Double Trouble

[GeneChing]

Starring Jaycee Chan. There's a rumor floating around that this will be released in the Boston, LA, SF, Seattle and NY next week through AMC; this in the wake of PRC's Wanda buying AMC (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57225&page=8).

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i9QID1SEUN8/T8JXIbXwQUI/AAAAAAAApdk/cPLTzyLE0II/s400/double+trouble+overseas+poster.jpg

Double Trouble Official Trailer 2012 [HD] (Jaycee Chan) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9GhW6aD5C4)

[GeneChing]

Double Trouble: Film Review (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/double-trouble-film-review-335305)
1:38 PM PDT 6/8/2012 by Frank Scheck

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/sites/default/files/2012/06/double_trouble_still.jpg

The Bottom Line
This Chinese buddy action-comedy is mainly notable for the starring presence of Jaycee Chan, son of Jackie.

Opened
June 8 (China Lion)

Director
David Hsun-Wei Chang

Cast
Jaycee Chan, Xia Yu, Chen Han-tien, Deng Jiajia, Vivian Dawson, Jessica C., Shoko, Lan Chun-tien, Chang Fei

The film stars Jackie Chan's son Jaycee Chan as a Taiwanese museum security guard who springs into action when a 400-year-old scroll is stolen and he is mistakenly accused.

The starring presence of Jaycee Chan, Jackie Chan’s son, seems to be main impetus for the importation of Double Trouble. But while the young actor displays some of his father’s endearing appeal and athletic martial arts prowess, this otherwise unmemorable Chinese buddy action-comedy is unlikely to achieve any box-office traction on these shores.

The younger Chan plays Jay, a Taiwanese museum security guard who springs into action when a priceless, 400-year-old scroll is stolen and he is mistakenly accused. Through circumstances too convoluted to recount, he winds up partnered with Ocean (Chinese star Xia Yu), a vacationing security guard from Beijing. Since neither man exactly represents the pinnacle of their profession, hijinks, if not hilarity, ensues.

Director David Hsun-Wei Chang reveals little talent for action sequences, let alone narrative coherence or pacing, although he did have the wisdom to cast sexy actresses clad in skin-tight leather bodysuits as the art thieves.

The film also sneaks in some sly subtextual comments on the relationship between China and Taiwan, although they will largely be lost on American viewers.

As with most of the elder Chan’s efforts, the best moments arrive in the gaffe-laden outtakes that are unveiled at the film’s end.

Opened: June 8 (China Lion)
Production: Guangdong Zhujiang Film and Media Corp., Serenity Entertainment, Beijing Eastlight Film Co., Distribution Workshop and Three Dots Entertainment
Cast: Jaycee Chan, Xia Yu, Chen Han-tien, Deng Jiajia, Vivian Dawson, Jessica C., Shoko, Lan Chun-tien, Chang Fei
Director: David Hsun-Wei Chang
Screenwriters: Zhang Hongyi, Yeh Sho-Heng
Producers: Michelle Yeh, Liu Jing
Executive producers: Liu Hongbing, Ethan Hsu, Liu Jing, Jeffrey Chan
Director of photography: Horace Wong Wing-Hung
Editor: Lin Yung-Yi
Production designer: Cheng Yi-Feng
Costume designer: Tu Pei-Hsun
Music: Eggo Music Production & Sound
No rating, 89 min.
Haven't seen it yet. I was busy (and still am) (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=61402)...

[GeneChing]

Anyone near to a theater where it's playing? I probably am but I haven't bothered to look because I'm still picking up the pieces from KFTC20 (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=61402).

Double Trouble (http://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-latest/double-trouble/5043398.article)
17 June, 2012 | By Brent Simon
Dir: David Hsun-Wei Chang. Taiwan-Hong Kong-China. 2012. 89mins

Jaycee Chan, the 29-year-old son of Jackie Chan, headlines Double Trouble, a slickly packaged action comedy that, for both better and worse, gets much of its inspiration from Western sources. Seemingly composed as homage to both the elder Chan’s mismatched-cops Rush Hour series and the recent Ocean’s movies, this lithe genre effort has a surface engagement that melts like a pat of butter as the film winds its way toward its preordained conclusion.

Double Trouble seems less about honestly dissimilar and abrasive characters, and more about contrived friction.

Theatrical box office for this subtitled romp, distributed Stateside by China Lion, will be modest. Its curiosity value owing to Chan’s involvement will ensure it a decent ancillary life, however, particularly in Eastern territories.

When a 400-year-old Chinese painting and Taiwanese national treasure is about to be exhibited to the public, hotshot security guard Jay (Chan) is ready to protect it at all costs. But when a pair of va-voomish, stiletto-heeled, leather-clad gals (Jessica C. and Shoko) make off with the item for their crime boss (Vivian Dawson), Jay gets tangled up with Ocean (Xia Yu), a bumbling Beijing security guard enjoying an all-expenses-paid vacation. Mistakenly assumed to be complicit in the heist, Jay must stick with Ocean and try to track down the valued object, which was stashed in a handbag in Ocean’s tour bus.

