Masacre en Nueva York

Jackie Chan had never had a box office hit in America despite starring in Hollywood films such as 'Battle Creek Brawl' and 'The Protector' in the 1980s. 'Rumble in the Bronx' was a Hong Kong made film, but they wanted it to have international appeal and achieved this through its New York setting and American background characters. The film intended to introduce Jackie Chan to the West, and that's exactly what it did - but they didn't expect it to be a number one box office hit.

The story involves Keung (Jackie Chan) coming over to America to visit his Uncle who owns a grocery store in the Bronx. Soon enough a biker gang turns up and causes havoc at the store, so it's up to Keung to fend off the bad guys, uncover police corruption, and generally save the day in style.

This is a high energy film and the pace never lets up, there isn't one big set piece in this film there are many big set pieces, but the most impressive stunt has to be the one where Jackie jumps from the top of a multi-storey car park onto a small balcony across the road. The multiple camera set up shows us that there is no safety netting or use of wires - just Jackie entrusting his own life in his own abilities.

Naturally there are countless fight scenes where Jackie shows us his own brand of kung fu comedy, including the process of making inanimate objects become very animated indeed. Only he can turn pinball machines, trolleys and fridge doors into weapons! The only slight criticism I would have is that the fights are over edited, people like Jean Claude Van-Damme and Steven Segal might need a lot of cuts to put a fight scene together, but Jackie doesn't - he's an expert choreographer, and the cuts are needless. I'm not saying that the fight sequences are under par, because they're not, they are still very impressive - especially to people who haven't seen the man in action.

When the American audiences saw 'Rumble in the Bronx', they saw the real Jackie Chan not the shadow of a man struggling to gain artistic input under a Hollywood studios control. They were wowed by the death-defying stunts, frenetic fight sequences, and the sheer energy of the film from start to finish got word-of-mouth working overtime.

'Rumble in the Bronx' was the surprise box office hit of 1996, it made the West sit up and take notice of an exceptional talent they had long overlooked. The next time Jackie Chan would star in a Hollywood film he would be given the respect he had always deserved - and another box office hit.

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.

Jackie Chan is, without a doubt, one of the greatest action stars of our time - but that is not all he does, by far. He is the only actor I can think of who has so seamlessly blended heartstopping action with rolling-on-the-floor comedy. However, having seen some of his later work, I must say that in certain respects this movie did not live up to the expectations I had set for Jackie Chan.

While the action sequences were excellent, they were a bit sparse, and there was too much plot between them. Normally that wouldn't be something to complain about too much, but in this case the plot was almost nonexistent. I've decided that the movie was basically an excuse for two big scenes: the kung-fu battle with the gang, and the hovercraft scene.

There were several scenes in the movie which had me laughing out loud - the kind of clever humor and subtlety that has become Jackie Chan's trademark. But during a great portion of the movie, I was scratching my head wondering where that refreshing humor had gone. Some scenes were just too serious for a Jackie Chan movie.

All that said, I really did enjoy the movie, and would give it 6 stars out of 10. The action sequences did have me on the edge of my seat, and the funny parts did have me laughing. I won't say that it was Jackie Chan's best work, but it was certainly enough to get him onto the American radar, and I'm very glad that that's where he is now. So I would recommend seeing this movie, but if someone were seeing their first Jackie Chan movie, I would recommend something else, possibly starting with a newer, non-dubbed American film first.

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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