dglink A welcome and amiable screen presence, Jackie Chan can be depended upon for clever stunts, fast action, and solid entertainment. But even the best performers have off days, and "The Accidental Spy" is not Jackie's finest hour, despite some dexterous maneuvers and funny moments. Jackie is a gym-equipment salesman, who may be the son of a dying Korean man; when he passes, the Korean leaves Jackie a legacy that sends him to Istanbul, where he becomes involved with drug dealers in pursuit of a highly-addictive super drug.The meandering script by Rod Dean and Ivy Ho is short on logic and long on mindless action. Rod Dean is credited with the English version, and his dialog lags the lip movements of the Chinese cast by several seconds, which is initially amusing, but eventually annoying. However, the script is of secondary importance, because director Teddy Chan's focus is on action action action. Evidently film editor Chi-Leung Kwong had a good work out assembling the fast-moving footage into a frenetic semblance of continuity. Fortunately, Kwong had some good footage to work with, because Wing Hang Wong's cinematography is particularly good and showcases the beauty of Istanbul.However, the film belongs to Jackie Chan, and avid fans of the star likely enjoy whatever he does. Jackie is always fun to watch, even in the most preposterous situations, and an extended chase sequence through the Istanbul Bazaar that features the bad guys pursuing a naked Jackie is arguably the film's highlight. Chan's deft play with plates, tambourines, and baskets to cover himself is priceless. Once outside the Bazaar, his slickly nimble maneuver with a hanging bed sheet is worth repeated looks; he somehow pulls on the sheet, tears a hole for his head, wraps himself head to foot, and quickly transforms himself into a veiled woman. If the entire film were as inspired as these moments, which rank with the finest silent-film slapstick, "The Accidental Spy" would be a classic.Unfortunately, most of the film is non-stop action, with extended chases, impossible stunts, and fiery explosions, but little reason or logic behind any of them. Watchable for its amiable star and his riotous antics in the Istanbul Bazaar, the rest of "The Accidental Spy" is not worthy of its talented lead.

edwagreen Jackie Chan goes from a salesman to becoming involved in an opium drug scheme in this nicely paced thriller. The problem is that the plot needed to be developed more. You get confused regarding who is really behind this.Naturally, in a picture of this nature, there are scenes fully action-packed. Chan's knowledge of fighting sure comes into use here as he is fighting the bad guys almost constantly.Any attempt at romance is thwarted when it is revealed that the alleged reporter on assignment, is really an addicted person, and she meets a bad end.The truck scene, where the truck is on fire, is most exciting. It's the last scene that confuses us all. The short guy who Chan meets up with at the bar, earlier in the film, is much more involved than we would ordinarily think.

p-stepien Scripts to Jackie Chan movies are almost never anything to write home about. Sometimes however he has a story that is actually engrossing. This time around the script is horrid and the dialogue hits new lows. The most ridiculous plot-hole is the finale, where for some absurd reason Jackie with the unanimous applause of the whole international secret service and local police service decides to engage in a high-speed truck ride, where the truck's cargo is petrol and on fire. The logical thing to do would be to stop the truck and run the hell out of there.But a Jackie Chan movie is never about script, plot holes or dialogue. Its about the action. And this time its un-CGI-ied Jackie Chan, the guy we've grown to know and love. The fights are some of Jackie's best yet and are never boring, especially when Jackie is trying to escape from the spa. And no matter how idiotic the reasoning of the action is in the end you really just don't care.In the end even though you feel like fast forwarding the filler and getting to the action I absolutely enjoyed watching this movie, but honestly can't rate it higher than 5. It really wouldn't hurt to actually hire a good script doctor to check out the story before you film it.To all the ladies: If you ever wanted to see Jackie Chan's butt cheeks this is the movie to rent! Absolutely hilarious.Script, dialogue: 1/10 Action: 9/10

NoeValleyJeff Jackie Chan's greatest weakness in his movies is predictability: you know the good triumphs over evil, the good guys are easy to identify, Jackie drop-kicks some butt, and he takes time to save kids and babies (not to mention babes, who sometimes save him). You know that if he gets the girl, he doesn't get very far (PG all the way). In his best movies, this is his greatest strength, too: against the repeated backdrop of white and black hats, you're never quite sure how he's going to manage to clutch victory from the jaws of defeat. You know he's going to get cornered by 6 black hats with 18 weapons in some storage room...and somehow use whatever's stored there to do away with the evil-doers.Unfortunately, in the Accidental Spy, we're not kept guessing very long. The fight scenes are overly predictable (and, too often, the victim of a punch will start rolling their head back before they're punched). The plot is as unimportant to the Jackie Chan machine as usual, but, unlike other movies of his, the characters aren't memorable. The love-interest is lovely, but not interesting. The spy-who-coulda-have-loved-Jackie is relegated to making plot-digressing phone calls ("did you order a helicopter?").And it's too bad, because there's otherwise some good material here: drug kingpins and orphans, lost parents, competing spy agencies, and beautiful locations (especially those Istanbul and other parts of Turkey). It's too bad that his escape from a Turkish bathhouse is wasted in this movie (you try to confront a half-dozen apes with only your bath towel to save you...and then not even the towel).The dubbing doesn't help. Instead of offering the film in its original Chinese with subtitles (easily possible in this digital age), we're stuck with dubbing that sucks away what little life remains in these two-dimensional characters.I really like Chan's movies, but he could have phoned his performance in for this one. Chan, unfortunately, is missing from his own movie.