Customer Reviews

Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde was a pleasant surprise. We thought it would be the usual kung foo action film, instead found it to be full of gentle humor, Chinese medicine, and interesting characters. Adam Baldwin(Dr. Jekyll) and Chang Tseng(Dr. Chau) relate extremely well to each other and have a unique student-teacher relationship. Do yourself a favor and watch this movie.

Francis Ford Coppola executive produced this film for his Zoetrope studios, and it must have been a pilot for a failed tv series, as it has no real resolution. Giving the classic story a new twist, it has nothing to do with its classic source, but instead is almost a transcendtalized superhero movie with a buff and surprisingly effective Adam Baldwin inhabiting the dual roles. Full of mystic mumbojumbo and some fairly well staged karate fights, this version gives us the dual-faced doctor as a vengeful fellow out to avenge the brutal murder of his bride on their honeymoon in Hong Kong. Baldwin teams up with a Chinese fairy godfather and learns the ins and outs of herbal medicine in his attempts to bring down the bad guys. Not bad but since we don't get a resolution, one feels a little cheated.

He makes me swoon... and I was surprised to see him in something not half bad. The lack of resolution makes me wish it had been fleshed out into a series, but still overall enjoyable.

The best thing about this movie is undoubtedly Adam Baldwin's sexy arms. Once his awful mullet and facial hair are trimmed, he looks pretty hot for the rest of the movie. He spends a lot of time doing rigorous physical exercises clad in a skimpy white tank top. I don't mean to downplay his acting chops, but the movie is so terrible, only Adam's sexy physique made me give it two stars. The actors try, but the script offers nothing for them to sink their teeth into. It is more like The Karate Kid than Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Most of the story is set in Hong Kong, where Dr Henry Jekyll's wife was murdered by a gang of thugs while they were honeymooning. Henry is nearly blown to bits while trying to save her. For inexplicable reasons, both the doctor and his wife have their kidneys cut out. Henry is saved from near-death by a kindly old doctor of Chinese medicine. During his miraculous recovery (his kidney is apparently regrown due to the magic of traditional herbs?), the old guy teaches him the power of Tai Chi as well as the use of powerful ancient remedies, just like Mr. Miyagi would have done. But Henry mis-uses the herbs and temporarily becomes a glowing-eyed monster hell-bent on revenge. Mr. Miy..., err, the old Chinese guy, forgot his name, schools him on how to use the herbs properly, without turning into a raging uncontrollable beast. It is also revealed that Henry is the reincarnation of some sort of ancient mythical creature called The White Tiger. After offing a few bad guys, the movie just ends rather suddenly. If you have a serious Adam Baldwin crush, you might enjoy the many shirtless and nearly-shirtless scenes. But if you're looking for a good Dr. Jekyll movie, I would suggest the old black and white version with Frederic March.

Here is a Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novella turned into a terrible action movie. First, this made-for-TV film's incoherent story has virtually nothing to do with Jekyll and Hyde except the names of the protagonist. The worse thing is, as an "action" film (whether shoot-outs or martial arts) "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" is still a terrible film. This is no Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan film. This is a cheesy action film in which your choice of weapon is a puffer fish. I am not joking.

Dr. Jekyll (Adam Baldwin) is a surgeon who travels to Hong Kong on his honeymoon. When a war breaks out between the triads, he too is caught in the battle and gets severely wounded trying to save his captured bride. Thanks to Dr. Chau (Chang Tseng), a mysterious Chinese medicine expert, the doctor recovers, but he also discovers that something strange is happening in his body.

There are so many loose ends not tied up, or disjointed ideas not fully developed, in this modernized adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson story. The film hardly deserves the name it actually credits as the author's name. This "Jekyll and Hyde" looks as if this is a pilot of a new TV series that didn't materialize. Judging from the quality of the film, it is not very surprising..

By the way, this film is co-executive produced by Francis Ford Coppola. But what part of the story did he find attractive?

If you liked Remo Williams - The Adventure Begins (1985) you may like this movie which is along the same lines - i.e. Man from the west is trained by Kung Fu master to be a force for good. However, if I were to compare, I seem to recall liking Remo Williams a lot more for the humour. Joel Grey in that movie was hilarious as he played out all the oriental stereotypes while at the same time injecting a unique fastidiousness.

This movie's link to the original Jekyll and Hyde story is nothing more than the names of the character played by Adam Baldwin. Like Remo, it was also intended to be a pilot for a TV series, but it wasn't very promising in the execution.

The plot was rather loose and the vengeance motivation is a powerful drive that needs a powerful resolution which I do not get from this movie.

The martial arts by today's standard is rather basic.

I give it two stars cos knowing what I know now, I'd rather watch Remo Williams.

This is the loosest adaptation of anything I've ever seen. In fact, loose doesn't even begin to describe it. What Sci-Fi has done is taken the title of the Robert Louis Stevenson's novella in order to draw viewers in, and nothing else.

The TV movie follows Dr. Henry Jekyll, now a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon. The entire supporting cast of Stevenson's story, even in name, is nonexistent. Jekyll travels to China with his new bride for a honeymoon. There he encounters Chinese mobsters who maim the doctor, kill his wife, and leave him for revenge.

Up to this point, the movie had potential. An action-adventure vigilante retelling of "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" might have been worth seeing. Unfortunately, the movie never even tries to live up to its source material. Dr. Jekyll apprentices himself to a local medicine man and studies martial arts under the name "Edward Hyde." It looks like Sci-Fi had to throw both of those names in there somewhere in order to keep the title. Eventually, in the final third of the movie, Dr. Jekyll does make a medicine that gives him glowing eyes, sharp teeth, and a killer edge. But Stevenson's theme of the struggle between good and evil inside of every man is unexplored. If Sci-Fi was going to take the title, they should have at the very least tried to stay true to the theme. Under the influence of the medicine, Dr. Jekyll is aware, even more aware, of what he is doing. Mr. Hyde is all alias, no altar ego.

The acting performances are solid, but the movie is hard to enjoy when it begs to be compared to its classic source material. Before the halfway point of the movie, the "Based on the book by Robert Louis Stevenson" in the credits seems like a bold-faced lie. If you enjoy American-in-China-karate-action movies, and you have nothing better to watch, try this on for size. If you're looking for an adaptation of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", avoid this, or you'll be sorely disappointed.

By the way, the recent "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" was a better Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde action movie.

I wasn't expecting much when I checked out this movie...and lo and behold, it turned out to be a winner. A real suspense ride from beginning to end. Adam Baldwin does his brothers proud with his updated take on the classic characters of Jekyll and Hyde. The Hong Kong-style action tries hard...and succeeds most of the time. A real standout in this mystical, HK-set action flick is Steve Bastoni as a Chicago cop running rogue in Asia and the legendary Anthony Wong. Music is strong. Directing is good. Writing is top notch. All in all it was well worth my time.

Quick thing to the last reviewer. Adam can't do his brothers proud- HE'S NOT A BALDWIN BROTHER. Take it from someone who carpools with his kids, that mistake ticks him off