Project A 1983 Jackie Chan

I'm not a huge Jackie Chan fan.  He has a few (well, really one) great movies that I have seen.  That's Drunken Master 2, or The Legend of Drunken Master if you've only seen the edited American version.  Most of his movies are strictly standard time fillers, and quite a few of them (I'm looking at you, Rumble In the Bronx) are bonafide turds.  But, I'm always willing to take a chance on  Jackie, so I fired up the American DVD of Project A.

You knnow how I can prove this movie is amazing?  It's dubbed, and it still rules.  Dubbing ruins everything.  Something has to be truly fantastic to withstand dubbing.  Like The Legend of Drunken Master, you don't even mind the dubbing after a few minutes.  I'd like to see the original Chinese version of this when I get a chance, but until then I'm perfectly happy with this dvd.

In this movie, Jackie plays a sailor in the Hong Kong Navy named Dragon.  The Navy hates the cops, and the cops hate the Navy, but due to some backroom dealings by the Chief of Police, the Navy gets disbanded and they're all ordered to become cops.  Jackie/Dragon isn't too thrilled with this, since he wants to bust the offshore pirates who are smuggling guns.  Jackie/Dragon says "fuck the police", quits and becomes a one man Navy army willing to do whatever it takes to stop illegal gun smuggling.

It's about this time that chubby Sammo Hung comes into the movie, playing Jackie's criminal buddy.  It's also about this time in the movie where you realize where they ripped off all the ideas for the Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker fights in the Rush Hour movies.  But at least here, Jackie is younger and more athletic, so the fights are pretty rad.

This is also the movie where "Jackie Chan" falls from a clock tower and tears through a series of awnings before landing smack dab on his neck.  After which, Jackie Chan falls from the same clock tower, but from a different angle and body position, thereby landing more squarely on the ground, and not snapping his neck.  Apparently, Jackie was severely hurt and the production had to shut down for a few months while he recuperated, but it looks to me like the original stuntman (HERESY!!!!) bit the big one, and wen to the great Golden Harvest in the sky, while Jackie rethought this stunt, and came out with minimal damage.

Whatever.  This movie rules.  As an added bonus,. Danny Trejo does the voice of the bad guy in the dubbed version, which makes the dubbed version legitimately badass.  The only non-bonus in this dvd is that there aren't any outtakes of injuries over the credits like there usually is.  So maybe my stuntman death conspiracy theory is correct....either way, you should totally track down a copy of Project A ASAP.  And get The Legend of Drunken Master while you're at it.  And if you ever figure out what Project A actually refers to, let me know.  I still have no idea.