Synopsis: Bu (Shu Qi) finds a message in a bottle and travels to Hong Kong to see Albert (Tony Leung) in the search for love, but things take a different direction when she meets CN Chan (Jackie, of course!).  Added to this love story is LW (Emil Chow) who is CN’s friendly rival – who arranges a match or two with Alan (Brad Allen). 

Cal's Review: So many things can be said of this film…it’s totally unlike anything the star has produced before.  It’s a full-on romance, heavy on comedy – but Chan plays it straighter than ever, has no Big Stunt, no real bad guys, nobody wants to kill anybody else, and all of the protagonists are respectful, considerate and civil.  Chan allows himself to get upstaged in every department – Tony Leung and Emil Chow provide the laughs (as does as a cameo appearance by Chow Sing Chi), Leung and Qi give reasonably good acting performances, and Brad Allen provides the thrills.  Maybe that’s being unfair to Jackie, as he does pull off some excellent moves as usual, but no one can take away Brad Allen’s jaw-dropping antics in his two scenes with Jackie.  In fact, I’d go as far as to say that the re-match between the two fighters near the end of the movie is one of my all-time favourites!  It has such profound unspoken dialogue, excellent pace, beautifully executed choreography and provides Jackie’s only comic moment (that incidentally nods a head at Jackie’s “Emotional Kung-Fu” moment in Fearless Hyena made twenty years ago!).  It’s also quite lengthy, giving the viewer plenty of time to savour it. 

Definitely a oddity in the whole Jackie Chan catalogue, but if you fancy a change of pace, the non-lethal and quite shockingly fresh mix is certainly worth a look. 

One final point:  In the west, the rights to this movie are currently held by Columbia Tristar.  As with Who Am I, they saw fit to remove whopping great chunks of this movie in order to please the general public and anger every fan.  The Hong Kong DVD, however, has almost all of the extras that the US version has – with the exception of the audio commentary and isolated score.  In addition, it has Jackie and Vincent Kok answering a series of questions (in which the latter describes Shu Qi as “Very moody and temperamental.  And quite a brat ”.  Shock!  Horror!), a music video and a press conference.  And if you’re worried about the quality of the subtitles, it has the best I’ve seen so far in Hong Kong discs.  There’s no reason not to go for it! 

Score: 7 ½ /10

Reader Reviews

Fox's Review: This isn't a "typical" Jackie Chan movie where the story lets him get into conflicts with bad guys. Instead, the focus is on the relationship between Jackie Chan and Shu Qi. Gorgeous is a mix of romantic comedy and action, and the result is amazing. The director Vincent Kut Tak-chiu has done a greet job, and so has Jackie Chan as an actor, producer and writer. It's actually a good thing that Gorgeous don't have so many fighting scenes because then the focus wouldn't be on the love story. Gorgeous is one of Jackie Chan's greatest work in his career, and considering all the high quality movies he has made, that means that this is a future Jackie Chan classic.

Score: 9/10

Chan Fan1986's Review:  Screw all you people that knock this movie. The fights against Brad Allen are some of the best of any Jackie movie,as far as one on one goes. This is a fantastic movie, I'll even go as far as to say that it is one of my top 5 of his. The story is good, the acting is good, and Hsu Chi is beautiful. This is a fun lighthearted movie with no violence, and it shows how great of a fighter little known Brad Allen really is. Buy this movie, along with DM1, DM2,Supercop,Project A, Miracles, and, of course, Young Master.

Score: 9,maybe 9.5/10

Corey Gonzalez's Review:They dubb the movie a white guy voice they could of at least gave him a chinese voice.but the fight at the end with his real life body guard was grate hes pretty good jackie u better watch him he might think about taking over ur fame.how do i send a message to jackie if any of even read these things we right. i bet jackie doesnt even read these so wat do we rigth them for oh so we can think were righting to jackie him self or even may be some one gives it to him but i no its just to make every one think that SO IF WE WRITE U SHOULD RIGHT BACK JACKIE but i still got to give it up to jackie hes grate oh and if ur reading this did u really play a stunt man in fist of fury with bruce lee thats all i got to say but maybe u could get ur but on the computer and write some of us every now and then we not ur fans for nothing

Score: 10/10

[Corey, Jackie doesn't see our reviews. This is just a fan site, I don't actually know Jackie, nor have I ever received a letter from him. Try visiting his official site, Jackie-Chan.com. Maybe you can contact him there. And yes, Jackie was a stunt man in Fist of Fury.

