Rumble in the Bronx

My "Videohound's Golden Movie Retriever" calls Jackie Chan a "human special effect." That is an apt description of this bundle of impossible energy, who, at the age of 45, still does all of his own breathtaking and body-punishing stunts. He is a great physical comedian who should be considered up with Buster Keaton as one of the greatest ever. That his movies are cartoonish fun, badly dubbed, and badly acted just adds to the party that is Jackie Chan.

Here, he plays a young man from Hong Kong who has come to the Bronx to see his uncle's wedding. He is roped into helping out an awkward young woman who has bought his uncle's store. There, he has his first run-in with a motley crew of punk stereotypes led by Marc Akerstream. They are movie punks: they wear flashy clothes, they drive around on an assortment of expensive motorcycles and go-carts, and they fearlessly torment everyone in the neighborhood. Chan teaches them a lesson and earns their undying, cartoonish enmity.

Meanwhile, he befriends a young boy in a wheelchair who lives in his uncle's building. This boy's older sister happens to be a part of the gang, but she quits and the two of them become friends, much to the consternation of both the gang and Chan's new employer, the storekeeper who has set her sights on him. All of them become involved with some murderous diamond smugglers after one of the gang members recovers some stolen diamonds and stashes them in the cushion of the boy's wheelchair. Chaos, as it always does in Jackie Chan movies, ensues.

There are quite a few memorable fight scenes, all featuring Chan and company's amazing stunts that don't use wires like many Hong Kong action movies do. In one of them, where Chan has to jump from a pier onto a runaway hovercraft, he actually broke his ankle, but finished shooting the movie with a cast covered by a specially designed sock. The best sequence is when Chan goes to the punks' hideout and challenges their leader to a fight; here, he gets to use his signature moves with anything at hand, including a refrigerator. There is also what is probably the first hovercraft chase down Second Avenue in Manhattan (well, Vancouver filling in for Manhattan). All of Chan's movies are dumb fun, and this was no exception.

Printable Version