Jackie Chan's THE REEDITOR
The Protector was one of Jackie Chan's early attempts to break into the American movie market and overall it was a failure. The movie contains many unChan like elements such as excessive violence, nudity and profanity. The film's director apparently had the great idea to make Jackie Chan like Clint Eastwood, how ludicrous is that? Aside from a few stunts and a cool kick here and there the majority of the action is slow and clumsy, (How many times have you heard that said about a Jackie Chan film?). The final fight between Jackie Chan and Bill Wallace is one of the lamest fights you'll ever see Jackie Chan in. However the film was not a total failure. First, after producton wrapped Jackie Chan shot new scenes and redited the movie for it's Asian release. Jackie Chan's version edits out some of the violence and all of the profanity and nudity. A new subplot was added that introduced new characters and further advanced the original story. New action sequences were also filmed...
Don't listen to Leonard Maltin
This is the HK version of the Protector, and much better than the American one. It has lots of the Jackie Chan mayhem you love, and some amazing stunts. (I'm not so sure about the plot, but Jackie Chan and plot seem to be mutually exclusive). It's also a hoot to hear Danny Aiello speaking perfect Chinese, and to see Jackie's lips speaking English, while his voice speaks Cantonese. However, I don't think I would pay $35 for it.
Misunderstood
I haven't read all the reviews for this film so I don't know if anyone else has mentioned this stuff, but...
The producers, etc. didn't get what made Jackie successful in Hong Kong and rather than make a "Jackie Chan" film and inviting his input, they tried to make him 'fit' Hollywood and made a typical cop flick starring Chan. The film works for what it was, but falls short of what a true Jackie Chan film can be.
The reviewer for Amazon apparently missed the point of the naked women processing the drugs stating their nakedness was "inexplicable". Although not stated in the movie (perhaps the reason why he didn't get it?) the women are nude to prevent them from stealing from the drug dealers by hiding some in their clothing (obviously they do have one or two places they could hide it, but we won't get into that).
Obviously this isn't Jackie's finest hour, but taken for what it is, overall not a bad film. Danny Aiello is a riot.
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