Mr. Nice Guy by Sammo Hung (1997)
Along with Rumble in the Bronx and Supercop, Mr. Nice Guy was one of the first Jackie Chan movies I ever saw. Though it’s no Police Story or Drunken Master 2, it’s still pretty entertaining in the finest Jackie Chan tradition. (Let’s face facts: the man’s mid-tier work is still twice as entertaining as most movies, if not more so.) Directed by the great Sammo Hung, Mr. Nice Guy has plenty of excellent fights, including a really fun one at a construction site that serves as a prime showcase for Jackie’s acrobatics and trademark prop comedy. Story-wise, though, it’s a mixed bag. Jackie stars a TV chef — who knows martial arts, of course — who gets caught between rival gangs after saving an investigative journalist. The movie is silly for much of its runtime, which means that when Jackie gets desperate after his girlfriend is taken hostage, his newfound intensity just doesn’t quite work given the preceding antics.
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