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Project A

Project A

List Price: $14.98
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: What happened...
Review: ... to the outtakes when they roll the credits? This DVD is crap!! I got this for $5 at Target and, man, what a mistake... The English dub is stupid, too. Don't buy this... Get the HK versions like the other guys said...

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Great Movie - The DVD is a Disaster!!
Review: First of all, I love the original Project A, which I have seen in full on our local Multinational TV Channel (with great subtitling I might add - SBS do a great job). The two stars are for the DVD. If you want the real Project A, then don't get this DVD. I thought Jackie dubbed it, the main reason I bought it - but after seeing Legend of Drunken Master (which he did dub) I have my doubts. The voice sounds very fake. All the rest of the actors are obvious dubs. Some scenes have been cut - especially the scene in the Mah Jhong parlour introducing Sammo Hung. They cut the shower scene and other bits when the marine police are in training, as well as other bits and pieces. Picture quality is superb - the only bonus. The music is awful, doesn't keep pace with the action at all and is totally different to the original. All in all, a disappointment, especially when I have to order from overseas, which costs a fair bit. This DVD is in my JC collection, but I much prefer my video version.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great Movie, subtitles option missing
Review: First off this movie is great, it is truly one of Jackie Chan's classics. The stunts and action scenes are fantastic, and the plot moves along nicely. The DVD is good for the most part, the picture and sound are both good.

But one negative side is the lack of subtitle and language options. With a movie like this it would be nice to be able to turn off the english dubbing and instead have the original chinese soundtrack with english subtitles. But this option is not presented, which really annoys me when you consider the fact that it could have been easily put on the DVD. The english dubbing isn't bad (Jackie Chan does his own voice, and i believe Samo Hung does too). But sometimes the orginal chinese soundtrack can make the movie seem more legitimate and less cheesy, and i like to have the option.

But all in all this really is own of Jackie's finest movies. Samo Hung is very good as well. I took off one star just for the lack of subtitle options, but that isn't the end of the world. I still enjoy this DVD greatly.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Watch it for the stunts
Review: I had a little difficulty following the plot of this movie at first. Dragon Mi Yong (Jackie Chan) is an enlisted man in the Navy, having a hard time getting support from the police to go after pirates plaguing Hong Kong. It turns out that the police are corrupt and in league with the pirates. After a run-in with the police Dragon is forced to join the police. When Jackie finds an opportunity to catch an important pirate and is disciplined by his boss, he quits the police force, tired of its corruption.

As this activity is happening a friend of Dragon has stolen rifles that he plans to sell for a profit. The only problem is that he stole them from the police. A senior member of the police had planned to sell the rifles to the pirates. The police are searching for the stolen rifles, and most policemen are unaware that the rifles were to be sold to the pirates, so if they catch Dragon or his friend the two will be arrested. At the same time the pirates learn that Dragon and his friend have the rifles and they too are after the pair.

The next portion of the movie is a running chase between Jackie, his friend and girl friend and the police and the pirates. One of the best chase scenes in the movie is when the pirates go after Dragon on bicycles. The stunts for this sequence are creative and fun to watch.

The final insult to Dragon is when a ship is taken by the pirates, who capture the important passengers as hostages, including an admiral. Dragon and his fellow sailors decide it is time to save the hostages and put an end to the pirate menace. The sailors come up with a complicated plan to find where the pirate hideout is and to then save the hostages. The remainder of the movie is a combination of Kung Fu and slapstick as the pirates are vanquished and the hostages saved.

Between the bullet-fast dubbed dialogue and the fast-paced scene changes the plot is more than a little difficult to follow on one watching of this movie. I kept losing track of who was a good guy and who was a bad guy. The acting was pretty hammy and the dialogue was cheesy. But remember, this is a Jackie Chan movie and the movie itself is as much a vehicle for the stunts as it is for the story line. The bicycle chase is one of the most creative chase scenes I have ever watched in any movie. Throughout the numerous fight scenes Jackie makes humorous and unusual use of a variety of props, making the journey better than the end of the movie itself. You have to watch this movie at least twice just to keep track of who is on which side, and the stunts alone, particularly the bicycle chase I have mentioned a couple of times, are worth watching again and again.


Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Garbage And A Travesty
Review: I had the opportunity to check out this DVD by renting it. I also have the original chinese language version on DVD, and I must say that these Disney reissues are total garbage. The movie itself is great, although I found the print on the Disney DVD to 'flicker' a bit - alternating lighter then normal brightness. The Deltamac version I have has a cleaner looking picture with consistent brightness.

