CompleteMartialArts.com - Robin B Hood
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List Price: $19.95
Our Price: $16.99
Your Save: $ 2.96 ( 15% )
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Manufacturer: Dragon Dynasty
Starring: Jackie Chan, Louis Koo, Yuanyuan Gao, Michael Hui, Biao Yuen
Directed By: Benny Chan
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0796019806374
Format: Closed-captioned
Label: Dragon Dynasty
Manufacturer: Dragon Dynasty
Number Of Items: 2
Publisher: Dragon Dynasty
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2007-12-26
Running Time: 126
Studio: Dragon Dynasty
Theatrical Release Date: 2006
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Editorial Reviews:
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Jackie Chan plays a compulsive gambler who turns to robbery to pay off his debts. He gets into further trouble when his buddies try to score a big payout by kidnapping a baby.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: A big step back for Jackie Chan
Comment: After regaining some of the ground he lost in Hollywood with his last couple of Hong Kong films, Jackie Chan takes a big step backwards with the overlong Rob-B-Hood, a downmarket three bad men and a baby romp that offers limp gay jokes, comic relief mental illness, family bonding and child endangerment for all the family. There is one fairly good action sequence at the halfway point as well as a neat stunt that sees him jumping down a building via the air conditioning units, but you definitely get the feeling that Chan's no longer pushing himself but is just doing what he knows he can still do while Yuen Biao is mostly wasted in a nothing bit part. He's made worse, but that's hardly a recommendation.
Dragon Dynasty's 2-disc set the theatrical version with audio commentary. There's also a variety of interviews and featurettes, but the film is such heavy going you quite possibly won't want to spend any longer on it once you've seen it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Different Chan
Comment: The great, unbeatable, real life actionman Jackie Chan is ageing. This of course is not new or shocking information, but it is true. Therefore he has shifted focus a bit in his new film, "Robin B Hood" (for which the English name in China interestingly enough was 'Rob-B-Hood', which to my ears at least sounds a bit better). Although he still fights and leaps and such, it is no longer the main act. The comedy takes over, and I must say, quite succesfully.
There is one big problem with this though. While action and leaping around is universally understood, humour varies from one end of the world to another, and I think that there is a bit of that going on here. If you understand Chinese and Chinese culture and or cinema history, you will probably see more funny things in this film than if you don't. There are still plenty of things that are easily recognized as humourous, but many of the references and a lot of the dialogue is better if you speak Chinese. Nothing surprising about that really.
I think there are enough leaping and figthing (and a visit from Yuan Biao) to keep genre fans happy, and enough humour to keep anyone else satisfied. In short: I think it is a good film. Highly recommendable.
Customer Rating:
Summary: So good...I thought it was old...
Comment: I got to this review page searching for when this movie was really made.
I considered JC's action scenes in Rush Hour III as an indication he was ready for the "Over-the-Hill Gang", and told myself Robin B Hood was dragged out of a Taiwan vault.
But I was sucked in by the hype on the box, and it did live up to it. The action scenes are reminiscent of earlier films, and it was good to see it was made recently.
Confusing? Absolutely, especially in the first half. Thongs, Landlord and Octopus' characters in the early action scenes segue not at all into some of the other first-half "personal" scenes. I had to rewind to connect Octopus to the early action scenes with the later scenes of him being a total jerk to his wife. Is this that guy we saw earlier, dear?
But, I agree with another reviewer: this is not an American film. Maybe we are too used to characters and plots that follow steps 1,2 and 3.
In the end, I think the plot and character relationships were resolved satisfactorily. Not perhaps to the standard of a professional thriller, but definitely beyond the expectations of a B-action movie.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A contrarian review
Comment: I did not enjoy the previous effort of a Benny Chan directed Jackie Chan film in "New Police Story" that I was definitely worried about a "Three Men and a Baby" inspired effort. The result was mixed, but going in with low expectations I was pleasantly surprised. "Rob-B-Hood" (US release name is a bizarre name change to "Robin-B-Hood" though in this movie there is no stealing from the rich to give to the poor; neither title is very good) is the third film in the collaboration between Benny Chan and Jackie Chan and Benny's first attempt at a comedic action film. While this film was successful in Asia it was not theatrically released in North America and most of Europe.
Jackie Chan and Louis Koo Tin-Lok star as mediocre bad guys Thongs and Octopus. Jackie Chan tired of stereotypical nice guy roles wanted to play a criminal, though his character Thongs is a burglar and compulsive gambler, the "good guy" nature of his character comes through quite clearly and his performance does not veer far from most of Jackie's previous personae. This role is a good step in broadening his experience as an actor. Octopus is a married womanizer who works with Thongs. He married very young to Pak Yin (the terminally cute Charlene Choi) and is doing his best to woo wealthy young women while avoiding his wife. Thongs and Octopus both work under the guidance of the Landlord (Michael Hui) a conservative criminal who hoards his theft while the other two spend their "earnings".
