Review of Jackie Chan: My Story/My Stunts

Introduction

You get two previously released features on just one disc and for a low price too. HKL have done the usual nice menus here with a Jackie Chan fight clip running in the middle.

My Story - 74 minutes:
This is a very basic introduction to Mr Chan, and it`s made to suit American tastes. You`ll know as soon as you watch it as it`s just the presentation. Only mildly annoying. One funny thing about this though is the narrator, David Wu, and his corny jokes. I had to laugh (as opposed to cry). Running at just 74 minutes long, there seems to be a lot of stuff not accounted for. This is a good primer however and covers from the moment he was born up to Rush Hour. You may want to check out a book or two for more detail on this charasmatic action star.

My Stunts - 93 minutes:
This is brilliant! This is presented by Jackie himself as he talks us through how these amazing stunts are created and executed in the first place. We travel around with him to his `Stunt Lab`, on location at various places, and there`s a walk through a stunt scene showing correct and incorrect movement, plus a whole shedload more! Tricks of his trade are here to see and it`s an awesome sight to behold. His stunt team are an incredible bunch of talented professionals that do an incredibly hard job working with Jackie, and you see an awful lot here. A lot of pain too, but it`s just so cool to watch. You`ll be urming and arrhhing along and I`m sure you`ll grin as I did!

Watching a Jackie Chan movie will never be the same again after seeing this, after all, you know how he does most of the stunts, right? Well, yes and no. He`s not going to show you everything, and I think you may well get caught up in the action of the movie rather than analysing how certain stunts and effects were achieved so you`ll forget some of the stuff you see in My Stunts.

There seem to be quite a few extras here, so read further on for more on what`s included.

Video

Video is presented in the 4:3 aspect and on the whole seems clean and sharp. Lots of clips from old and new movies, so these are of variable quality.

Audio

Nothing special here in the audio department. It`s a documentary so there`s just plain 2-channel stereo mix. This is okay for what it is and is clear throughout.

Features

There`s quite a bit to get through on this disc, though for me I couldn`t sit still for the entire disc. Firstly My Story: Apart from Scene Select there is a Special Features section too. This contains the excellent 20 minute Bey Logan interview, a Photo Gallery, Jackie Chan Trailer Gallery, Out-Take Montage and Operation Condor Featurette. The Photo Gallery is good since there are dozens of pics, but HKL have put a border around the pictures so they`re smaller than they really are. I think it would have been better to have full screen pics and music with a slideshow. There are trailers for five Jackie Chan movies, including My Story. I think though that if you already have other HKL titles in your collection, you`re likely to have seen all these movie trailers before.

The Out-Take Montage Gallery features outtakes from The Armour of God, Miracles and Police Story 3. I found this to be quite enjoyable to watch in the background after one or two previous viewings. Although the background music used does get annoying since they don`t include any original sound with the outtakes. The Operation Condor Featurette isn`t aythng more than a collection of outtakes and clips from Operation Condor set to the grating music I mentioned earlier on. I feel this is a slight copout calling it a featurette.

My Stunts: The only special features here are Scene Select and loads of trailers for other HKL DVD titles. I found a nice stills transition screen on the subtitle screen for both Jackie Chan features, and this is what should have been used for the Photo Gallery.

Conclusion

This is quite a comprehensive package in all. I think for the Jackie fans out there this is worth getting if only for having a comprehensive Jackie `file` on one disc. This isn`t a conventional DVD in that the repeat viewing value of it is difficult to determine. It`s a good disc to have if you like Jackie Chan and you want to see how he achieves certain stunts and effects, plus it`s fun to watch every once in a while, but...it`s not something you can just put on time and time again like a conventional movie. It`s good that Hong Kong Legends have brought this DVD out, it`s going to sell well and I`m glad I bought it. Buy it if you`re a fan, or rent it if you want some entertainment for a few hours.