Mr. Nice Guy (1997)

A Chinese chef accidentally gets involved with a news reporter who filmed a drug bust that went awry, and is now being chased by gangs who are trying to get the video tape.

Director:

Sammo Kam-Bo Hung (as Samo Hung)

Writers:

Fibe Ma (screenplay), Edward Tang (screenplay)

Stars:

Jackie Chan, Richard Norton, Miki Lee

1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jackie Chan	...	Jackie
Richard Norton	...	Giancarlo
Miki Lee	...	Miki
Karen McLymont	...	Lakisha
Gabrielle Fitzpatrick	...	Diana
Vince Poletto	...	Romeo
Barry Otto	...	Baggio
Sammo Kam-Bo Hung	...	Cyclist (as Sammo Hung)
Emil Chau	...	Ice Cream Vendor
Joyce Godenzi	...	Cook Show Audience (as Mina Godenzi)
Peter Houghton	...	Richard
Peter Lindsay	...	Grank, Demon Leader
David William No	...	Victor (as David No)
Rachel Blakely	...	Sandy, Demon
Judy Green	...	Tina, Demon

Storyline

In Melbourne, the Chinese Chef Jackie has a successful show on television. The drug lord Giancarlo and his gang are dealing cocaine with The Demons gang, but they fight against each other. During the shooting, the snoopy reporter Diana and her partner are accidentally exposed and they flee with a VHS tape with the footage of the negotiation. On the street, she stumbles with Jackie and he helps her fighting against the gangsters. When they are escaping in his car, her tape accidentally mixes with other videotapes that Jackie has in a box on the backseat of his car. Jackie goes to his apartment and meets his girlfriend Miki while his nephews "borrow" the tape to watch. Meanwhile Giancarlo's gangsters are looking for the tape and abduct Miki. Jackie's friend Romeo, who is a police detective, chases the gangsters with other policemen while Jackie teams up with Diana and his friend Lakisha to release Miki from Giancarlo.

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Plot Keywords:

gang | gangster | drugs | reporter | chef | 

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Taglines:

Fight first. Apologize later.

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Genres:

Action | Comedy | Crime

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for pervasive action violence, some sensuality and drug content

Details

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

English Cantonese Mandarin

Release Date:

20 March 1998 (USA)

Also Known As:

Mr. Nice Guy

Filming Locations:

Chinatown Mall, Fortitude Valley, Queensland, Australia

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$5,442,468, 22 March 1998, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$12,674,183, 7 June 1998

Company Credits

Production Co:

Golden Harvest Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min (original) 84 min (DVD) 86 min (Fan Edit)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS (US prints) SDDS (US prints)

Color:

Color (Cineart)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The last of three movies made by Jackie Chan and Richard Norton.

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Goofs

Giancarlo's mansion is shown to be completely made out of plywood when Jackie demolishes it.

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Crazy Credits

During the final credits some outtakes (mostly action scenes) are shown

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Alternate Versions

New Line Cinema made numerous changes to the film, including removal of footage, re-dubbing some characters, and changing the soundtrack to be more fast-paced and upbeat. The cooking show scene appears first in the New Line Cinema version, whilst others (Hong Kong and Japanese versions) begin with Giancarlo. Footage removed from New Line Cinema's version (in comparison to Hong Kong and Japanese versions):

