Jackie Chan has girl trouble in his latest pratfall-filled action comedy, the trouble mostly being that the girls are so silly and helpless that the minute he's finished saving one from bruisers with evil intentions, another is screaming to be
rescued. Nice-guy Jackie (Chan), a TV novelty chef, is just minding his own business in downtown Melbourne, Australia, when he runs into intrepid reporter Diana (Gabrielle Fitzpatrick). Or rather, she runs into him, pursued by a pack of sharp-dressed drug dealers: She's just videotaped their boss,
Giancarlo (Richard Norton), trying to make a deal with the colorful Demons gang involving stolen cocaine and a whole lot of cash. Understandably enough, Giancarlo wants that tape back at any cost. Jackie saves Diana from her pursuers, but the tape is mislaid, and both Diana and the bad guys think
Jackie has it. Add to the mix Jackie's spunky assistant Lakeisha (Karen McLymont) and his girlie-girlfriend Miki (Miki Lee), and in no time flat there's a whole lotta shriekin' going on. As is often the case in Chan movies, the damsels in distress take some pretty vicious roughing up, considering
that much of the action is played for laughs. Though Melbourne provides a particularly lovely urban backdrop for Chan's trademark martial-arts hijinks and the film is smartly directed by longtime Chan associate Sammo Hung -- also a martial-arts star of considerable stature (and girth), who makes a
cameo appearance as a bicycle messenger -- this outing is particularly thin on the plot front, and has a rather tired, formulaic feel to it. On the plus side, New Line has apparently tampered very little with this film -- as it has with Chan's earlier works -- so what you're seeing is pretty much
what Chan and his collaborators intended. --Maitland McDonagh
