MR NICE GUY

Hong Kong, 1996, 84 minutes, Colour.
Jackie Chan, Richard Norton, Gabrielle Fitzpatrick.
Directed by Sammo Hung.

Mr Nice Guy is set in Melbourne and uses many of the city locations very well. It is also geographically accurate for those who know.

Jackie Chan is a chef who becomes accidentally embroiled with a TV journalist who has been taping conversations between drug lords. He draws on his martial arts skills and the film has a great deal of action, done with Jackie Chan's usual panache.

The plot is rather thin - the tape with the conversations is taken by one of Jackie's nephews and the gangsters find alternate tapes, especially of his TV cooking shows. This means that throughout the film there are chases, fights, searches for the tape - culminating in a huge brawl in a mall where Jackie is demonstrating his cooking skills with the assistance of Barry Otto.

The characterisation is thin - an entertainment rather than a film to discuss.