Directed by David Hsun-Wei Chang, the action choreographer of Let the Bullets Fly, Double Trouble possesses an unflagging pace, that’s for sure. The movie opens with a flurry of action before characteristically spinning back in narrated time (“Let’s go back two days”) for freeze-frame character introductions and a wild heist-prevention drill. Much of the rest of its action, though, is staged in relatively graceless fashion.

There may be a bit of mostly subtextual social commentary in having one character from mainland China and the other from Taiwan. Unlike last fall’s The Guard, however, in which sparks flew between Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle, Double Trouble seems less about honestly dissimilar and abrasive characters, and more about contrived friction.

A good bit of the movie’s humor also leans on physical gags — shots to the groin and what not — that feel like a sop to lowest common denominator international audiences.

Chan, who also contributes the movie’s theme song, “Now,” definitely has some of his father’s goofy, live-wire personality. Too much of Double Trouble’s repartee and humor, however, is as generic as its title.

Production companies: Zhujiang Film Group, Serenity Entertainment, Beijing Eastlight Film Company, Distribution Workshop, Three Dots Entertainment

US distribution: China Lion

Producers: Michelle Yeh, Liu Jing

Executive producers: Liu Hongbing, Ethan Hsu, Liu Jing, Jeffrey Chan

Supervising producers: Zhao Jun, Joan Huang, Liao Feng

Screenplay: Zhang Hongyi, Yeh Sho-Heng

Cinematography: Horace Wong Wing-Hung

Action choreography: Nicky Li, Chung-Chi

Editor: Lin Yung-Yi

Production designer: Cheng Yi-Feng

Website: www.weibo.com/u/2429554373, Facebook.com/serenityMovieFB

Main cast: Jaycee Chan, Xia Yu, Chen Han-Tien, Deng Jiajia, Vivian Dawson, Jessica C., Shoko, Lan Chun-Tien, Hey Girl, Chang Fei

[GeneChing]

It's playing in Cupertino and SF, both within 40 miles. I know because I saw a promotional poster in the window of a neighborhood Chinese restaurant. Too bad I'm too busy right now.


Jackie Chan's son Jaycee Chan Stars in Action Comedy "Double Trouble;" Too Bad It's No Good (http://www.movieswithbutter.com/blogs/jackie-chans-son-jaycee-chan-stars-action-comedy-double-trouble-too-bad-its-not-any-good-29417)
Posted June 18th, 2012 by Senh Duong

http://www.movieswithbutter.com/sites/default/files/images/double_trouble.preview.png
Jaycee Chan in "Double Trouble"

The main market for “Double Trouble,” an action comedy starring Jaycee Chan (Jackie Chan’s son) released on June 8th, is probably Hong Kong, but I can’t find any numbers there yet. In China, it barely cracked the top 10 with just $0.7M after three days. In the U.S., it has grossed $30K from twelve theaters. The elder Chan would break out in a cold sweat if he saw these miniscule numbers for any of his films.

I’m not surprised. The trailer makes it seem like a generic HK action comedy from the 90’s. It’s slick, bright and shiny, but I couldn’t see anything resembling a coherent fight scene. It has the same look and feel of the elder Chan’s recent trailer for “Chinese Zodiac,” except not nearly as polished or ambitious.

Jaycee does look like split image of a young Jackie. According to reviews, he has his charm too, which is good to hear.

Jaycee was pretty good in the cop thriller “Invisible Target,” but he was in better hands with that film. It was directed by Benny Chan, who directed his father in “New Police Story” and “Rob-B-Hood,” both hits in Hong Kong. It also stars Nicholas Tse, Jacky Wu, and Andy On, a solid group of young up-and-coming screen fighters.

Although the Jackie Chan Stunt Team is behind the action sequences in “Double Trouble,” Jaycee’s director and co-stars in the film aren’t in the league as those from “Invisible Target.” He gets top billing and shoulders the entire film.

According to several reviews - all of them bad except one - the action sequences are poorly choreographed and edited. The film does move by quickly, which is good, but it’s a disappointment overall.

The only good review is from Ernest Hardy of Village Voice, who writes “Young Chan does his father proud with his fighting prowess, but also on a much more superficial level, he fits right in with all the eye candy, male and female, that fills the screen.” I would have an easier time taking his review seriously if he didn’t misattribute the director of the film to Jiang Wen. Wen directed “Let the Bullets Fly,” the highest grossing film of all time in China. He’ll have nightmares if the Village Voice doesn’t make that correction soon. “Double Trouble” is actually directed by David Chang, who worked on the action sequences for "Bullet."