Some
were skeptical when fifty-eight year old Jackie Chan announced his retirement
from the action movie genre at Cannes.
Whether this is one of those Depardieu retirements or he actually really
means it, only time will tell.
Regardless, the scheduling is fortuitous for the release of an
old-fashioned action-comedy starring Chan’s son. Jaycee Chan steps into some big shoes as half
of a pair of mismatched security guards trying to foil an art heist in David
Hsun-wei Chang’s Double Trouble (trailer here), which opens this
Friday in New York.
Jay
is a take-charge loose cannon, which earns him plenty of demerits for poor
team-building skills. However, his
reckless disregard for procedure is rooted in a tragic episode from an earlier
period of his life. He is the one Taipei
Palace museum guard an elite gang of art thieves would not want to tangle with,
but he is the perfect candidate for a frame-up.
Frankly, that was not part of the plan for two slinky Cat Woman-attired robbers,
but the result of the bumbling interference of Ocean, the comic relief security
guard-tourist visiting from Beijing.
Dragging along Ocean is a lot like taking the proverbial accordion into
battle, but Jay is forced to, for the sake of clearing his name.
As
the earnest Jay, Jaycee Chan exhibits something of the rubber face and rubber
bones that made his father an international movie-star. He also has a similarly likable on-screen
demeanor. Unfortunately, Double Trouble is a bit too much like
late Hollywood period Jackie Chan than his early cult favorites for fans to pronounce
the baton has been fully passed.
However, it is safe to say HK model Jessica C. (a.k.a. Jessica Cambensy)
has arrived as an action femme fatale.
After all, there is a reason she is on the poster with Chan, even though
they are bitter foes in the film. As for
his reluctant crime-fighting partner, a little of Xia Yu’s Ocean goes a long
way.
Indeed,
the bickering bromance is laid on rather thick and the humor is almost entirely
of the slapstick variety. Nonetheless,
the depiction of border-crossing friendship (and maybe even romance with another
member of Ocean’s tour group, appealingly played by Deng Jiajia) is rather
pleasant, because it never feels overly soapboxey or clumsily forced.
There are some nice stunts in Double and it also has Jessica C. going for
it. It sincerely aims to please, but it
is hardly has the grit or heft of a Police
Story or even the relatively recent Shinjuku Incident. A harmless distraction, Double Trouble may indeed be remembered
as a stepping stone for its promising young cast. It opens this Friday (6/8) in New York at the
AMC Empire and Village 7, as well as in San Francisco at the AMC Cupertino and
Metreon, courtesy of China Lion Entertainment.
