The Accidental Spy
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Movie Reviews of The Accidental Spy
Movie Review: It's a fair action comedy startting Jackie Chan.
Summary: 3 Stars
It's a fair action comedy startting Jackie Chan. It has some funny momnents. All the action scenes look exactly like they were copied and pasted from other excellent movies of Jackie such as Supercop, etc.
Because of that reason, I gave it 3 stars. I've watched it once but I don't buy it.
Movie Review: The "butchered" version of HK film
Summary: 2 Stars
I'm sure most of us who have ever come across, and perhaps even have grown to like, some classic Hong Kong movie (such as Police Story, Drunken Master II), would have heard the not-so-secret about how Miramax/Dimension films bought most of the Hong Kong movies distribution right. It seems like they bought more than just the right the distribute, they have bought the films and, despite the Directors/Filmmakers original intention, they cut it as they see fit. The problem is, they don't see very well. Without a good understanding of other's cultural background, they simply categorize what they do not understand as redundant. The result are some horrific, hollow effort that will lead the American viewers believe that Hong Kong or other countries are unable to produce quality motion pictures. While Miramax/Dimension are considered to be "Independant Studios" who respect the artisic view of the filmmakers, they are nothing more than bunch of short-sighted, self-righteous hypocrites.
Though they do make an effort to digitally restore/remaster the original film to provide a sharper, clearer image, they more than often largely mutilate the film: creating new, trailor-like (useless and sometime even become spoiler) credit sequence, replacing original music score with cheesy/ridiculous techno, awful dubbing and worst of all, cutting out numerous sequences of the movie. Slap on a laughable cover and it is ready to be re-sold as a Miramax/Dimension production.
To make this long aggravation short, The Miramax/Dimension version of "Accidental Spy" is a perfect example. The cover of the DVD has got nothing whatsoever to do with the film except it features Jackie Chan (Who the hell are the two women holding pistols?). Secondly, 20+ minutes of the film was trimmed (That is the equal length of an episode of "Friends"!), thirdly, a cool(?) titile sequence is inserted basically give away all the stunt and action scenes at the beginning of the film, and finally, though most of the dialogue in this movie are originally English, for the part when the characters are speaking Mandarin/Cantonese, they somehow got Jackie himself to do his own English dubbing, only they are bad, and does not provide the story as it should be (Note: Jackie's Character "Bei" actually has a certain "psychic" power). I mean, they even dubbed the "outtake" sequence, wouldn't you think it's absurd?
I eventually obtained an original version, and enjoyed it much more as I have a better understanding of the characters, or you could say I was into the story more simply because I was not distracted by the dubbing.
The original version even include some "making-of" documentary, cast & crew bio, trailors, and oh! DTS soundtrack (though somehow the DTS track on this disc proved to be a disappointment).
If you somehow got the Miramax/Dimension version, I am sorry but you are not watching this movie as it really should be. I give 2 stars for this version. For the original version, I believe it actually deserve a 4 star rating.
Movie Review: Good movie, butchered DVD
Summary: 1 Stars
The Accidental Spy is one of Jackies better recent movies. There's no disguising the fact he's getting older, and can't quite manage the jaw-dropping feats of his youth, but in this movie he still shows that he has more understanding of action scenes than almost anybody else on the planet. The Accidental Spy also has a reasonably good script.However, what you will see with this DVD is not really the movie The Accidental Spy at all. The distributing company have, for reasons best known to themselves, decided to cut about half an hour out of the movie for it's US release. They have also decided for us that we should watch the movie in English, despite it having been recorded in Jackie's native Cantonese. Dubbing ruins movies, pure and simple.
Hence, whilst I believe that people should see The Accidental Spy if they are a fan of Jackie Chan or action cinema in general, I cannot recommend that anybody purchase this DVD version.
Track down the Hong Kong DVD instead, which might not have Miramax level mastering, but at least presents the movie as it was meant to be seen. The butchery Miramax have applied to the movie is an offence to the movie makers and the US audiences in equal measures. Don't support releases like this, and maybe one day the US studios will learn to treat their audience with respect.
Movie Review: Jackie Chan must be getting old
Summary: 1 Stars
This movie was soo boring. I now know that comments about the film on the cover are all lies. In Sweden it said; "Its so action packed it makes "Rush Hour" go in slowmotion". This was only for Chan to prove that he can make a movie creep slower than a frozen snail. He rarely fights, and when he does, he doesnt do any cool moves and he lacks speed. He doesnt do any dangerous stunts anymore and he is even using special effects to do some athletic scenes in his other movie "The Tuxedo". He himself said "I dont use special effect, I am the special effect" what about now? Hope he gets better with "Shanghai Knights".This ... wasnt even worth to rent. He doesnt even give many laughs these days.
Movie Review: ALWAYS stay with original
Summary: 1 Stars
Why American production make HK movies look so cheap? First of all, they cut off so much scene, second of all ruin it by making look acting so dumb by English Dubb. For ANY of HK movies, ALWAYS stick with ORIGINAL LICENSED HK RELEASE. Be careful with cheap imports, boots though.