Accidental Spy

Over the years, Jackie has come to be known for the humor in his work, and while this film is not completely without humor, it is essentially a serious movie. It is in many respects quite similar to The Bourne Identity with Matt Damon.

Martial arts films are defined to a great extent by the originality of the fight scenes. The fighting here is completely ordinary except that it the best one takes place in a mall in Istanbul, and Jackie Chan is stark naked throughout.

DVD info from Amazon.

widescreen anamorphic, 2.35:1.

So without the humor and without the wildly inventive fighting, you have a story which pretty much inserts Jackie Chan (playing the part of Jackie Chan) into a straight international thriller. Jackie finds out that a major international businessman/crime boss may be his father. When the old boy dies, he leaves Jackie a small check, a key and a crucifix. There is also a mysterious message written on dad's tombstone. By putting all the clues together, Jackie ends up in a bank in Istanbul, opening a safety deposit box ...

... and so it goes, with plenty of twists and turns involving the true nature of the manipulators and the manipulated, punctuated by Jackie's fight scenes. It is photographed well and isn't a bad story, if unnecessarily complicated, but you may be disappointed if you want to see Jackie do insane stunts and make wisecracks.

The Critics Vote

filmcritic.com 2.5/5

Rotten Tomatoes summary. 67% positive.

Metacritic.com. 80/100

The People Vote ...

IMDB summary. IMDb voters score it 6.5/10

IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this film is a C, but is not the kind of Jackie movie I like. It is a serious international thriller with some martial arts fights, as opposed to a zany martial arts movie.