Rumble in the Bronx

This was the first film I saw of Jackie's (first one released in the US that I can remember despite The Protector and The Big Brawl in the 80s) and I have to say it's a great introduction to Chan's work. The fighting is great and well shot while the stunts are amazing. The humor (a Jackie trademark) is also hilarious. People from the US really don't know what a good martial arts film is. Some have grown up with Bruce Lee and it's appreciated but many of them are constantly renting Van Damme and Steven Segal films (working at a video store, I see it all the time). Seeing someone who really is impressive at martial arts, dosen't need fast cuts and choppy editing, and does his own stunts puts all the Van Damme's and Segal's to shame. Take the warehouse fight for example and compare it to any American martial arts film and you will see the difference.

For those who haven't seen this film yet and love martial arts films - rent this movie. For those who have seen it and want to see more Jackie - I recommend Drunken Master I and II (II is very hard to find in the US), The Young Master (great final fight), Who Am I? (unbelieveable stunts), Police Story I, II, and III (all around Jackie Chan films, III is known in the US as just Supercop), Operation Condor (tons of martial arts), and Project A I and II (II is another hard to find one in the US). You may also want to check out Rush Hour and Shanghai Noon - they aren't as good as the ones listed above but they are entertaining and Jackie Chan films nonetheless. As for Rumble In The Bronx, make it your first Chan film.

Well here we go once again with the undisputed king of action comedy. The one and only Jackie Chan. While this is nowhere near Chan's best movie we can be grateful for the fact that this is the film that finally gave Chan his much deserved break in the USA. This is the story on Chan's character Keung who comes to the Bronx for his uncle's wedding and ends up caught up in a series of events that involve biker gangs, and diamond robbers. But really none of this matters this is just an excuse for Jackie to show of his amazing action skills (in the fight scenes which he also choreographed), and this he does to his usual amazing standards. There seems to be more edits in the fight scenes that is normal for Jackie but I suspect this might be down to one of two things. One making the film more palatable for a western audience. Or two that Jackie broke his ankle in the filming of this movie. Still tell me the last time you saw a western movie star leap from a roof on to the fire escape of the next building!!! Truly amazing stuff. On the down side the western characters and acting are very wooden but hey just enjoy Chan and hopefully then go seek out his Hong Kong movies.

Jackie Chan's fight scenes and stunts: 9 stars.

The incredibly corny dialogue and cheesy humor: 5 stars.

The mind boggles at Chan's abilities and charisma; he's in a class of his own and an international treasure. The mind also boggles at a film whose silly humor seems aimed at ten-year-olds also containing a grisly murder by wood chipper. Fun with hovercrafts, with Anita Mui's appearance an added bonus. As always, the behind the scenes stuff included at the end is half the fun, and Jackie Chan lays his body on the line for our viewing pleasure. Watch this one for him, not all the silliness.

This is basically the movie that introduced Jackie Chan to Hollywood and the world to Jackie Chan. It brought the crazy and amazing action and fight sequences from Chan's into the western world of film-making. It makes this movie something fresh and unique, or at least for its time it was. I remember first seeing this movie in the mid-'90's, just before the time it was released as a rental movie. My brother was working in a video-store and had to take a few new video's home with him in order to decide whether or not the video-store should buy this movie for rental purposes. In those days this movie was really something fun and spectacular to watch and shortly afterward Jackie Chan also became a real big and popular movie-star. Way more popular and appreciated as he is now days.

What really makes this movie is its action. It's never anything too big, also since the movie is made obviously with a fairly low budget but it's very entertaining and amazing at the same time. Amazing, since obviously no harnesses or cables were used for the fight sequences and stunts. It also resulted in lots of broken bones and other injuries during the production but the end result for the movie is really something great and spectacular looking and is brought very entertainingly by Jackie Chan and director Stanley Tong, who both directed the action sequences together. You should see this movie just purely for its entertaining action, since everything else about the movie is actually quite bad to be honest. It might very well be the Jackie Chan movie with the very best action in it.

The movie is a very entertaining one to watch that gets better as it progresses. It's as if the in the first halve tried to be too serious with its approach but in the second halve the gloves are off and the movie becomes truly ridiculously over-the-top and fun at the same time. The best example of this is perhaps the finale sequence in which Chan and his happy friends get the main bad guy with an hovercraft. It's a totally pointless and completely ridicules and also short, rushed done sequence but because of that it at the same time works out very hilarious. I'm still looking for a movie with a better use of the hovercraft than this one!

It's hard to really judge the acting in the movie, since all of the actors were dubbed, even the American actors. This gives the movie an even more ridicules feeling and also makes the acting seem as something completely horrible and over-the-top.

The movie its story often makes lots of crazy jumps and it perhaps even feel as two totally different scripts that were blend in with each other, with as a result that not everything always makes a whole lot of sense and continuity and character treatments are messy. It perhaps almost seems as if the story was mainly purely there to let the movie feature as many and crazy stunts and fight sequences as possible.

The movie is most of the time looking and definitely feeling as a B-movie but in a good way. It's made as an entertaining movie and at entertaining this movie does simply not fail.

As long as you don't pay any attention to the story or logical and it's acting or anything else like it, you'll simply enjoy this movie for the entertainment that it brings, with mainly it's over-the-top but absolutely amazing action sequences.

7/10

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Watch it for the great action, great stunts and hilarious comedy. You can attack this movie from many different levels. The acting ranges from bad to horrendous, and so is the dialogue and dubbing. But even things like that add to the film's comic elements. When you're not laughing with the film, you're laughing at it. If you're a fan of most of Jackie Chan's work, like I am, have fun! Plus, that Francoise Yip is really, really hot.

My score: 7 (out of 10)