His movies have broke many box office records in countries around the world. In Hong Kong, only the blockbuster "Jurassic Park" has surpassed him at the box office. But there is only one "Jurassic Park" compared to 40+ Jackie Chan movies.

The Stuntman
Audiences around the world have been entertained by his radical stunts which are performed by him and not a stunt double. JC has done some of the following stunts:

• rode a moving bus by hanging on the outside with only an umbrella
• jumped off the top of a building onto a helicopter ladder
• run down the face of a high wall which was falling forward.
• rolled down a mountain inside a large inflatable ball.
• dived off a second floor balcony during an explosion and landed safely on the floor below.

The Action Star
Although the stunts are Jackie's trademark, the bread-n-butter of most of his films are the excellently-choreographed fight scenes. Like the Western cowboy movies of yesteryear, many of the successful Jackie Chan movies usually climax with a final showdown between a villian and the hero (Jackie of course). The style and high-energy of those fight scenes are difficult to capture in words alone. Just imagine the Barnum-n-Bailey circus, all the Jean Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal movies, and a resurrected Buster Keaton...put that into a 5'10" Chinese guy....and then you got a "Jackie Chan".....or at least a close facsimile. :^)

Suffice it to say....it usually takes one Jackie Chan movie to proselytize you into a fan. If you don't like his movies then you probably don't like action movies and/or martial arts movies.

Although Jackie Chan has experienced worldwide success, the only country he didn't make a big dent in was the United States. Sure there was a small but VERY strong following but nothing that anyone would consider "mainstream". The devoted hardcore JC fan would rent his videos from Chinese video stores or other video stores that would carry Asian action movie genre type videos. For some fortunate fans, there was a nearby "Chinatown" theater that would show Jackie Chan films on the silverscreen.

Of course....this will all change when Hollywood continues to show his films and later help him make new movies in the US.

The First Advent of Chan
Fifteen years ago Jackie Chan attempted to "break into" the US mainstream film scene. He starred in two American-made movies: "The Protector" and "The Big Brawl". JC also had a small role in the two "Cannonball Run" flicks as a Japanese car racer (duhhh..!). All of these roles didn't establish him as a major motion picture star which he was/is at home in Hong Kong and in other countries around the world. So he moved back home and continued on with bigger and better movies....of which Miramax and Newline have bought the rights to recently (3/96).

MTV
In 1995, Jackie Chan was awarded the MTV Lifetime Achievement Award for his cinematic accomplishments. Quentin Tarantino, a long time hardcore Hong Kong movie buff, introduced JC as "the person he would want to be if he wanted to be any actor in the world". The zillion viewers of the MTV Music Awards were formally introduced (or I should say re-introduced) to one of the most successful international movie stars of our time. For the next few minutes the viewing audience got a taste of Jackie Chan action when a montage of clips were flashed on the screen to the 1970's tune of "Kung Fu Fighting". While JC made his 'thank you' speech, many if not most of the audience were still wondering who the heck he was but they knew that they saw something radically different from a typical American action star who sat in his trailer while a brave stunt double was nearly getting killed to perform a movie star's stunts. No...this time they were being turned on to the real deal.

Sure Arnold Schwarzenegger has a multimillion dollar budget to 'wow' his audiences with the best that technology could simulate but Jackie's approach was to amaze you with what he could do with the aid of his well-trained stunt team.

The Second Coming of Chan
In February of 1996, Newline released "Rumble in the Bronx" movie hoping that it would prove to be a successful venture. It was a "success" but a "venture" too? Sure but it was more like an "adventure" as the 41 year old Jackie moved as gracefully across the screen with the energy of a cyclone and the fierceness of lion. Sounds corny? Yeah...but so what.

Months, weeks, and days preceding the opening night, Newline and JC had fleshed out a well conceived promotional tour that included:

• a guest appearance on the David Letterman Show
• a guest appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno
• an interview on Nightline
• a surprise appearance with Kennedy on MTV
• many interviews on local radio station shows
• many magazine articles
• tv commercial previews on MTV and other television networks
• a Rumble in the Bronx homepage
  This site is down and possibly gone forever.

In my opinion, the movie was not JC's best but the action was still good. Sure they dubbed the voices pretty bad but I would sacrifice the poor sound re-production for the chance to see Jackie Chan on the big screen again.

A side note: Bill Tung, who played Uncle Bill, can really speak in good English in real life. But they never employed his services in the voice dubbings. Instead they used a strange sounding person to do his English voice. Why? I don't know. Maybe Newline will explain that one....someday.

Anyhow....I digress..."Rumble in the Bronx" made it to number 1 for a short time. Then it dropped in rank as all other action movies do after several weeks from their premeire night. But it was too late. It had already happened. Jackie made his mark in the American mainstream cinema.

What's Next for JC?
As of March 1996, Newline and Miramax scrambled to buy the rights of several more 'already made' Jackie Chan movies. All of these films, including Rumble and Supercop, have already been successful in previous years. But they were never released in the American mainstream theaters....not yet at least.

THE END.....for the time being dudes and dudettes.

But wait there's more. HollyWOOD types have been trying to buy other film titles from Hong Kong at this time. If you have ONLY heard and seen of Jackie Chan AND you like the action, then you're in for a treat. Remember names like Jet Li, Chow Yun Fat, Donnie Yen, and Michelle Yeoh. The "over-the-top" action from Hong Kong is not new but its making its about to get big in the US. Let's just hope that the big execs in Hollywood don't sterilize the Hong Kong genre or style. Nuff said.

To keep up with the future re-releases and/or JC fan opinions go check out my Jackie Chan filmography page or the USENET newsgroup alt.asian-movies. I highly recommend the USENET because Asian-action-movie fans like to chat about the latest, the old stuff, and other miscellaneous items. So if you have a question then post it in the newsgroup...of course...you should peruse the existing post just in case your question has already been answered earlier.