Prior to Rush Hour, Chinese box office sensation Jackie Chan's Hollywood forays were the terrifically unsuccessful films The Cannoball Run I & II and The Big Brawl (which planted Jackie in Prohibition-era Chicago!). When American studios (namely, New Line and Miramax) decided to give him a second chance, not by casting him in their movies but by importing, dubbing, and retitling his Hong Kong hits, the results were much different: Rumble in the Bronx made a small mint for New Line, who almost immediately signed him up for Rush Hour (review forthcoming), last year's sleeper hit. (Sadly, Chan's bona fide epic masterpiece, Drunken Master II, has yet to be distributed in North America by a North American company. Perhaps it's too sophisticated?)

Rumble in the Bronx establishes a formula that Mr. Nice Guy adheres to closely. The former is the story of Keung, a visitor to New York temporarily in charge of a convenience store during his uncle's honeymoon. Keung fast makes enemies of a local motorcycle gang when he stops their game of chicken; later, he beats most of these hooligans up for shoplifting. A truce is eventually called when Keung befriends a sibling to one of the gang members, the wheelchair bound Danny (Morgan Lam); they unite to take down a big time diamond thief, White Tiger (Kris Lord).

Rumble in the Bronx is a laugh-a-minute action comedy. Consider the titular location, and then take a gander at those mountains in the background during many outdoor scenes. (Vancouver, British Columbia actually stood in for the Bronx.) Jackie's dialogue is dubbed--everybody's is, actually, including the English-speaking actors. The kid in the wheelchair is frequently tossed about like a ragdoll. A live tiger performs at a dance club (a Bronx dance club, remember). The motorcycle gang is at first vicious enough to throw liquor bottles at Jackie's face, but they rarely swear. When a hovercraft's tubing is torn, they stitch it back together with duct tape. And so on. It is an absolute mystery to me why the MPAA rated it R.

I love this movie. Yes, the tissue connecting the action segments in Rumble in the Bronx is thin (Mr. Nice Guy is in even more danger of derailing the audience), but oh, what splendid fight scenes they are. Part Bruce Lee, part Hanna-Barbera (a guy getting hit on the head with a beer bottle sounds more like a frying pan walloping Fred Flintstone), Chan and director Stanley Tong choreograph these bits for maximum visceral impact--and, like Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire, Chan gracefully utilizes his environment: fridges, pinball machines, ski poles and the like become weapons as much as his speedy hands. Those who have seen the film probably recognize the sequence I'm alluding to, the unbelievable clubhouse death-match.

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In Mr. Nice Guy, Jackie plays an affable TV chef who inadvertently saves a reporter's life (Karen McLymont). She is wanted by drug lords for an incriminating videotape. Again, a child ignorantly holds the evidence. Again, Jackie must do battle with a dozen henchmen before finally demolishing the estate of the Head Villain. (Here called Giancarlo and played by Richard Norton.) Both films have curiously abrupt endings--any denouement is replaced by entertaining outtakes. (Watch Jackie get injured for real again, and again, and again.) That Jackie Chan and Keith Richards are still alive ought to prove the existence of miracles.

Mr. Nice Guy was made for an international market in Australia--the voices are not dubbed. The film was directed by big fat Sammo Hung, who defies the laws of physics every week as he swiftly punishes the criminal element on CBS's "Martial Law". Hung is not as good a director as Tong (is that damning him to cruel praise, considering that Tong went on to direct the much maligned Mr. Magoo?); Hung relies too much on step-printing (which creates a sort of choppy slow motion), and Jackie aside, his actors are as stiff as the two-by-fours with which Jackie beats them. (Hung has a cameo in the film as an infuriated cyclist. Also look out for Emil Chau, who plays a dim-witted ice cream man in both films.)

Still, Mr. Nice Guy showcases some damn fine kung fu fighting. I especially loved the construction site duel that begins as a door-slamming riff on bedroom farce. This is a film so bad, it's almost good. Jackie kicking and flailing his arms at some unsuspecting punk in these cheapies is ten times the entertainment that the $100 million Armageddon is. I recommend Rumble in the Bronx and Mr. Nice Guy as Jackie Chan primers (warm-ups to Drunken Master II) or rainy afternoon time-killers.

Both of these films arrived on DVD in North America from New Line Home Video. The Hong Kong version of Rumble in the Bronx (aka Hong Faan Kui) is longer by about 17 minutes and, of course, its actors originally spoke Cantonese, leading some purists to disdain the U.S. theatrical version. However, only the U.S. version looks this pristine. (China's video releases are notorious for looking about as good as a New York street vendor's pirated tapes.) The Rumble and Nice Guy discs each include (16x9-enhanced) letterboxed and (barely watchable) pan-and-scan versions (to fully capture the fluidity of Chan's body language, a 2.35:1 aspect ratio is crucial). The transfers are spectacular and colour-rich (am I imagining a bit of strobing on Rumble?) with excellent shadow detail. The DVDs also sport 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtracks, with Rumble in the Bronx the stronger, bassier, more directional mix, though neither are sound demo material.

A Jackie Chan biography on Rumble in the Bronx outlines his star beginnings but doesn't go into great detail. A similar bio can be found on Mr. Nice Guy, though it also provides links to trailers for Rumble in the Bronx, First Strike, and Rush Hour, as well as an extended clip from Police Story. (Which looks glorious and is even 16x9-enhanced, despite the fact that New Line has yet to add this film to their DVD slate.) Mr. Nice Guy's contents can be accessed via a funky animated menu (an unexpected and welcome flourish); I suspect if Rumble in the Bronx hadn't been one of New Line's earliest DVD titles, it would have had extras besides its own trailer, too.-Bill Chambers