Mr. Nice Guy MPAA Rating: PG-13 Entertainment: +2 1/2 Content: -1 1/2

Popular Chinese karate fighter Jackie Chan returns in yet another fight fest. In this frantic non-stop action comedy, he plays Jackie, a TV chef in Melbourne, Australia, pursued by a vicious drug dealer (Richard Norton) and his band of thugs. They are after Jackie and an incriminating video tape which has accidentally come into his possession. The entire movie is taken up with their violent attempts to capture Jackie and retrieve the video. They chase him and some of his companions all over Melbourne in a continuous stream of violent confrontations. The fighting takes place in vacant buildings, construction sites, a shopping mall, in a horse drawn carriage and at the drug lord's luxurious home. Jackie spends much of his time trying to rescue his Chinese girlfriend (Miki Lee) held hostage by the thugs. About 90% of the audience in the theater when we screened this film were young adult males who seemed to delight in Jackie's violent exploits.

If there ever were films which exploited violence just to entertain, Jackie's films fit into this category. Fighting is not a legitimate part of the story, it is the story. Although most of the fighting has a comic flavor, this just makes the violence seem more acceptable. And Jackie is one of the good guys, determined to protect his girlfriend and his cohorts. Some of the violence becomes severe such as woman being thrown into a pit and covered with soil, women being beaten, a woman putting her foot on a man's genitals and threatening to cut them off, a buzz saw threatening Chan's genitals, and a man smashed against a brick wall. There's no time for sexual content, except a woman runs through the street in her underwear and a graphic portrait of a woman's breasts is shown in a store window. A number of mild and moderate crudities are spoken along with two s-words. Although comical, the film's violence is definitely excessive and its near nudity and rough language are offensive.

Preview Reviewer: John Evans
Distributor: New Line Cinema, 888 7th Ave., 20th Floor, NY, NY 10106