Rumble in the Bronx (1996)

Wonderful character development!

Awesome Movie

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

I realized I had never seen this Jackie Chan movie yet, which felt like a travesty since I really like Jackie films. I have to say that the firm, overall, doesn't hold up to well 20 years on. The acting is pretttty bad - which I noticed is because most of the actors were stunt men and after the film the actors continue to be stunt men and not actors - which is pretty obvious why. But the thing is, they really didn't need to have most of the actors be stuntmen, they really could have just used normal actors which would have helped tremendously. The plot was a bit muddled - not great. But who am I kidding if you're watching this movie it is because you want to see Jackie Chan do what Jackie does. In that regard the movie pays off, and it is for that reason alone I gave the film a 7/10.

Plot; A man from China visits the U.S. for his Uncle's wedding and runs afoul of a local gang and a group of diamond thieves.Aside from Cannonball Run, this was my first exposure to Jackie Chan. New Line Cinema snagged the rights to this 1995 Hong Kong hit and released it internationally (After trimming about 15 minutes off of its runtime) the following year. Grossing over $30 million in N. America, it became Chan's breakthrough in the States and several such re-releases would follow. But it's Rumble in the Bronx that has always stood out. Playing like an 8-bit side-scrolling beat 'em up, Bronx is not high art, but it is a perfect showcase for both Chan's incredible physical gifts and his deft comedic talents. For a Chan purist this probably barely rates as a shrug, but back in February of 1996 I sat in a theater filled with people getting their first taste of Chan and having the time of their lives in the process.

Keong (Jackie Chan) from Hong Kong attends his uncle Bill's wedding in NYC. Keong works at Bill's market while he's away on his honeymoon. Keong befriends wheelchair bound local kid Danny. Bill plans to sell the market to Elaine and retire. The neighborhood is overrunned by motorcycle gangs. Keong ends up interfering with them stopping Nancy from ruining uncle Bill's expensive borrowed car. Keong defends the store against the gang. It turns out that Nancy is Danny's sister.There are basically no professional American actors. These are very very broad characters played by stuntmen. I love Jackie Chan as a comedic action star. There are some amazing stunts. However the ridiculous villainous gang ruins this for me. It's not simply that I can't take them seriously. I can't take them at all.

Rumble in the Bronx is a pretty fun Hong Kong martial arts action comedy. Directed by Stanley Tong, the movie is about Ma Hon Keung (Jackie Chan), a Hong Kong native whom comes to New York to help his Uncle (Bill Tung) sell his supermarket business to new owner, Elaine (Anita Mui). While, helping out, Keung found himself in a rivalry with the local street gang, leaded by Tony (Marc Akerstream) that leaded to a series of street brawls. Before the plot could get tiresome. The plot takes a left turn by having one of the member of the street gang, Angelo (Garvin Cross) gets involved in an illegal diamond deal gone bad forcing the small-time gangsters and Keung to team up against the much larger and more effective criminal syndicate led by White Tiger (Kris Lord). I have mixed feelings about how the plot turn into another diamond heist movie. The first part of the movie really fits the title card. The second part, remind me of another movie series starring Jackie Chan, the Police Stories franchise. I was just really disappointment that the gang and Keung would end up, being friendly with each other, after nearly killing each other in the first half. After all, Tony nearly kill Keung with broken glass. Even today, that scene alone, is pretty damn brutal. The action scenes are really awesome to watch. Jackie Chan is famous for always doing his own stunts and you see his best, here. Great fight choreography, it really look like they honestly hit each other hard. Great use of normal household props. I always think that Jackie Chan is the best of irregular weapons. It was fun, watching him beat people up with skis, shopping carts, and other materials. I love the big building to building jump. I just wish, they didn't show the same shot, three times through four different cameras angles. It just took me out of the film. The hovercraft scenes were crazy to watch. Can't believe that, Jackie Chan was hurt the whole time and wearing a cast. Jackie Chan's right foot lands at a bad angle after jumping onto the hovercraft in the first scene, causing a serious injury that would not heal for the remainder of filming. The shot still made it into the finished movie. Like most Jackie Chan movies, the outtakes show how dangerous these stunts were. The lead actress and several stunt doubles were also injured during the shooting of a motorcycle stunt, with several people suffering broken limbs and ankles. The movie wasn't all action. It did have some funny moments that hit the funny bone for me. I love the two way mirror gag. Jackie Chan's high spirits and infectious personality made the movie character likable and not bland. You can tell that Jackie Chan was indeed, having fun, making the movie. I have to say, the supporting cast were pretty good. Francise Yip as Nancy was very attractive and had some kickass moments. I love the scene where she's dancing in bra & panties lingerie in a tiger cage. She had more depth than most martial artist movies, female leads. I don't know why Anita Mui was in the film, but her premise didn't hurt the film. Still, her character could had been cut from the film. Morgan Lam as Danny is questionable. I didn't hate his performance, but he was really given some awful lines to say. I also found it, funny that the filmmakers had his character play a video game console without a game in it. Add that to the blooper reel with the baby dummy. I do like how much work, they put in, to make the movie seem like it was set in the Bronx, even if in reality, the movie was filmed in Vancouver, B.C. Most scenes, it does look like it could be set in New York City, but in other scenes, the whole mountains and beach fronts are clear giveaways that it isn't. The gang doesn't look realistic as well. In reality, all those people of different races wouldn't be in the same gang. Most of them look like badly dress 1990s pirates. Another odd thing about the movie is the English dubbing. The original spoken dialog consisted of all of the actors speaking their native language most of the time. In the completely undubbed soundtrack, Jackie Chan actually speaks his native Cantonese while Françoise Yip and Morgan Lam speak English. All of the original dialog was intended to be dubbed over in the international and Hong Kong film markets, and New Line cinema overdubbed and slightly changed the original English dialog. While, the English version is workable; it's a bit off-keyed. The US version does have a few differs than the Hong Kong version as 17 minutes of scenes were cut. Most of them were add on scenes of already establish shots. There were a few entire scenes cut that help explain why Keung was often attack by the street gang. The English version also replaced the song that Jackie Chan had over the closing credits with the song "Kung Fu" by the band Ash, the lyrics of which mention Jackie Chan, as well as other Asian figures and characters ubiquitous in the west. Overall: The movie was very successful, and help bring its star, Jackie Chan into the American mainstream. It's a must watch for any Martial Artist action movie fan.