mr . nice guy is the latest jackie chan film , so you should know what to expect . a weak plot , terrible dialogue , very little acting ability , but some jaw-dropping action sequences that nearly make the rest of it worthwhile . however , mr . nice guy lacks the sparkle of jackie's best efforts , and its weaknesses are more glaring than ever . jackie chan plays , who else , jackie . this time out , he's a famous chef who hosts an australian cooking show . not that it ever makes a difference in the plot . there are only two scenes of him cooking . for the rest of the film , somehow he mutates into jackie chan , supercop . it never does explain why his character has such superb martial arts skills . . . perhaps he was in the same cooking class as steven seagal in under siege ? a tv newswoman , diana ( gabrielle fitzpatrick ) , covertly tapes a drug deal involving kingpin giancarlo ( richard norton ) and a local gang of toughs , the demons . although she only has one camcorder , somehow the result is full of close-ups and multiple angles . . . hmmm , shades of broadcast news ? ? ? anyway , the goons discover diana , and will do anything to recover the tape . here lies another crucial flaw in the story : doesn't anyone realize you can copy a tape ? oh well , no one ever said jackie chan movies had to make sense . as luck would have it , diana runs across jackie , and , wouldn't you know it , jackie accidentally ends up with the tape . this leads to countless chase and/or fight scenes which look like they could have been lifted from rumble in the bronx or nearly any other jackie chan movie . in a move apparently designed to woo american ( and other english-speaking ) audiences , the film uses english as its primary language . however , that doesn't mean an end to the atrocious dubbing that has afflicted jackie's recent americanized releases . strangely , many of the characters speaking english are overdubbed with english , and poorly too . whether this is just a very bad case of looping , an effort to minimize accents , or a simple case of nostalgia , it does achieve the same level of distraction present in all of jackie's dubbed films . the plot in mr . nice guy is negligible , merely an excuse to have jackie on the run from various goons . but even though plots have always been second to the action in jackie's films , it seems odd that the filmmakers have stuck us with this tired retread . look , if you have jackie chan playing a chef , why not use that to your advantage ? watching jackie doing his stuff in a kitchen , beating the bad guys with foodstuffs sounds like the perfect setup for innumerable comic stunts . the action is a mixed bag here . there's really only one no holds barred fight scenes that have become the trademark of jackie's films . it takes place in the arbitrary location of a construction site , apparently for the sole reason that there are lots of nifty things lying around that can be useful ala jackie chan . the action in the film is neither jackie's best nor worst , but you long for some more inspiration in the scenes . the film's gratuitous use of slow motion is distracting . once or twice , it may be useful to highlight a spectacular stunt sequence . but to slo-mo jackie running ? either this is a nod to the six-million dollar man , or a pathetic attempt to disguise the fact that jackie may be slowing down . if you've seen all of jackie's films and are in need of another fix , go ahead and see mr . nice guy . however , if you're just in the mood for some good action , you'd be better off hitting the video store for some of his better work , such as supercop .
