Double trouble

Double Trouble” is an action-comedy
that stars Jaycee Chan, the son of
Jackie Chan, in the type of role his
father perfected, and for that alone
it has some curiosity value. But that
value, it turns out, isn’t worth the
price of admission.

The younger Mr. Chan plays Jay, a
member of a Taiwan security team in
charge of protecting a treasured 400-
year-old painting about to be put on
display. When the painting is stolen,
he is mistakenly thought to be
involved. Chasing the thieves — two
“hit girls” in black leather and
stiletto heels — he gets tangled with
Ocean (Xia Yu), a vacationing security
guard from Beijing. The escaping
thieves plant the rolled-up artwork in
a handbag that is carried onto Ocean’s
tour bus, which leaves without Jay. He
needs Ocean to help him find the bus;
Ocean needs Jay to get him back to his
tour. Before the film ends, the
partners will have gangs to fight and
scenic vistas to appreciate and a
showdown with Mr. Big.

Unfortunately the director, David
Hsun-Wei Chang, shows an indifference
to elevating the by-the-numbers
script. There’s usually plenty of
stunt work and unforced humor in
movies like this. “Double Trouble,”
though, has little action, and the
comedy is strained and mechanical. It
may be unfair to compare this effort
with a Jackie Chan movie, but two
minutes of a flick like “Project A”
have more fun and games than this
entire film.

A story about two guards — one from
Taiwan, the other from mainland China
— working together for a greater good
clearly hopes to encourage warmer
regional relations. A pity this weak
buddy movie leaves its built-in fan
base cold.