Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Justina The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

OllieSuave-007 This is a movie directed by Jackie Chan that is some sort of a variation of Frank Capra's "A Pocketful of Miracles," where Chan plays country boy Cheng Wah Kuo, who accidentally becomes the head of a gang and purchases a lucky rose from lady Madam Kao (Ya-Lei Kuei) everyday for good luck. While battling a rival gang, Kuo tries to do a good deed for Madao Kao during her daughter's visit.This film is great for its all-star cast and luscious 1930s setting, and while the story starts off with an exciting rival gang battle, the rest of the movie really drags on and on, with really nothing too suspenseful or eye-catching. All the hype about hiring singer Luming Yang (Anita Mui) to build up business for Kuo's nightclub to the gang concocting plans to help Madam Kao connecting with her daughter Belle (Gloria Yip) is just a bunch of all-talk and running around, not much substance or excitement to the plot.I maybe got a few chuckles out of the movie - for everything else, I was just bored to tears. The movie was just too long and it appears that much of the film's elements including the huge cast were thrown in for, as one reviewer puts it, window dressing. The action scenes were limited and the final battle was pretty boring. If you want to watch an exciting and captivating Hong Kong movie with an all-star cast, go with 1986's Shanghai Express" or 1991's The Banquet rather than this.Grade D

DrLenera Miracles is Jackie Chan's favourite amongst his movies ,and the one in which he invested the most time and care. The result is, technically, a triumph. The convincing sets, lavish costumes and graceful camera work really hold by western film standards, while the fight scenes boast choreography that is just incredible to watch. They are more like musical numbers than martial arts fights, but the level of invention is just staggering, particularly in the scene where Jackie has to make his way down some stairs, fighting heavies as he does so, and the end battle in a rope factory.However, elsewhere the film has problems. It attempts to juggle several plot lines with mixed success. The 'gangster'part, with Jackie as a crime boss, generally works well, but Jackie's relationship with singer Anita Mui almost disappears from the film and the Frank Capra 'A Pocketful Of Miracles'copied story is dwelt on at such length and so slowly that the middle of the film drags terribly, with endless dialogue scenes that could have sometimes been shortened or cut without harm to the film {or course, there is a shorter version of this film, but with some of the wrong bits cut}. At least there are some great laughs, such as gangsters and their 'molls' trying to be respectable rich folk, and the Clouseau-like Richard Ng's police captain. Miracles is certainly not one of Chan's classics like Project A, Police Story or Drunken Master 1 and 2, but there is still a lot to like.

abentenjo Based on Capra's Pocketful of Miracles (itself of remake of his earlier Lady For A Day) and lifting from nearly all Hollywood gangster movies, Chan's under-achiever is a glamorous big-budget period piece, with precise attention to detail in both its intricate and amazing fight sequences (though sparse they are) and its over-played narrative. The story is pure sentiment: dressing up a poor rose seller to entertain her travelling daughter set to be married. Chan plays the paying host, a wet-behind-the-ears type who inadvertently becomes a mob leader after he assists a dying gangster boss. Miracles has its moments; an all-star cast of regulars and cameos, some of Chan's best direction and choreography, built on rich sets and locations and with a developed and sincere sense of humour - a story-driven affair that leaves many hardened Chan fans divided. Jackie, on the other hand, quotes this as one of the best of his own movies.

Mario Xavier If anywhere, it's here that you'll find where Jackie Chan's heart is. A true masterpiece of cinema. Many would dismiss Jackie Chan as just another action star and director but this film is where he stands as a humanist as well. A tribute to the 1930's era films when the heros acted from the heart.