In the end, he even falls into the hands of a meticulous Mafia king, Giancarlo (Richard Norton).

After the Melbourne police fail to rescue anyone, Jacky has to free himself, as well as Lakeisha and Miki, from the Mafia's grip.

In Mr. Nice Guy, we rarely get to see the beauty of the arts capital of Australia. But the film certainly shows the multicultural Australia that may make Pauline Hanson embarrassed. The main cast includes people of Italian, Chinese, Anglo-Saxon and African descent. Chan easily blends in with his Australian friends.

Chinese are also here and there; this time to add more spice to the comedy, not to the fighting scenes. A Chinese ice-cream man mistakenly thinks Jacky is playing a game, and thus points out his hiding place to the bad guys.

The film's director, Sammo Hung, makes a cameo appearance as an ill-fated bike messenger.

However, some stereotypes are still easily spotted. Although Jacky's closest friends are Italians, the Mafia king is a Steven Seagal look-alike Italian.

Australian women are portrayed as sex objects; they wear tight or body-revealing clothes. In one scene, Diana sports only her Wonderbra and her underwear while checking a video at her home; such a contrast to Miki, Jacky's girlfriend from Hong Kong, who covers herself in long-sleeve tops and a long skirt.

In this film, Chan's character is surrounded by three beautiful women: Diana, Lakeisha and Miki. However, don't expect James Bond's playboy actions here. Even on the screen, Chan still retains his clean image.

Instead, as usual, Chan is still too busy fighting to smooch any girl. He must know people watch his movies because they enjoy seeing him kick some butts and perform dangerous stunts without any stand-ins, but not romancing women.

The only disappointment in the fighting sequences where Chan takes on the Mafia and punk gang is the lack of good kungfu fighting. In his previous movies, Chan's fighting is entertaining not only because he is a good fighter. Having an opponent that matches his skills certainly helps much to entertain.

This time, however, his on-screen opponents are gun-totting Mafia members who most likely have no kung fu skills or other martial arts training.

However, there are still some good action scenes. The one in the warehouse, where Jacky nearly gets sawed, is worth waiting for. The one in the maze house creates cartoon-like thrills.

Don't forget the bloopers at the end of the film. They are Chan's trademarks, and they are worth waiting for until the end. These funny bloopers demonstrate Jacky Chan's hard work, humble nature and sense of humor.