Debbie]

Jackiechanmanuk's Review: I absoloutley love basically every chan film hes made that ive actually seen(about 35) but this was horrible the only reason i kept watching it was for the battles with his australian stunt man Brad Allen and they were only mediocre to a Chan Standard. Instead of this get a real Jackie CHan action film eg Police Story or Project A. i know that Jackie was tryin something a bit different but it if u really want to see this movie rent it.

Score: 3/10

Gregory's Review: Wow. Shu Qi is more beautiful than anything I've seen this week and I have seen some very beautiful things. So there's not so much fighting in this movie, that doesn't matter! This movie is almost as beautiful as Shu Qi. The fights are not nasty, the atmosphere is light and dreamy, The fights that Jackie does have are spectacular, funny and amazing to watch. Just like everything else Jackie Chan does. Thank you Jackie for weaving your magic once again. I am grateful to have this movie that is so suitable for sharing with my five year old son (who loves Jackie Chan to bits). P.S. did I say Shu Qi was cute?

Score: 8/10

CHAN'SFAN's Review: I have seen every single movie jackie chan have ever appeared in(for real!). I am a crazed chan fan and I think Gorgeous is one of his best works. I especially like the training sequence with nice & soft background music. Although the stunt scene with Brad Allan is overrated (Its more like a one on one boxing match rather than the usual Jacky style fight) the fight scene has some very funny moments when *spoiler* Jackie is dancing with Brad (good talent by both actors). Even though this movie is not full of action and even though action-stunt-comedy combination is all i look for in a chan film, i really liked this movie because of the setting, direction and acting. I also like the motorcyle fight with the baseball bats (cool trick). This film gives brad allan a chance to act which he does pretty well, makes you think of jackie chan when he used to act with other famous actors when he was young (like bruce lee). could Brad Allan be the next Jackie Chan?......Naah!

Score: 8.5/10

Drunken Go Player's Review: This film is probably the most controversial JC film of all... It's totally different from anything that I've been seeing. It probably has the best story line for a JC movie. It's full of romance, nobody wanna kill each other, and very satisfying happy ending. If you were looking for big stunts in this movie, you better look for something else. If you are looking for a good fight scene, you are in a right place. There are two major fighting scene in this film. Both are JC vs Brad Allen, and they are extremely good. Brad Allen is very impresive martial artist, and his quick movements reminds me of Jet Li in his younger days (and they are both short...). It seems like there are few wire works, but it's not really obvious. Overall, it's a good movie to watch, but I tell you. It's different. That's all I can say.

Score: 8/10

HERVEY TAYLOR's Review: Let me start by saying that if anyone watches this movie, you must go into it with an open mind. It's different than anything Chan has ever done. But it is no "Miracles" or "Crime Story" or even "Island of Fire"
Yet "Goreous" is Chan in a different, light hearted type of way. I think that Jackie expressed himself in a uniquely different manner in this film.
Before I saw it I had heard many things on the fans web sites. I didn't know what to expect. But when I finally did catch it on satelite STARZ network, I was highly amazed. This movie has a beauty to it that lets you know that Chan can act, choreograph and appeal to his female audience while still maintaining good fights.
There is no big stunts because this is a different film. But the fights are good.
And Chan lets everybody know what happens to yourself when you stop training.
He's really a good actor and martial artist, but he shows that even though he's the star of the show, he doesn't have to be the toughest or win the fight every time. (Can anyone say Stephen Segal?)
This movie is pure entertainment. However the violent/ bone breaking martial arts lovers will be let down.
Oh, the plot seems to be something everyone complains about too. But do you want to see Chan or a Forest Gump Oscar Nominee?
I just say that it's a nice subtle change for Chan, and it delivers in acting and fighting.
Recomended

Score: 9/10

FLiXD's Review: As an action/comedy movie it lacks action, and tries to be too serious to be funny - as a romance, it's even worse. There's absolutely NO chemistry between Jackie and Shu Qi. My least favourite JC movie, and that's including Master with Cracked Fingers. Pure bilge, worthy of Hollywood at its most dreadful.

Score: 2/10

Carl's Review: Guys...listen. If your girl doesn't like Jackie Chan, tell her you have a great romance movie you wanna watch with her, and pop in Gorgeous. This has the action scenes for the guys, and it has the romance and goo goo stuff for the girls. Everyone is happy when you watch Gorgeous.

