Robin-B-Hood

Action is awesome...when it finally comes.
I'm a huge Jackie Chan fan, and this movie does deliver on its promise that it has some of his best stunt work in recent years. The fight scenes bring back memories of the old Police Story films, with fast and furious fighting all around. There's definitely better fight scenes here than in the recent Rush Hour 3 movie.

So what's the problem? For one thing, this movie is uneven on every level. It's not funny enough to be called a comedy, though there are some funny moments. It's too melodramatic to be taken seriously as a drama. The action scenes are amazing, but take forever to occur. The feeble attempts at romance are laughable. The plot is weird, and the ending is way too over the top (try hooking yourself up to a car battery to see if it's really possible).

While I did enjoy parts of this film a lot, there were a few too many stumbling blocks to call it a perfect film. Still, if you're tired of the "safe" action Jackie's had in many of his recent films, this...

A contrarian review
I did not enjoy the previous effort of a Benny Chan directed Jackie Chan film in "New Police Story" that I was definitely worried about a "Three Men and a Baby" inspired effort. The result was mixed, but going in with low expectations I was pleasantly surprised. "Rob-B-Hood" (US release name is a bizarre name change to "Robin-B-Hood" though in this movie there is no stealing from the rich to give to the poor; neither title is very good) is the third film in the collaboration between Benny Chan and Jackie Chan and Benny's first attempt at a comedic action film. While this film was successful in Asia it was not theatrically released in North America and most of Europe.

Jackie Chan and Louis Koo Tin-Lok star as mediocre bad guys Thongs and Octopus. Jackie Chan tired of stereotypical nice guy roles wanted to play a criminal, though his character Thongs is a burglar and compulsive gambler, the "good guy" nature of his character comes through quite clearly and his performance...

Jackie Chan, Jackie Chan, Jackie Chan.
The kid was cute, and there were parts of the film which slowed almost to a stop. But Jackie Chan is worth the price of admission and you can't go too wrong with Jackie.

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