Gorgeous (1999)

I say kudos to Jackie for trying to expand his range a little bit, especially after having so much success over the years using the same formula. For once Jackie gets to act a little bit and play a role other than a cop/new kid in town/martial artist whose father/brother/girlfriend was kidnapped/murdered/disgraced. Sure, it's not high drama, but it is a very touching romantic comedy.

Jackie plays a wealthy businessman who is so wrapped up in his work that he has forgotten how to take time to enjoy what he has earned. Bu (Qi Shu) is a starry-eyed romantic who tries to help him remember. Mixing things up a bit is Chan's less scrupulous rival Lo, played by Emil Chau.

This rivalry serves to shoehorn a couple of fight scenes into the movie, and while I did really enjoy them (I like seeing Jackie in a good one-on-one matchup once in a while) they're really secondary to the plot of the movie. They're definitely worth seeing, though. Set up as elaborate boxing matches, they're a bit more realistic than most of his scenes.

I enjoyed this movie quite a lot and would love to see Jackie do some more like it. After all, we have to admit that Jackie is getting up there in age. While he's still just as amazing as ever, why not give him a break from being pushed through windows and dragged behind trucks once in a while?

Fmovies: Being a big Jackie Chan fan,and knowing from experience how much better the HK versions of his films are,I picked the HK version of this up last week,and I cant tell you how much I loved this one.Im probably one of the few Jackie fans stateside that likes the humor in most of his older movies,as well as the action,so this one really made me laugh,and Shu Qi is just luminous as the female lead.One thing I really liked about this one was the charactarizations of so many of the other players had real dimension to them,including the so called bad guys.And Ive noticed that most of the best one on one fight scenes in his movies are the ones with a fighter thats treated as an equal,and fought as clean,fair fights,(examples:In Wheels on Meals,Dragons Forever,Who Am I,etc.)and his two fights with Bradely James Allen are good examples of this. I know a lot of guys who watch Jackie just for the fights and stunts are dissapointed with this one,the rest of us with a more open mind will probably like this almost as much as I do.

Although Jackie is about 20 years senior to Shu Qi, their chemistry works in this movie. This is a light hearted romance with quite a bit of kung-fu action mixed in. Jackie is a tycoon living in Hong Kong. He meets Shu Qi who arrived from Taiwan by chance and older Jackie shows her about town in his millionaire style.

Shu Qi is great in this movie. She brings fresh element to old school Jackie Chan movie which says to me that she has talent. She generates personality that's so perfect for this movie,and I loved the way story unfolded between them.

Quality of production is good as always in Jackie Chan movie. He's not playing a strait romeo he usually plays with his women co-stars in this movie, and acknowledges that he's a bit older character now.

Not as many unexpected plots or action you'd expect from Jackie Chan movie, but the experimental aspect of bringing much younger Shu Qi worked in this one.

Gorgeous fmovies. After Rush Hour, Jackie went back to Hong Kong to try his hand at something different. What it turned out to be was the romantic comedy Gorgeous. Jackie said this would probably never get shown in the States because it was too Asian for a western audience, but Columbia TriStar picked it up and I bought it when it was priced to buy. I thought it was a good story with a few good fight scenes, but the dubbing was awful. The voices were all overplayed and Jackie didn't use his own voice for this one. Bradley James Allan makes a huge splash in the fight scenes he's in with Jackie. Shu Qi is great as the innocent and childlike Bu, as she sees everything as a fairy tale. I think the reason a lot of people didn't like this one was because Columbia TriStar hyped it up as an action flick, rather than a romantic comedy. Even the back of the video box makes it out to be a action piece. I knew long before I saw it that it was different, so I knew what I was getting into.

I got the Hong Kong DVD of this movie today and it was much better. There is more detail to the story rather than the story jumping around like it does in the U.S. edit. The DVD also has lots of features on it. These features include a trailer, an interview with Jackie and director Vincent Kok, a making of featurette (where Jackie states he enjoyed making it more than Rush Hour), and the music video to the song from the film (Two versions actually, Cantonese and Mandarin).

Of course this will never be as good as his other movies like Police Story or Who Am I?, but I give him credit for trying something different. It worked well for me and had enough fight scenes in it to amuse me.

Confusing movie. It's a love story action and comedy in one piece, in a very Jackie way. I was looking at it and thought to myself, wow It's rocky meets notting hill Jackie Style. The fights with Brad Allen are cool and the rest of the fights are funny. The girl that's on Jackie's to do list is very cute! Also a nice performance by that guy that plays a gay, he's really popular and famous I think, but I forgot his name. The fights with Brad Allen (together with the brilliant comedy of the Henchmen) highlighted this movie for me. It seems that they used wires and sped it up a bit, but it's awesome none the less. Keep your eyes on Brad Allen's feet. His footwork is awesome!

If all you want is an action movie in the Jackie Chan tradition, you may not like this one. It is instead a romantic comedy, which I will admit not too many Jackie fans will be expecting.

I, however, applaud the fact that he branches out from the typical comedic chop-socky formula in this one. I think it would be terrible as an actor to endlessly have to come up with new "they done me wrong, so I gotta beat 'em up" plots for movies. So all you folks who just want to see amazing stunts and so on, I would advise that you watch something else.

This movie does not contain much in the way of stunts, or even fight scenes. However, it does contain a couple of comedic fights with the Four Stooges of henchmen, which might elicit a chuckle or two. It also contains two fights with Bradley James Allan, which are fought within spaces about the size of a boxing ring, and with only walls to run up and do backflips off, as far as the acrobatics go. However, these are amazing fights, especially the last one, because with Brad, Jackie doesn't have to slow down. So it is blazing fists a-flying, and some of the best toe-to-toe single opponent action you will see in any Jackie movie. And I don't think they contained any wire work at all. Just straight honest action. Somewhat ironically, one part of the last fight with Brad was the only part of the movie I got a full belly laugh out of.

Admittedly, this is kind of an odd movie, but as long as you approach it in the right frame of mind, I think you might enjoy it. Maybe think of it as a chick flick with some Jackie Chan action thrown in. This would be a great one to watch, for instance, with a girlfriend who doesn't usually like martial arts movies. It has both action and touching moments. And after she sees this one, you may persuade her to watch some of the real Chan actioners with you. :)