Dir.: Stanley Tong
Cast: Jackie Chan, Anita Mui, Francoise Yip
Year: 1995
Rumble in the Bronx marks the debut of Jackie Chan as the star of a major motion picture in the U.S. When I first saw this film Chan was okay but since then I seem to hate him with each passing day. But this film is not bad. Jackie plays Keung, a visitor from Hong Kong who has arrived in America to help his uncle, who is about to be married, sell his grocery store in the Bronx. Keung thrashes a few punks who are harrasing the new owner, Elaine (Anita Mui), an act which later leads him into several violent confrontations with the rest of the gang. Meanwhile, he also makes friends with his neighbor, Billy, a wheelchair-bound boy whose sister, Nancy (Francoise Yip), also happens to be the gang leader's girlfriend. All these elements collide when one of the gang members snags a bag of diamonds from a group of smugglers during a deal gone bad and hides it in Billy's wheelchair cushion. This silliness eventually comes to a wildly destrucive conclusion involving a runaway hovercraft and a lot of property damage.
Most of you probably already know that Rumble in the Bronx was picked up by New Line Cinema and was dubbed and re-edited for American audiences. This means that, happily for those that like Chan, the film is widely available in the video stores. This film was a wise choice to introduce Chan to U.S. audiences because since the rest of the ones I have seen this is about as good as it gets with Chan with the exception being Drunken Master II (That's my feeling anyways). On the real though it was a simple story for us simple americans. You know you don't really give a rat's right testicle about story. You want action and he delivers. Plus you get Anita Mui and Fran Yip in the same movie without having Jet in it. Quality ass in this flick. I paid about 7 for mine and it's well worth the 15 and change. I rated it 8 out of 10 stars.
Suprised I rated a Chump movie so high huh? Don't expect that often.