Review of Rumble in the Bronx (1995) by Jason A — 24 Dec 2008

I will go on record right now and confess that I have seen this movie more times than any other movie in my life. Well over 400 times. When I was younger, I thought this was the greatest movie ever, and now that I'm older, it remains a guilty pleasure: a cornucopia of bad, (almost porno bad) acting, ludicrous exposition, and ridiculous but still jaw-dropping set pieces.

The Jackie purists out there will scoff @ Rumble in the Bronx, saying that Chan was over after Drunken Master II, but I will argue that this movie is both the blessing and curse in the Chan cannon. It is the movie that compressed everything he was known for in the 80s (high impact stunts, frenzied fights, and tightly choreographed slapstick action) into one, and brought it to the shores of America (or rather Vancouver).

On the other hand, it's because of the success of this movie that we had to sit through countless hours in the past decade of absolute flaccid trash like the Tuxedo and Medallion. It's best to enjoy Rumble in the Bronx as a jewel unto its own though, without all the political baggage it brought with it at the time and since.

If you can, try to find the uncut Laser Disc version without the dubbing, which is by far the best, and will heighten your enjoyment of the terrible acting (people speaking to each other in english and cantonese, and pretending to understand one another, awful voices of the original cast, etc).

Trust me, Rumble in the Bronx is Jackie's one true bonafide B/exploitation trash movie, and it's loads of fun. If this had come out DTV back in 1995, people would be praising it as a classic of bad cinema.