ACTION-PACKED SUMMER: Rumble in the Bronx

In which a cartoon-level story and dialogue meets some of the best fighting choreography you can find.

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CONTENT WARNING: Blood, broken bones, gang violence, police, broad stereotypes.

We’re back for a summer series packed with all sorts of action, and we’re kicking things off with the movie that broke Jackie Chan in America! And wow is this movie a wild ride. Imagine a Saturday-morning cartoon writing a martial arts film in New York, but then actually adding some severe scenes of violence and intense fighting so that it was supposed to be gritty, and you’re getting close to the vibe of this movie. It’s hard to tell if it’s the terrible script, the pressure to sell a movie to American audiences, or studio tampering with the cut are what makes this movie inscrutable. But DAMN if those fight scenes aren’t faster, more intense, and more acrobatic than most martial arts films. Jackie Chan is a treasure, and even if this isn’t his best starring role, there’s still a lot of fun to be had. We’re kicking off this summer series with 1996’s Rumble in the Bronx on Macintosh & Maud Haven’t Seen What?!

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Intro and outro music taken from the Second Movement of Ludwig von Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Hong Kong (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 HK) license. To hear the full performance or get more information, visit the song page at the Internet Archive.

Excerpt taken from "Main Title" to the Rumble in the Bronx soundtrack, written and composed by J. Peter Robinson. ℗ 1962, 2012 Capitol Records LLC.

Excerpt taken from “Cliffhanger Theme” from the original soundtrack of the film Cliffhanger, composed by Trevor Jones, and performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra as conducted by David Snell. Copyright 1993 Scotti Bros. Records.