Reception
The movie had a mixed to negative reception when it was released in the United States in 1985.
In an interview by Hong Kong film expert Bey Logan with James Glickenhaus held before Chan achieved mainstream success with American audiences, Logan mentioned that many of his fans were disappointed with the movie. An unfazed Glickenhaus responded "Well, you know that's still the most successful Jackie Chan movie internationally and always will be because the American audience, the mainstream audience will never sit still for Jackie's style of action".
Andrew Staton who reviewed the movie agree with Jackie for a few reasons. Allowing Jackie to direct the action scenes is important because of his knowledge of movie making rather than the typical, slow prodding and predictable method that Hollywood used to at the time. Having nudity, especially at the drug lab makes no sense. Why do women working on melons don't dress the same as men in that scene is appalling. So it was deleted and replaced for the HK release for that reason. However, despite the flaws, Jackie's darker role as an actor, will be used in later Hong Kong films like "Heart of Dragon" and "Crime Story". Those later serious films, apart from the Lo Wei serious movies, will help establish Jackie that he's an all round actor and is not restricted to playing comedic roles.
John J Puccio comments that "Chan's charm is in precious little evidence and his martial-arts stunts are limited to a few jumps and spills. Without Chan's contributions, the film is nothing more than a clichéd, wannabe thriller".
Read more about this topic: The Protector (1985 film)
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