Score: 10/10

Nicky's Review: gorgeous..

one of Jackie's serious movies.

not enough action but the last fight is absolutely amazing and their dancing is cool ;)

Score: 8/10

Manny's Review: This as well thumbs up, the kissing scences thumbs down. Great 1.5 hour movie that is one of the PG movies but it is obvious that they are using the same stuntmen for nearly all the movies. [ed. note: Psssst, Manny...that would be the Jackie Chan Stunt Team. They're in all Jackie's movies. Debbie]

Score: 5.5/10

Homer J's Review:  After the success of Rush Hour in 1998 when Jackie's star status suddenly rocketed through the stratosphere, I was really looking forward to how his HK work would turn out given his new found commercial success.

Watching Gorgeous, I have to say I was disappointed. This was a sudden and dramatic departure from the type of Jackie film I fell in love with and to be honest, I wasn't prepared.

I would consider myself a pretty romantic guy and I like romantic films (When Harry met Sally is one of my all-time favourite flicks) but when a film like Gorgeous is so reliant on the romance angle, it has to deliver, but this fails miserably, with cliched, corny dialogue and unbelievable characters from Jackie and Shu Qi. The fact she is young enough to be his daughter does not play well. I am no prude but this would have been far more believable with a woman more of Jackie's age. To be honest he loooked uncomfortable with the romance scenes with Shu Qi, almost as if he knew it was going to look like he was a sugar daddy. The sickeningly sweet score does not help either, the song played over the training scene was nauseating in the extreme. (also, why were parts of the training scene sped up? It looked ridiculous at times with Jackie's arms ablurr)

Its not all bad however. There are some nice moments of comedy and the appearance of Emil Chow is always welcome, but the star of the show (and that includes Jackie) is Brad Allen.

For a short, slightly built guy, he has remarkable presence, what few lines he has are delivered well and his martial arts ability is, well, bloody amazing! He looks and moves rather like a western version of Yuen Biao, his agility and speed are truly remarkable and two fight scenes he has with Jackie are long, expertly choreographed affairs - nice.

Both Gorgeous and his next HK installment - Accidental Spy have been indications of Jackie's attempt to move away from his traditional action heavy flicks in other genres, and whilst both have their moments, they also have serious flaws that, for me, detract from the viewing experience. However, I do not begrudge Jackie this, it is only natural that he would alter his approach given his increasing age and overworked physique. These faltering steps show that there is more to be done before I can enjoy this sort of film on the same level as his traditional ones, but kudos should be given for trying, and besides as already mentioned we get two fantastic one-on-one fights in there. Brad is definitely the most worthy opponent since Benny "the Jet".

Gorgeous? Far from it.

Score: 5/10

Score: 5/10

Jane Mason's Review: If you've seen this movie already, then you know it's worth seeing at least once more, if not four or five!  It's a nice love story, the two fight scenes are tasteful and impressive.  However, one thing in this movie does not work for me, and that is a love between 45 year old CN and this 18 year old (hopefully 18) ingenue.  Give me a break, the story writer needed to work a little harder.  Yet stellar performances were turned in by Jackie, Brad Allen, et al. 

Laura's Review:  You can see from this this movie that love has no age limits. The fight scenes were spectacular. The fighting between Jackie and Brad Allen left me holding on to my seat screaming"" Go Jackie, Knock his head off. Kill Him" The scene with Brad Allen fighting Jackie in the warehouse was more exciting than a football game. I give it 3 star because the underwater kiss was doing a little too much on the age gap. I think Jackie's co-host was just too young. I know Jackie is a person of many surprises but I'm sure that he didn't pick her at least I hope so. The script writer should have made her older than 18 years old. They should have made her at least a little younger than Jackie.

Jon Tu's Review: This movie was awesome!!!!!!!!!!!
This is without a doubt my most favorite of all!!!!!
I hope that a lot of people see this movie! 
They'll love it!!!!!!!!!!!

Score: 10/10

"Biggest Fan"s Review: I think that everyone was wrong about the movie. I thought it was a great movie. It doesn't matter what age they are as long as they acted good. I mean nowadays there's a lot of older guys with younger women. But that doesn't mean that I don't think that the kiss was a little overboard because he does have a wife. Also, he could have played a younger man in the movie 'cause he does look alot younger than he is. So, this was a wonderful movie especially the action scenes with him fighting Brad Allen.

Score: 10/10

JV's Review: This is a good movie , in this film is their good action and comedie. Jackie ruuuuuuuuullllllleeeeeeeesssss!!!!

Score: 10/10

Brendan's Review: I finally watched this movie today. It's very different to Jackie's standard fare, and the full-on romance angle might be a little too much for hardcore Chan fans. I only saw the US version, which is the only one I could find. The fights with Brad Allen are great as well- some of the best of Jackie's career. This is a little unusual for Jackie, but is worth a look if you van handle something that is different to the norm.

Score: 5/10