The Landlord has had his loot stolen by another criminal (he suspects everyone after this) so he allows himself to get contracted to a nefarious case to kidnap a baby for seven million dollars and give the infant to the possible grandfather to test if the baby is his sons (the son is dead and currently frozen in a very expensive decorated freezer). Thongs and Octopus both need the money so they acquiesce and help the Landlord with the felony. Of course, Thongs and Octopus, through a partially botched kidnapping attempt, are forced to take care of the cute defecating infant until they can reestablish getting the kid to who hired them. And, of course, they get attached to the baby (I cannot believe the baby got nominated for Hong Kong Film Award's Best New Performer category).
Some of the negatives of this film include the ill-defined female characters (it seems they would have been better characterization in the original three-hour workprint, but that meant a whole lot more exposition); especially Gao Yuan-Yuan's Melody character who I had trouble figuring out what her relationship with Thongs was the first time I watched this. Some of the baby poop jokes were overdone as well as some of the infant's scenes in general (reportedly the child was an enfant terrible on the set; delaying shooting and helping push the film over budget). There is only so much you can do with a babbling, spitting, crying child with flatulence. Yuen Biao's Inspector Steve Mok character is definitely underused (as well as Michael Hui), though at least he gets more than a cameo in this film. And then there is the horrible overuse of Pepsi advertising including one scene where Jackie slides down a pole revealing the largest Pepsi graffiti I have ever seen.
I did end up liking this film though. There is a certain congenial innocence with the lead characters that works well in this comedic action hybrid. In most Jackie Chan movies there are little stunts that sometimes seem as throwaways but are quite dangerous and are done with Keatonesque ease. In this movie Jackie slides down a staircase column and props himself up with ease at the end. If he fell on the wrong side he could have been seriously injured, but since it is so effortlessly it seems so simple. Jackie Chan has used more wires in his stunts and it definitely shows in this film, but I do not fault him for it, since his body cannot handle the punishment like it used to. The stunt where he jumps from air conditioner to air conditioner to the bottom of the street is impressive (even if a wire was used) and his and Louis Koo's stunts in the amusement park owned by the grandfather (location was Ocean Park) were quite good. In fact Jackie was said to be impressed of Koo who was willing to do many of his own stunts in the movie.
There could have been more fighting in this movie but there is a good scene in the apartment of Jackie between Jackie, Yuen Biao, Ken Lo and more. It is inspired by a similar scene in Project A (this is also mentioned in the Benny Chan commentary), but still pleasant. While there are many faults in this film and I think that many action purists will not like this film, I found much that was enjoyable from the comedy to the action and stunts. Now please Jackie no more movies with babies.
***½/*****
The extras on the Dragon Dynasty DVD are quite good though they have stupendously stupid names. The best is a 39 minute interview with Jackie Chan named "Crashing the Hood." In this he talks about how he wanted to be more serious as an actor and how he wanted to play more of a bad guy (this would be repeated on most of the extras) and how he had trouble passing the script through China. He talks about how he wants to work with more of his Peking school brothers (Sammo Hung and Yuen Wah) and some of his experiences with Michael Hui on "Cannonball Run." He even talks about his changing belief in CGI, how he channeled his Mom's stroke into this character and his non-use of storyboarding. He does make a mistake stating that this is his first main bad guy role (that would be "Killer Meteors" (1977) plus he did a couple of "thug" roles even earlier in his career). The most telling quote is when he states "I control the whole movie" dispelling any notion of the director as auteur for this film especially since this movie is produced by Jackie's company JCE Movies Limited.
"The Hand That Mocks The Cradle" is a 16 minute interview with Benny Chan that repeats much of what is in the commentary except that he does state that Jackie Chan micromanages much less now then he did when he first directed him in "Who Am I." "Baby Boomer: A featurette with costar Conroy Chan" (14m) is interesting because of so much of what Conroy actually does. He is an X-Games promoter, was an electrical engineer in college, is a rap group member and has an Australian accent. However, he has a small role in the film. "Playtime for Adults: On the Site of Robin B. Hood" (22m) and "Robin-B-Hood: An Original Making Of" (22m) are typical "making of" fare that were originally (along with the director's commentary) put out on the R3 release. Luckily those two features have scenes of Yuen Biao being interviewed.
Now where are the deleted scenes?
The audio commentary by Benny Chan (with two interviewers who do not state their names), which was ported over from the R3 disc, is informative if not a bit dry. The Dragon Dynasty cover has a mistake in advertising stating that Bey Logan is on the commentary. He is not -- to the condemnation of some and to the happiness of others. Benny Chan talks much about how many scenes were cut (the work print of the film was three hours long; though he states he prefers the shorter version; thank goodness) and that most of the cut scenes were non-action. He also talks about some of the influence of Project A and Winners and Sinners. It was the first comedy for Benny Chan and Benny talked about how the baby was very difficult - this was echoed in much of the extras. Most of the commentary was scene-by-scene discussing where the missing scenes were, who some of the cameo actors are and his personal feelings on several scenes such as his struggling with the rationale of the "shocking" scene toward the end.
Customer Rating:
Summary: This is NOT an American movie guys
Comment: From an American point of view, this movie is confusing, disconnected, and a bit melodramatic. But this isn't an American movie. Jackie Chan is Taiwanese. This is that type of movie. Watching this movie as a foreign film is quite enjoyable. A little strange, but fun!
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