Customer Reviews

The Protector [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

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 and they were edited in with some of the decent action scenes from the original. The end fight with Bill Wallace is so superior to the original version. Jackie Chan's version is in many ways a totally different movie. However even Jackie Chan's reedits could not totally save what was a pretty lame movie from the start. All in all his version is highly enjoyable. Good things always come out of bad situations and this film was no exception. The frustration from this movie inspired Jackie Chan to produce one of his absolute best films and that was Police Story. In many ways he did it to show The Protector's director, James Glickenhau, how to film an action movie. Jackie Chan's reedited subtitled version is the one to seek out, do not waste any time or money on the American version.

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.

I found the protector to be probably the worst jackie chan movie ive ever seen!Its definatly not a movie for kids to watch due the non-stop blood and guts and nudity.Jackie chan actually swears in this flim numerus times.Overall its just not jackie chan action,sure theres about 5 minutes of one fourth the kind of stunts and martial arts you expect from a jackie chan flim.So,to sum it up,theres no martial arts action,1 stunt(not even a good one),and all around its a pretty stupid flim,definatly not a normal jackie chan flim,DONT BUY IT,ITS TOTALY NOT WORTH THE MONEY OR THE TIME!

Since when has it ever been written that Jackie Chan can't have nudity, profanity, and less comical fight scenes in one of his movies? NEVER!

I don't understand all of the fuss over the above mentioned things being in this movie. I don't recall it being produced by Disney! As far as the storyline goes, since when has a Jackie Chan storyline ever been nominated for an Oscar? NEVER!

Okay, now that I have got that off my chest, I shall continue with the review.

This movie, which was made in the 80's, is Jackie Chan's first "American" made film and it really isn't a bad one at all. Sure there are some holes in the plot and some, rather absurd scenes in the movie, but it is still a pretty good buddy-action movie featuring Jackie Chan, Danny Aiello, and my favorite, Bill "Superfoot" Wallace as the right hand man to the movies main villain.

The basic premise of the movie is that Jackie Chan is a New York City cop who is involved in a shooting where his partner is shot and killed and he goes rogue in order to get the man who killed his partner. This puts him in hot water with his boss (of course), and he ends up getting stuck on a "crap assignment" in which he and Aiello end up being witnesses to a kidnapping.

They end up getting assigned to the case and travel to Hong Kong where they run into a massage parlor full of beautiful naked women that end up trying to kill them, which is just one of many adventures they go through in their pursuit of the kidnappers. As the story unfolds, you end up finding out that there is a lot more going on than just a simple kidnapping.

The story progresses to the inevitable showdown at the end of the movie between Jackie Chan and Bill "Superfoot" Wallace. The fight scenes, while not extraordinary by any means, are actually pretty entertaining and fun to watch. Although one must remember that you are not going to see the kind of fight scenes that are typical of a Jackie Chan movie in this film, but they are fairly enjoyable nonetheless.

Shawn Kovacich
Martial Artist/Creator of numerous books and DVD's.

This 2 star, fair, movie is missing much of what makes a Jackie chan movie so much fun. The producers substitute Jackies wit and humor with Sex, Gore and Cursing the universal method of spicing up a poorly written script and mediocre direction. This is not a family friendly movie. Near the beginning of the movie Jackie uses the F@#% word and my wife and looked at each other.. we couldn't recall a Chan movie using that kind of language.

I have read that Jackie himself was so disappointed with what Hollywood produced here, he went on the make the police Story trilogy, which culminates in SUPERCOP. The music is more like the 1970's era sounding like TJ Hooker and other cops TV shows. There are a lot of good Chan movie and I think you can skip this one.

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.

I know Jackie Chan has pulled off some real clunkers in his past, but I had no idea he'd ever been in a bad Dirty Harry knock-off. The Protector has little going for it. The story is cliched, and the dialogue is full of trite dialogue. I was under the distinct impression the writers had written stereotypical scenes and dialogue on pieces of paper, mixed 'em all up in a bucket, and yanked 'em out randomly. The result is that messy and uninspiring. For Pete's sake, when Jackie shows up at the beginning with his partner, and his partner talks about his kid and how he's going to give him this toy monkey, you just know the partner is doomed. Duh! This is such a cliche that even The Simpsons does a send-up called McBane.

Nevertheless, the cliches aren't necessarily the worst element of this waste of celluloid.

The martial arts are muted. Although the moves are fine, the camera-work muddies it up so badly that the effort is almost entirely wasted. For example, I think Jackie was doing something very frenetic and inspired, but a potted plant was between him and the camera. Who did the blocking for this? Whoever it is ought to have his or her head firmly planted between Jackie's foot and his target.

No one is a likable character in this film. Everyone is crooked and mean, and the womanizing Jackie shoots people into puddles of bloody gore while cursing like an angry eleven-year old from the bad part of town.

The only reason I don't completely denigrate this film is because there is a brief, shining moment when Jackie's brilliance shines through all the dung: while running through a bathhouse, he steps in either very hot or very cold water and makes a wonderful grimace. That's precious, scant cause to watch this film.

I honestley thought that this movie was appauling. Jackie had no control over the fight coreography and therefore the fights and stunts are slow, stiff and predictable. There is one fight that particularly stands out in this exuse for a film, but other than that this film is not worth half a cent.

This is not a Jackie Chan movie although he stars in it. It has nudity and a lot of cussing. It is also fake and you can see that the punches are fake. The plot is dumb, although the end sequence was pretty cool. Check out the Jackie Chan version of The Protector but not The USA version.

Last Tuesday night I was watching The Protector DVD and I felt not enjoy and disappointed of The Protector is very bad film (HK version and USA verison) because it's too much nude scenes, too much swear, too much violence, poor story, poor peformances and Jackie Chan was difficult actor in The Protector film.

I am warning you that The Protector is not family/children movie and The Protector is adult film. My advice to you about please do not buy it and if you do really wanting watch it, better wait see on TV or rent DVD shop.

My favourite Jackie Chan's cop films is called Police Story trilogy, New Police Story, Rush Hour 1 & 2, The Medallion are brilliant films because it's excellent comedy, martial art action scenes, kung fu, excellent story, excellent performances, excellent Jackie Chan actor, it can for family/children movie.