Rob-B-Hood

R-B-H is Jackie light - very light - it's like a Disney family film with important moral lessons to boot (such as don't gamble, steal or be mean to your girlfriend!) - but it's quite entertaining at times. It is primarily a comedy with some totally corny and perhaps unneccessary melodrama and of course it contains the required action scenes that Jackie fans need a fix of. The action is more acrobatics than fighting and in truth nothing that comes close to his older stuff but hopefully no one is expecting that anymore. There are four action set pieces and all are solid- a few highlights stood out for me - Jackie hopping from one air conditioner to another in a high rise building to work his way down and a run-away baby carriage in traffic were great fun. And perhaps more from a sentimental side, the appearance of Yuen Biao in a nice role was a huge boost. I actually teared up seeing him in action again.

The film is extremely predicatable if you have seen any of the films it was based on - three crooks ending up with a baby on their hands - or even if you haven't - lots of baby poop, adorable baby expressions, making faces at the baby to stop it from crying, the baby in dangerous situations and of course three hard hearts being melted by the baby. It's all there, but a fairly funny script and energetic performances make it all very palatable as does a slew of familiar actors - look especially for a great cameo from Daniel Wu and Nicholas Tse as armoured truck drivers. In fact, the film has a real ensemble feel to it as Jackie gives lots of time to many other actors - two other sentimental favorites being Michael Hui as one of the crooks and his wife played by Teresa Carpio - and Louis Koo as the third member of their merry band hasn't been so convivial in a long time. Not only does Daniel Wu show up, but the three other "Heavenly Kings" pop up as well - Andrew Lin, Terence Yin and Conroy Chan. Other familiar faces are Charlene Choi, Cherry Ying and Ken Lo. It all adds up to a bit of a silly party.

If you broke it down by percentages it would be about 70% comedy, 15% melodrama and 15% action. After the grim New Police Story, Jackie just sets out to have a good time and take his audience with him. For those looking for old fashioned Jackie action - well keep looking because it's not here.

Rating: 6.5