Rumble in the Bronx

Chantastic!

Rumble in the Bronx marks the third collaboration of Jackie Chan and director Stanley Tong, and it's a winner. The action scenes are primarily hand-to-hand combat, and that's where Chan really excels. I'm pretty sure this is the first movie in which somebody fights with a refrigerator as a weapon, and for that reason alone, this movie is a must see. The fighting, you see, is choreographed to have a certain rhythm, and that rhythm makes other fights pale in comparison.

One of the strangest things about this movie is the internationalization of it. The movie opens with Jackie and Bill Tung driving into NYC. They're speaking Cantonese with English subtitles, and when Tung learns that Chan speaks English, they switch over to dubbed English. It's the ultimate fish out of water, only it's the audience playing the fish. The story is set in the Bronx, but it's filmed in Canada. The foreign impression of America is also a little wacky. Jackie's uncle is set to marry Carrie Cain-Sparks, who plays a parody of a stereotype. It's funny, but it doesn't make sense.

Sense! Did I really just apply that word to a Jackie Chan movie? Oops. Well, there are two types of people who will enjoy this movie: slapstick fans and kung fu fans. I lucked out as both. I would recommend this above First Strike any day.