Terremoto nel Bronx

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.

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.

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.

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)

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.