And my decades-late Jackie Chan discovery continues. This is one of the big movies too. It’s credited as Chan’s big American breakout. It’s not what I expected though. The title + being his American breakout, naturally I assumed it was his first proper Hollywood studio movie*. It turns out that it’s a Honk Kong movie shot in Vancouver and dubbed because all actors just spoke their natural language. So I guess the secret to making Jackie Chan happen in the US is to pretend he’s in the US and put that in the title.
*Sorry, I’m not counting Battle Creek Brawl.
This isn’t my favorite of Chan’s movies. I suppose the stunts are his normal caliber. Perhaps a little lower with his broken foot midway through production. This feels weird to say, but this might actually be too silly and broad. I know that’s the trademark of all of his movies but it’s especially broad her. And I admit that some of this may be me as an American finally seeing the broadness on Americans instead of Chinese. These villains are severely exaggerated though. Also, there’s that annoying little kid. To an extent, it may be the “Musician thinks he’s funny at a concert” problem. You go to a concert for your favorite musician. Between songs, he tells dumb jokes that you politely laugh at until he gets to the next song. You put up with it because you really like the songs, but if it goes on too long or if you aren’t that big of a fan, that really tests your patience. Same thing with Rumble in the Bronx. If it had Police Story stunts, I wouldn’t mind how stupid the story was. The Rumble in the Bronx stunts aren’t quite good enough to put up with the dumb parts.
At the end of the day, this is still a Jackie Chan action stunt comedy. I enjoyed it. It’s just not in the top tier of his movies.
Verdict: Weakly Recommend
No comments:
Post a Comment