1996, the best year in movie history, pt. 49: Rumble in the Bronx
Don’t be misled by the brevity of this review: Rumble in the Bronx is as impressive as any movie from 1996. And it’s a big ball of cheese.
The dubbing is horrible.
The dialog and story are phoned-in.
The action is set in New York City … with mountains in the background. I thought the movie might have been shot in Hong Kong, but, actually, it was shot in Vancouver.
Even so …
It’s pretty good. Watching Jackie Chan is like watching Lionel Messi in his prime. Apparently, Chan broke a foot or ankle doing one of his stunts, and then he kept on making the movie with a cast on his leg.
Roger Ebert gives the movie three stars out of four, which is about right if one is comparing it with other movies by Jackie Chan. Comparing it with action movies in general, I’d give it five or six stars out of four.
Opening credits: Chan’s jetplane descends upon NYC. Dramatic sunrise (or is it a sunset?); dramatic music.
Chan has come to visit his uncle, a grocer. As they drive through Manhattan, Chan is awed. Is this where your store is, he asks. No, says his uncle. My store is in the Bronx. Cut to the Bronx, which is almost as wild as the city in Escape from L.A. It doesn’t take long before a biker gang threatens Chan.
Here is Love Interest No. 1 (Anita Mui).
Here is Love Interest No. 2 (Françoise Yip).
I must say, the movie’s attitude toward women isn’t radically forward-thinking.
There are lots of scenes with fighting and chasing, of course. In the final chasing scene, a hovercraft destroys about half of Vancouver/the Bronx (how this movie got made for just $7.5 million is beyond me). Chan uses an ancient Chinese technique to defeat the hovercraft. Chan isn’t just a great martial artist and stuntman. His character is an immensely likable human being: kind, polite, forgiving. Most harms, in the end, are healed – the main exception being the guy who gets fed into a woodchipper. (It turns out, Fargo didn’t produce the only dismemberment-by-woodchipper scene of 1996.)
Though it’s a very noisy movie, Daniel and Samuel slept through all of it.
The dubbing is horrible.
The dialog and story are phoned-in.
The action is set in New York City … with mountains in the background. I thought the movie might have been shot in Hong Kong, but, actually, it was shot in Vancouver.
Even so …
It’s pretty good. Watching Jackie Chan is like watching Lionel Messi in his prime. Apparently, Chan broke a foot or ankle doing one of his stunts, and then he kept on making the movie with a cast on his leg.
Roger Ebert gives the movie three stars out of four, which is about right if one is comparing it with other movies by Jackie Chan. Comparing it with action movies in general, I’d give it five or six stars out of four.
Opening credits: Chan’s jetplane descends upon NYC. Dramatic sunrise (or is it a sunset?); dramatic music.
Chan has come to visit his uncle, a grocer. As they drive through Manhattan, Chan is awed. Is this where your store is, he asks. No, says his uncle. My store is in the Bronx. Cut to the Bronx, which is almost as wild as the city in Escape from L.A. It doesn’t take long before a biker gang threatens Chan.
Here is Love Interest No. 1 (Anita Mui).
Here is Love Interest No. 2 (Françoise Yip).
I must say, the movie’s attitude toward women isn’t radically forward-thinking.
There are lots of scenes with fighting and chasing, of course. In the final chasing scene, a hovercraft destroys about half of Vancouver/the Bronx (how this movie got made for just $7.5 million is beyond me). Chan uses an ancient Chinese technique to defeat the hovercraft. Chan isn’t just a great martial artist and stuntman. His character is an immensely likable human being: kind, polite, forgiving. Most harms, in the end, are healed – the main exception being the guy who gets fed into a woodchipper. (It turns out, Fargo didn’t produce the only dismemberment-by-woodchipper scene of 1996.)
Though it’s a very noisy movie, Daniel and Samuel slept through all of it.