The terrible things about this DVD include the dubbing (Jackie Chan didn't participate, although it sounds like him; and some of the Disney voice-over actors sound constipated); the 'hatchet' editing (isn't there any respect for artistic integrity with chinese movies distributed in North America?); and the music - incongruant and ruins the feel of the scenes. If this English dub were taken from the 80's English version, I wouldn't mind because the music would have been intact. An example of the new music dubbing ruining a scene is the one on a boat where Jackie and Sammo are dressed in chinese opera costumes. In the original, you hear the crashing cymbals as they speak, just like in Chinese opera. In the Disney version, the cymbals are absent which totally ruins the joke. It's the sum of these alterations to the movie that have made me take away 4 stars from an otherwise 5 star movie.

Send a message to Disney by staying away from their hatchet job reissues. Show them how disgusted you are at these terrible alterations of classic HK films.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Jackie Chan at his best!
Review: I love this movie, infact I love pretty much all Jackie Chan movies I dont know wat it is about them, but they're able to blend in enough comedy, action, adventure, and drama to create the perfect movie! That goes for this movie as well as Jckie Chan and the rest of the 19 century Hong Kong coast guard go up against pirates leading to one of the best boss fighting scences I ever saw! I must agree with the rest of the group on saying that this DVD is a disaster, but I definatley think that you should see this movie, and every other Jackie Chan to have the best 75 minutes of your life!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Project A -- gets a grade of "A"!
Review: If you want to get the best version of the movie, find the subtitled version (the Hong Kong version), rather than the dubbed version (look for the "region-free" or Region 0 versions. Region 1 is the US and Canada, and Region 3 is Asia only) Both versions are wonderful, but the subtitled version has a few extra scenes, without the (once-in-a-while) difficult-to-follow dubbing.

Jackie Chan is the undisputed master of stunts (I still cringe when he falls from the clock!), and the bicycle chase is pure Jackie and truly wonderful! This is definitely one for everyone's action collection, especially if you can get the subtitled version!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: STICK WITH HK IMPORTS "ALWAYS"
Review: If you want to see the uncut, no bull, original official version of ANY Jackie Chan, or ANY Honk Kong movies, STICK WITH HK IMPORTS. Now, make sure HK IMPORTS are OFFICIAL LICENSED PRODUCT, and not BOOT LEGS. It gets really tricky, but it is worth the search. American version cut off so much, and also make acting look so dumb by English Dubb. Not worth it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Really rates a 3.5 but I rounded up.
Review: Jackie chan is joined by Sammo in this excellent example of Jackie before the big time. It is a frantic, comedic martial art romp that dares to drift from the totally formulaic storyline.

The storyline is a 3, the martial arts are a 5 watchability is a 2, due to dubbing.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: There's Very Little Not to Like About This Movie
Review: Lately, after viewing all of Jackie's movies made over the past 10 or so years (the high budget movies like Police Story and Who Am I?), I have started to look at his earlier, less budgeted and clearly less known movies.

However, my search lead me to a couple of decent movies, and then Rumble In Hong Kong (IMO, the only truly bad Jackie Chan movie). After seeing that disaster, I was skeptical as to see this one, but I rented it anyhow and found loads of charm and excitement. As I watched, I recognized a lot of actors used in some other movies like Police Story (Mars, Ti Pai), and a lot of faces that, although I never saw them before, I loved seeing them too. Additionally, I find that martial arts movies differ than Anime in terms of dubbing. I find that in martial arts movies, reading the subtitles and watching the action a bit tiring, and unlike Anime, the original voices aren't exactly better to listen to. So, while many have problems with dubbing, trust me, the dubbing is not a problem.

Every character has a large amount of likability, including Lord Sam Pao, the main villain. Almost never do you see a movie that so successfully coasts on the charisma of the characters. Yuen is a tough, but helpful and agreeable man, while Sammo Hung just can't help but be really cool, as well as funny. Both support Chan, a rebellious yet charming character with a great sense of loyalty and justice.

It's not just the characterizations of these characters that works, but remember that these three men are action stars, and while Chan hogs the spotlight, Sammo and Biao deliver some great moves and moments in action. Going along with the awesome martial art sequences comes the infamous clock falling stunt, a stunt that Jackie broke his skull pulling off. Another really awesome scene is when Jackie rides through the streets on a bike, and I had to watch Biao Yuen talk his way out of telling the pirate guard the password several times, for he pulled it off insanely well. This movie never stops with its coolness; it's either adrenaline pumping, funny, or just plain likable.

That all covers the movie itself, and know this here and now: the DVD version is better than the VHS version, mainly due to the superior look of widescreen mode, and superior sound quality from the DVD hardware. This movie is nothing short of a work of art, one of Chan's best of all time, and all the DVD does is enhance it. Well worth the price!


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