Jackie Chan dans le Bronx

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.

Before I'd seen "Rumble in the Bronx", I'd heard of Jackie Chan but never seen any of his movies. Well, when I saw this, I practically died laughing. Basically an hour and a half of him bonking people in every direction, the movie is physical humor at its best. The plot has Hong Kong cop Keung (Chan) coming to New York for his uncle's wedding and having to battle street gangs and a crime syndicate. By battle, I of course mean pulling every crazy stunt imaginable. I really liked the early scene in the store, and then the whole hovercraft sequence.

I gotta ask: how did we get by before these kinds of movies? There was once a time when movies all followed the Disney formula, and Jackie Chan-style plots were unfathomable. Thank God for Bruce Lee! As it is, Jackie Chan often seems to be spoofing Bruce Lee. Hilarious.

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 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.

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)