The British critic Cyril Connelly once wrote “There is no more somber enemy of good art than the pram in the hall”. While he was really saying that parenthood interferes with the creative process, I couldn’t help but think of this when approaching this film. Think of how many movies over the years that have been ruined by the introduction of children (Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, I’m looking in your direction). It’s not that I’m against children per se, I just find that they add a needless layer of saccharine whenever they’re around in a picture. Maybe this is just me being a grouchy old man, but I have to admit that I had very dim expectations of Jackie Chan’s latest Hong Kong-lensed production Robin-B-Hood. Seeing the DVD cover, which features Jackie brandishing a baby’s bottle, and an infant looking like he just rolled off the set of a Huggies commercial, did little to boost my morale. I thought to myself “Dragon Dynasty hasn’t found the time to put out John Woo’s The Killer, but they have time for THIS?“ However, I was able to find time away from yelling at kids to get out of my yard to have a look at this DVD, and I’m happy to report that it was much better than I had any reason to expect.

Jackie plays the improbably named cat burglar Thongs. Thongs is master thief but a lousy gambler and he soon finds himself in hock to local loan shark McDaddy (Conroy Chan). Together with his partner-in-crime Octopus (Louis Koo) and their mentor the Landlord (Michael Hui, who also starred with Chan in Cannonball Run), who both have money problems of their own, Thongs participates in a kidnapping of an infant whose ransom will get them in the clear. Needless to say, things fall apart: the Landlord gets arrested and Thongs and Octopus are left holding the baby. In a plot that Helen Keller could see coming, the hoodlums bond with the infant and seek to reform their larcenous ways.  

If you are comfortable using the fast-forward button on your DVD player, just skip over the parts from where Chan and Koo are playing peek-a-boo with the tyke  (at around the forty-minute mark), to the part where they, the baby, the loan shark, the thugs who hired them for the kidnapping and the policeman who’s been on their trail (Yuen Bio) all convene in Jackie’s apartment (around the hour mark). By that point, you’ll be past the treacle of watching the kidnapper-victim bonding, as well as the underdeveloped romantic sub-plot involving Jackie and a maternity nurse. What you’ll find after that are the reasons you watch a Jackie Chan flick: inventive action and breakneck stunts.  

Like most Hong Kong comedies, the humor in Robin-B-Hood is pretty broad, relying on slapstick and sight-gags. For the most part, it is effective, with everyone willing to dispense with a modicum of dignity for the sake of a joke. Some gags (the sight of Jackie and Koo stealing shark fins and strapping them to their backs like wings) work better than others (the good-natured, but still distasteful homophobic jokes). Charlene Choi is particularly funny as Koo’s longsuffering wife, who is forced to dress in a series of increasingly embarrassing outfits as she spies on her philandering husband. Moreover, there were even a few genuine laughs to be had with the baby, but these were usually had when it appeared that it was plummeting to its doom and a rubber mannequin is substituted.  

If you’re watching this purely for the action, you’ll find lots of satisfaction. Any worries that Jackie (who was fifty-two years old when this filmed) won’t be able to move the way he used to will be dissipated in about the first twenty minutes as he finds yet another way to come down off a rooftop. The only real misfire comes when Jackie is pursued by some thugs into a room-sized trampoline. Anybody who saw Chan’s pachinko parlor scene in Thunderbolt would be forgiven in feeling disappointed that this scene doesn’t even come close to it. But all is forgiven in the final few reels, where Jackie dodges a roller coaster and has a fight with a pair of white-suited ass-kickers in a fight that rivals anything he’s done post-Drunken Master II. I would say that he moves better here than he did in Rush Hour 3, but jeez, Stephen Hawking moves better than Chan did in that flick.

Even if you have a hard time stomaching the Three Men And A Baby-esque storyline, with all the attendant baby formula and excrement jokes, Robin-B-Hood is an enjoyable flick. If that prospect scares you, just follow my advice and skip the baby-bonding parts. The comedy and the action are still worth giving this disc a look, When Jackie films in Hong Kong, he is always been given a lot more latitude in the stunt department than when Hollywood completion bond stooges are looking over his shoulder, and this film takes advantage of that freedom. 

 
Presentation  
Robin-B-Hood boasts a 2.35:1 anamorphic image that is flawless, presenting a nice, clean image that is free of defects and artifacing, with a very clear display of extensive nighttime footage. Audio options include Cantonese language tracks in both DD 5.1 and DTS, as well as a DD 5.1 English track. The DD 5.1 Cantonese track is crisp and clear, and nicely utilizes sound effects, from punches landing to the roller coaster that threatens to flatten Jackie and the infant. The English dub is about what you would expect: lackluster and unimpressive. It’s serviceable, but lacks the charm of an old-school dubbing. In a particularly “what were they thinking” move, the traditional closing credit outtakes are also dubbed in English, lending them a surreal quality. 

Subtitles are available in English, English for the hard of hearing, and Spanish.
 
Extras
Extras on the DVD include an English-subtitled audio commentary from director Benny Chan. While the box advertises a commentary with Hong Kong film expert Bey Logan, he is nowhere to be found on this release and that’s a disappointment. While Benny Chan does a very credible and enjoyable job of discussing the project, as he is asked questions by at least two unidentified interviewers, which was kind f distracting, I kept wishing that Logan would chime in to tell you who this person or that person was, where a particular scene was shot and so on. When the two aforementioned white suited fighters appear near the end of the film, Chan merely says that one was a three-time wushu champion, and that the other was a member of the Sichuan Martial Arts Team, and that’s it. Logan would have told you their life stories if he had the chance.  

There are also several lengthy featurettes, mostly featuring interviews with Jackie Chan, director Benny Chan and actor Conroy Chan, who played loan shark McDaddy. They’re interesting to varying degrees. I can’t say that I was particularly dying to hear the story of a guy who was in the film for about a third of its running time, but it’s nice when Jackie is given a chance to talk freely about his career, uninhibited by having to speak in English.  

The remaining extras include two additional featurettes that are really just standard EPK material, which add some extra insight to the finished product. Since Jackie and director Benny Chan use their interview time to discuss how the picture was put together and stunts were performed, all that is really left for these segments is to discuss how the baby was cast and how difficult it can be to work with infants. These were really the least interesting features and I found myself skimming through them quickly. 

As usual for the label, there are several trailers for other Dragon Dynasty releases, including several staring Jackie Chan. I’m a fan of trailers, but I wish that DD could find some original Hong Kong trailers to use, rather than the histrionically narrated video trailers that are typically used. 

The Bottom Line  
Robin-B-Hood is better than the packaging or the trailer would lead you to believe. If you’re a new parent who adores diaper jokes, you’ll love the emotional crux of the movie. For those of you showing up for a dose of Jackie Chan’s unique brand of martial arts and death cheating, you’ll be happy to hear he can still deliver the goods, although your teeth may hurt though the more sappy and maudlin parts strewn about.