Gorgeous by Vincent Kok (Review)

I should’ve seen it as a bad sign when Jackie Chan wears boxing gloves in a fight scene. Does this signal a kinder, gentler Jackie, now that he’s pushing 50? I hope not. At it’s heart, Gorgeous is a romantic comedy. That’s right… a romantic comedy. From one viewpoint, it’s probably the most well-done Hong Kong film I’ve ever seen, well up to Hollywood standards. But compared to normal Jackie Chan standards… it’s just bad.

The film centers around Bu (Shu Qi), a woman who discovers a love note in a bottle. Determined to meet Albert, the sender, she travels to Hong Kong. It turns out Albert (played by the great Tony Leung Chiu-wai in a hilarious performance) is gay. But she runs into C.N. Chan (Jackie), a billionaire who can’t seem to find the right woman. You know the rest.

Oh yeah, and there’s some kung-fu in there somewhere. But it’s bad… real bad. To be fair, Jackie does spend less time hamming it up early on in the movie, and shows that he’s actually a good actor. But the movie can’t help but sink into cheese towards the end. Not even a great kung fu battle towards the end, which has the potential to be one of the better ones in Chan’s newer movies, is immune to the movie’s sappiness and sentimentality.

In the end, there’s less props and comedy, less outtakes, and just less of what makes a Jackie Chan film a Jackie Chan film.