[KFCC] The Protector Review

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Protector, The

		Country :	Hong Kong
		Year:	1985
		Genre:	Action
		Format:	DVD
		Running Time:	1H31
		Distributor:	HK Legend / Universe Laser & Video CO.
		Date reviewed:	05/10/02

		Producer:	Leanard Ho
		Director:	James Glickenhaus, Jackie Chan
		Cast: Jackie Chan, Danny Aiello, Moon Lee, Sally Yeh, Roy Chiao, Bill Wallace.

Story: Billy Wong (Chan) is a Chinese cop working in America. He causes a scene when his partner dies in the line of duty, and as punishment is demoted and teamed up with American cop Garoni. They witness the kidnapping of a woman, and the case leads the duo to Hong Kong, where a gangster named Ko is up to no good.

Review: For the love of God, somebody keep the Americans away from Jackie Chan. Even though some of his American productions and co-productions come out quite entertaining (Rush Hour, Shanghai Noon), they never live up to his Hong Kong efforts. The Protector was Jackie's second attempt to break the American market, and unsurprisingly, it failed to win him any new fans.

The film, written by Robert Clouse and originally directed by James Glickenhaus, was apparently awful, featuring feeble fights and some nudity, and Jackie recognised this. This version is Jackie's own recut of the movie, with added Sally Yeh, and more action, but unfortunately, it is still rather poor.

The most striking thing for fans of Chan is the very different hero we are presented with. He has none of his usual charm and humour, and could easily have been replaced with a sock-puppet. In fact, in The Protector, he is quite a vicious little fellow. In the very first action scene, armed robbers take over a bar, but instead of picking up every day objects and using it them as weapons, he meerly blasts a hole in one of the guy's chest. He then chases another to a marina, where he hijacks a boat by threatening to shoot an innocent bystander in the face.

Peppered through The Protector are a few nice stunts, but these scenes lack Chan's usual energy and fluidity. There aren't really enough of them either, and even though later in the film our hero sports a cut on his chin, you can't help but think he did it shaving, rather than doing anything dangerous.

The plot is particularly bland, and it is very easy stop caring what is going on. They go to place A and ask questions, somebody tries to kill them, so they go to place B, where they are told to go to place C, where there is nearly a fight, but there isn't. And so on, until you envy the dead. Even the relationship between Chan and the excellent Danny Aiello is never used to introduce some much needed buddy movie style comedy and character development.

I really should say say something good about The Protector, so I can at least admit that the locations are put to good use, and the cast is quite good, even if none of them get anything good to do. Some of the action towards the end is well choreographed, but painfully short.

As a lover of Jackie Chan, it pains me to say that this is rubbish, and unless you insist on owning every single Chan film, you should avoid this one like you should avoid a cross-eyed and overly-tactile uncle.

Hong Kong LegendDVD [ PAL, Region 2 ] :

Hong Kong Legends make the strange choice of releasing the U.S. version of the film which contains scenes of nudity, poor action scenes and some over the top swearing, but is missing the re-shot and edited scenes and fight footage that Jackie put together for the Asian release of the film. The film itself is presented very well - it’s a pristine transfer with the choice of the original Stereo soundtrack or a 5.1 mix. The single Special Feature on the disc is an audio commentary track by Andrew Stanton. While it’s good to see that Contender have made an effort to include create a commentary track since the departure of regular Bey Logan from microphone duties, this is a fairly dire listen. Stanton describes the film as one of Jackie’s ‘best earliest’ - which is an impossible sell by even the lowest of standards - and there’s a severe lack of facts and anecdotes which could have made for an interesting listen. At best THE PROTECTOR is a curiosity piece for Chan fans, but the crisp transfer and good soundtracks mean that it’s at least well presented.

DVD Reviewed by Martin Cleary

Universe DVD [ NTSC, All Region ] :

Typical Universe presentation, with a sufficient functionality about it. Colours are a little faded, and sometimes the image is scratchy, but it's better than VHS. 5.1 Surround Sound, which is often quite clean and crisp, and nine sets of subtitles to choose from, plus Cantonese or Mandarin language audio. If you want the English Language version, then you forfeit most of the fights. There are also written bios. of Jackie Chan and Moon Lee, plus trailers for The Protector and Twinkle, Twinkle, Lucky Stars. Subtitles in English, Widescreen Letterbox presentation, and Mandarin and Cantonese language audio.

Reviewed by Russ Houghton

Story Cast Entertainment Subtitles Overall

2 4 1.5 4 2