In the original version, the translation of his complaint about Chan to the shop manager is "Is he a circus clown?" In the US version, he says, "Is he hitting on my wife?" which makes MUCH more sense (to americans anyway). For instance, in an early scene where shop-clerk Jackie is demonstrating exercise equipment to a middle aged man and his hot young wife, the man becomes indignant over that attention Chan pays to his trophy spouse. Also, the new English dialog is MUCH better in Dimension's version, easily beating out the original's English dialoge as well as the subtitle translations of it's Cantonese and Turkish dialoge. They didn't cut any major action sequences, the editing in general was better in the US version, and the actors who did the dubbing in the US version were 500% better than the ones who spoke English in the original (especially the woman who played Carmen-she had a gorgeous face, but her English was less convincing than Jackie's and she was a horrible actress to boot). (**)Įxcept for one glaring error, I think Dimension Films did an excellent job in recutting/redubbing The Accidental Spy for the American Market. On the bright side, there is at least one amazing stunt (Jackie jumping from the roof of a building to the road below using three umbrellas as parachutes!), there is a nice international flavor (the locations include Hong Kong, Seoul and Istanbul), there are two pretty Chinese women, and of course there is always Jackie. The climactic "Speed"-like sequence of a tanker that must not slow down or it will explode is spectacular, but has nothing to do with the main plot. The fighting is unremarkable if you've seen any of Jackie's previous outings, and some of the action scenes have a "been there, done that" feel to them. The tone swings wildly from light spy comedy to serious spy drama - the movie never seems sure of itself. But it does not fully explain why it is so dull. This certainly offers a reasonable explanation as to why the plot of this movie in its cut form seems so disjointed. Apparently there are two versions of "The Accidental Spy" in circulation, the most commonly found cut one (which runs about 90 minutes) and the harder to find long one (which runs about 110 minutes).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
January 2023
Categories |