• The girl being buried alive is a little longer.
• When Sonny and Nancy are watching the tape for the first time, Nancy gets shoved when she takes the tape out to "watch cartoons." Baggio comes in and takes them both into the kitchen to watch Jackie cook.
• In the scene where Diana is accosted at her apartment by the thugs, Diana tries to fight her way free, but winds up getting smashed to the floor and kneed in the back.
• A slow motion shot of Diana running down the street in her underwear appears when the thugs are chasing her.
• When Jackie and Lakisha are waiting at the airport, their conversation has several more lines. Lakisha: "Are you going to marry her[Miki]?" Jackie: "Of course." Lakisha: "Do you like me?" Jackie: "Sure!" Lakisha: "Yeah, but you never asked me out!" Jackie: "Well, we already work and eat together... what's up with you?" Lakisha: "...Nothing." At this point Jackie sees Miki and calls her name, prompting Lakisha to say "What?" The New Line Cinema version only has Lakisha's last line, which sounds awkward.
• During the horse-and-carriage chase, the cart narrowly misses colliding head-on with a street trolley. There is also a shot of people being stampeded off the sidewalk.
• The horse-and-carriage scene on the sidewalk, with the shop signs, is slightly longer in the HK version, but has obvious continuity errors.
• The "cricket bat" fight between Lakisha and Diana goes on for a few more frames, with Diana getting slugged with the bat and then throwing a chair at Lakisha in retaliation. There's also a brief scene here where Jackie comforts Miki on the way back to the apartment.
• The scene where Giancarlo slaps his henchman with his own tie originally had the phone call for the rendezvous at the Golden Garden construction site appended to it.
• Right before Miki walks in on Lakisha scratching Jackie's back, Miki looks in the bathroom mirror and asks herself what she's done to deserve her problems, but then resolves to cheer up for Jackie's sake.
• The scene where Jackie and Miki sit together in the darkened living room runs a bit longer. Miki: "I came here for just one thing." Jackie: "To buy clothes, right? The clothes here are wonderful."
• When the thugs search the house, Lakisha and Diana both get kicked in the stomach by them (in a matching-shot gag).
• More shots of Jackie being shadowed by police when he goes to trade the tape for Miki, and a couple more establishing shots of Melbourne locations.
• A brief shot of Romeo and Detective Morrison arguing in the control room over how to deal with the way Jackie is being strung along by the kidnappers.
• A brief shot of Miki being kicked in the stomach before she gets hauled off by one of the Demons near the bridge.
• When Jackie is accosted by the Demons and hauled off in the van, they almost throw him into traffic before deciding to check to see if the tape he has is the right one.
• During the knife fight in the van, Jackie bites one of his attacker's nipples.
• When Giancarlo finds Miki and the Demon gang leader, he slugs her to the floor and demands to know where his cocaine is. "I gave it to the cops," she says. To "make her understand", Giancarlo has one of the Demons put in a stranglehold with rope, beats him savagely, then shoots him.
• When the Demon gang leader breaks loose, she stabs one of Giancarlo's men in the back with her knife. She gets shot at while diving out the window.
• Brief shots of Miki getting slapped by Giancarlo and thrown around by Giancarlo's thugs.
• A scene where Romeo talks to the Demon gang leader in the hospital. In the next bed, a severely-beaten Diana murmurs to Romeo: "Remember, this is my exclusive."
• Right after the faked phone call, where Giancarlo kicks Jackie across the room, Miki runs up to Giancarlo to stop him. Giancarlo responds by slapping Miki repeatedly.

Footage only in the New Line Cinema and Japanese versions:

• Baggio talks about Jackie's parents during dinner.

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Connections

Featured in The Making of Jackie Chan's 'Mr. Nice Guy' (1997)

User Reviews

Jackie Chan still defines the "action guy" image.

C'mon, all of you! Throw some more votes into the pot if you've seen enough out of everything! Jackie Chan's recent movies including MR. NICE GUY show their prescnce in the Hollywood mainstream thanks to a special ingredient: originality. Take your pick at RUMBLE IN THE BRONX and thereafter! Impressive and fast stunt choreography from TV chef Chan is astounding and well done, something that highly trained professionals have died for. Voices aren't dubbed this time around, but Chan's accent takes some learning. The touch of comedy is another welcome feature, making this one specially entertaining. Fat bicyclist steals the show for fighting back, and the end outtakes are a nice bonus. There are a couple of gripes, though. MR. NICE GUY tends to run the same route as R.I.T.B. from start to finish (like the giant truck finale), and it could have been less on stupidity, but as I said before, the comedy was welcome. More movies like this would (almost) put James Bond 007 in the retirement home! Another must-see for action buffs! Another must-have for the fan of Chan!