Rumble in the Bronx

Most people may not realize this, but RUMBLE IN THE BRONX helped turned Jackie Chan into one of the greatest cinematic legends of all time. When he released this U.S.-set action flick in Hong Kong in 1995, he was already the biggest movie star in the world and had little use for U.S. stardom prefering to stay at home to make the movies he wanted to make. But thanks to the bootleg video market his films were gaining notice with U.S. audiences and New Line Cinema, sensing an opportunity, bought RUMBLE with plans for a U.S. release to re-introduce Jackie to American audiences, marking the first time in nearly 20 years that a Hong Kong film was released by a major studio in this country. Much to the surprise of many, RUMBLE was a surprise hit, not only bringing Jackie back to the U.S. but doing so on his terms, helping to make him the legend he is today. The film itself is a lot of fun, and it's especially remarkable when you consider that Jackie experienced one of his worst injuries on this one, breaking his foot during the Hovercraft chase, which led him to finish the film wearing a shoe-painted sock over the cast on his feet!
(Matthew Kiernan)