The Protector (1985) ★★★
Directed by James Glickenhaus, The Protector is Jackie Chan's second American film (after The Big Brawl five years earlier) and, compared to the Hong Kong films he made before and after this, it's not great. The film really suffers because Chan's character, Billy Wong, is almost a charisma-free zone he does a few of the audacious stunts which made Chan such a superstar in Hong Kong.
What you have is a pretty average action film: recently demoted, maverick New York cops go to Hong Kong to investigate a kidnapping. There, they are in danger from drug smuggling gangsters and receive nothing but scorn and obstruction from the Royal Hong Kong Police.
I like James Glickenhaus's The Exterminator and this is probably on a par with it, but with Jackie Chan, Danny Aiello and Roy Chiao in the main roles, it should be much better. Apparently the production was fractious because Glickenhaus and Chan didn't see eye to eye on the action sequences and got so bad that Jackie Chan left the set and only returned because he was contractually obliged to, re-editing the film with some re-shoots himself for its Hong Kong release. It's this last element which makes it interesting because the US and Hong Kong versions are very different – neither is brilliant – and it's fun to watch them and see how they differ.
Personally, I prefer Jackie Chan's version because the fight sequences are more involving and skilfully edited – it's no wonder that Police Story, the film Jackie Chan aid directly after this is such a great watch.
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