I am slowly forming the opinion that Rob-B-Hood is one of the best movies Jackie has made in recent years - and just maybe one of the best period.
Yes I know Miracles, Drunken Master 1 & 2, and a few others have to head any list of Jackie's best and in more recent years I have really liked The Myth and New Police Story but watching Rob-B-Hood last night again made me think about the film.
Rob-B-Hood may not have THE BEST action or THE BEST story or THE BEST comedy or THE BEST filmed or THE BEST choreography but it is good in ALL those things. The script hasn't got any really blatent flaws (as sadly many of Jackie's scripts do). It has a beginning, a middle and an end. The characters are well developed full characters and more importantly sympathetic characters. You even feel for the bad guys - which only happens with a good script.
As all good drama's do the story focuses around an event and how that event impacts the people it touches. I know Rob-B-Hood is billed as an comedy but in reality as you watch the film - yes it is very funny and I just about roll on the floor laughing at some of the scenes - underneath it presents itself as a drama. Here are an assorted collection of people, 3 petty thieves, a triad boss, his insane son, his ex-girfriend, a nurse, and their assorted families who have absolutely nothing in common except the baby. The baby is both the cause of drawing of them all into each others lives and the cause of the changes that impact them all - mostly in positive ways.
It is in the end a movie about the power of love. All the baby asks from each person is that they care. The baby in it's helpless baby way is a silent and powerless voice in the film that nonetheless speaks the loudest about love. It says "Love me", "Care for me", "Protect me" and how each character reacts to those demands and how they try (or not in a few cases) to meet those demands produces the life altering changes in them.
But to get back to why I think this is a good movie. Firstly as I said the script while not flawless is very complete and satisfying. The characters are well developed and sympathetic and also undergo a transformation that is understandable, natural and well explained both forwards as events unfold and backwards as we discover their history (which is well conveyed through a few key scenes. Oh I can't resist the comparison. The subtlety and depth with which the history of the main players in RBH is conveyed through just a few scenes have to be compared with that awful long boring and unnecessary scene explaining Golden Sparrow's history in TFK. The scenes giving the back story in RBH flow naturally as part of the movie, do not jar and add depth and powerful emotion to the characters). The two montage sequences giving the history of the main characters' crimes and spending habits are brilliant. The music matches the clips well, and the clips are both funny and informative. In just a few flashes you know all you need to know about each character's behaviour/lifestyle at the start of the film.
The action sequences also follow naturally as part of the story - sorry Jackie but sometimes they feel a little too contrived - sort of like "it's been 5 minutes so we have to have another action sequence now". First Strike is one movie that comes to mind as an example of having that slightly forced feeling to some of the action, and Who Am I?
Once again there are those incredible moments when you just have to say "HOW DID HE DO THAT?" like for example when Jackie gets in the back of the Mitsubishi to follow the run-away baby through the traffic. It is one of those small moments that aren't even a big deal onscreen but if you watch how he just bonelessly flows in the back hatch and over the seats you have to gasp in admiration. (One day I will do a list of my favourite such moments)
The whole movie feels like Jackie choreographed it as flawlessly as he choreographs his stunts. There is a perfect blend between highs and lows, between tension and relief, between drama and humour, between action and story telling. It carries you along with it seamlessly from beginning to end and when you get to the end you are sorry to see the people go. All in all a highly satisfying movie to watch - and that makes it, in my eyes, not just a good movie but one of Jackie's best movies.
