I have to admit my once huge respect for Jackie Chan was fading, much like his previously good movie career. Even IMDB is listing him as the star of Rush Hour 2, what happened to all those excellent Asian movies he was in, when he combined amaazing stunts with a strong film?
Yet just having read a story over at 940 News, I think I might just be going back to being a fan:
Jackie Chan says he prefers making movies in Asia because he can try risky new genres on his home turf, while in Hollywood, he stars in action comedies that are more likely to be box office hits.
“In America, it’s just Rush Hour 1, Rush Hour 2 and Rush Hour 3, then Rush Hour 4. If Rush Hour 4 fails, that’s it. But if it doesn’t fail, there will be Rush Hour 5,” Chan said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Now there’s something I’d never have expected him to say, I thought he was all Hollywood nowadays.
In his new film, The Myth, he plays an ancient Chinese general who is reincarnated in modern times and searches for his love interest from his previous life, who has survived because she took a longevity pill.
Stanley Tong, director of The Myth, said he was impressed by Chan’s ability to handle a stoic character, given his predisposition to physical comedy
Sounds like a real actor there, not a Hollywood gimmick pulled out for a row of sequels which is what he really has become with the Rush Hour franchise. As he says himself, he’s always picked to play a Hong Kong Cop or Killer. It looks like he’s trying to turn things around again though and he’s been returning to where he started. With a good few Hong Kong movies under his belt it looks like he might be in another Hollywood crossover.
He’s also working on a project with famed Chinese director Zhang Yimou (House of Flying Daggers, Hero), but won’t reveal details.
Now, I am excited about that, you can chuck Rush Hour 3 in the can.
Chan truly rocked in the 90s. I think all his movie should be that way. Remember when everybody in the movie lip talked. Or when he played Jackie in all his movies. He should do that more. I remember watching Jackie Chan: My Stunts and saw how he basically did his own stunts. He use object around him. Instead of special effect. I recall one stunt where he would stack up boxes and use them in a falling scene. You would fall off a rooftop onto the boxes. That’s interesting because you don’t need the technology to show someone falling. He wouldn’t even take the camera off the person falling. You could see them from the falling point to the landing point. That way you couldn’t say the fall was fake. But enough of that. I just want to say Jackie Chan gather up your stunt team and make the oringinal action movies. Skip Rush Hour, Chris Tucker quit his role. This is you chance to get away. Make another Police Story. Or do mre movie like, Who am I, or, Rumble In The Bronx. Time be the old Chan again..
You miss the point of the story Sam. We were saying it wasn’t a great choice of his to do the Rush Hour series, now that he is saying that he’s not too happy about his overall move to Hollywood perhaps we might see some positive action, and by the sounds of it we are. I don’t think that’s dumb, that’s realising where you are in life and that the choices you’ve made aren’t necessarily the best ones, and then doing something about it.
Never highlighted his motives for doing the movies, just the fact that he did them and we were missing the real Chan.
I find it funny people are applauding him for belittling the “Rush Hour” movies (mind you, I think they ALL suck, but that’s another story). Here’s some reality check, guys, including the dude who posted (and commented positively) on this story: NO ONE IS FORCING CHAN TO DO RUSH OUT 5 THROUGH 50000!! Yeah, that’s right. He does it for the money, so listening to him whine about it now is stupid and hypocritical of him. It’s also dumb that you snobs can’t see that.
Chan has never really left China. While he has been acting less due to injuriesw, he has produced many movies in Hong Kong in the last several years and acted in a few as well. Most of them have never really been released here, but they are super popular over in China, many are more popular there than the newer Zhang Yimou films.