Rumble in the Bronx (1996)
No Fear. No Stuntman. No Equal
I had some Chinese food for dinner tonight, so I thought I’d celebrate the occasion with a little of what has to be the most well-known Chinese man I know - Jackie Chan! Turns out the movie buddy also hasn’t seen this one, and since I find it to be one of the classics it only seems fair that I force him to watch it on this occasion! Yeah, I can be a real drag sometimes, right? Ha ha, hide the warriors and get ready for some injuries, tonight we Rumble in the Bronx.
When a nephew flies over to the states for his uncle’s wedding and to help out a bit around the store, he finds himself getting a much bigger taste of America then he expected. A smooth start quickly turns into an embattled story of trying to survive after doing the right thing get’s the wrong sort of reception from the natives - and further escalates when caught in the crossfire of a diamond heist and a gang. Will he be able to keep safe his new friends, turn around the bad crowd to be better than they are, or simply to survive amidst a crazy slew of stunts and action scenes? I mean, he is the hero so it’s pretty obvious since we haven’t gotten to the slew of post 90’s “have to kill our heroes to be edgy” phase of movies yet, but still, tension and drama!
The story leaves a lot of room for people wanting some crazy level of epic novel, but as far as movies go it’s follows it’s execution perfectly fine. You like who you should like, because they seem like good people regardless of the outside circumstances, and you don’t like the ones that you shouldn’t because most the time they are jerks, although some might come around by the end. There isn’t massive character arcs, but there are spots where you can see the start of things - enemies to friends sort of things, even though the movie somewhat cuts it short with a rather to-the-point ending. It’s very much a “we got the bad guy, but you’ll have to just imagine if everything else really ends up working itself out.” You know, happy ending - especially if you don’t think too hard on it.
The plot line does have plenty of charm - much like the characters. There’s a lot of strong moral moments that flow along the line of “doing the right thing and bettering oneself regardless of the consequences” - a pretty simple but noble pursuit. In turn, there’s a lot of interactions between those that aren’t in conflict that come of feeling natural, or at the very least played pretty straight given the circumstances. It helps keep things somewhat grounded amongst the more over the top moments. It also provides the characters plenty of moments to have comical things going on - like not realizing a mirror is a one-way mirror while flexing in front of it - without feeling like it’s going too far out of the way to make jokes. I could say that perhaps some of it hasn’t aged quite as well as other bits, but in all honesty mostly anyone that lives in “the rest of New York” would probably imagine this as being a spot on representation of the city anyways, and at least things are never really played off as being intentionally offensive in any way - it’s not all of the city that’s bad apples, and it’s not super-duper heavy on the stereotypes in any way that makes it feel bad.
Look at these muscles.
Audio does a good balance, and although sometimes lines can feel a bit ADR, they still come out fine. By today’s standards it actually feels like some parts were dubbed over to make it less offensive language-wise, but I think that’s more a comical side effect of the absolute saturation of cursing in the modern film - especially those with the R rating. The music does its job of adding to scenes, and despite all the action you’ll really only find one or two sound effects that sound a bit wacky. Considering the stunt work to go with those actions scenes, they could have changed the mood entirely had they went with a more Looney Tunes style effect composition, so I’m really glad that it played it pretty level with keeping it punched up slightly but still what you’d imagine.
Of course, the main thing people are here for now is probably the stunts. I’m not saying that Jackie isn’t a good actor - there’s some particularly awesome stuff especially in his later career that he gets to show off his chops - but the main thing most people will probably remember him for is stunts. Stunts and the fact he’s broken more bones in an effort to be awesome and do his own stunts instead of forcing someone else to than most of us know we even have. In that regard, the movie - and the stunt reel at the end - shows quite the large range of things including some that didn’t go quite right. If you had any real complaints about the story feeling a bit flimsy, the stunts and general choreography of the action scenes will more than make up for it.
Effects to go along with these scenes aren’t horrible - but one shouldn’t expect a super crazy amount of things either. What’s here is pretty good - crashing vehicles, breaking objects, some blood here or there, and one explosion. Yes, some of the effects work - like getting run over by a hover craft - can be a bit comical towards the end, but by the time it does such you don’t care because your already having fun. Most the effects stuff is environmental or prop trashing more than any sort of person-damage or the likes. Costumes are pretty good - I mean yes, they are just kind of normal wear sorts of things, but there’s still a nice variety between business attire and punk attire, that sort of thing that makes characters stand out as being a specific character and not just blend into the crowd.
Fast and the smug.
I enjoy this one, and I’m glad to have shared it with someone who hasn’t seen it. It’s my take that he enjoyed it, thoroughly impressed by the mental stunts and the easy to dive into fun of the movie. If you want a good action flick and don’t mind some slight ADR feeling this is a good bet. If you want some sweet stunts back before things were safer for people like they should be - you’ll have a good time. It’s got some jokes, it’s got plenty of action, and it’s got one do-good character along for the ride.