12. The Karate Kid (2010)
It’s kung fu, not karate, in the remake of the 1984 classic. In this, Chan fills the trainer role filled by Pat Morita in the original. Jaden Smith plays Dre, a kid from Detroit who moves to China when his mom (Taraji P. Henson) is transferred there for work. Early on, a kid named Cheng bullies him, and Chan takes an interest in training him in kung fu. Like in the original, Dre is training to compete in a tournament, where Cheng figures to be his opponent. Chan doesn’t fight much here, but this is a good chance to see Chan’s dramatic chops.
11. Jackie Chan’s First Strike (1996)
This is the fourth entry in Chan’s successful Police Story franchise, repackaged as Jackie Chan’s First Strike when American distributors began bringing his Hong Kong films over to the U.S. in the mid-90s. That said, First Strike bears little resemblance to Police Story, as Chan’s cop has turned into James Bond by this point. You’ll see some other similarities to Bond films right down to the action scenes, but what you want to watch this for is when Chan takes a stepladder and uses it for offense, defense and everything between. The classic and most entertaining Chan fights include this creative element, and it’s why many compare Chan to silent film legends Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton.
10. The Foreigner (2017)
Chan is well into his 60s by this point, but he can still passably fight and hold his own. This is probably the most serious you’ll ever see Chan, as he plays a father who wants revenge on some IRA terrorists who killed his daughter in a bombing. Chan calls Irish deputy minister Liam Hennessy (Pierce Brosnan) to give him the names of the terrorists, which Hennessy claims he doesn’t know. Chan doesn’t believe him and sets off bombs as warnings, getting more threatening the more Hennessy denies him. It becomes Chan’s version of Taken, and it’s interesting seeing him play a darker, more sullen character when he’s famous for his kung fu comedies.
9. Rush Hour (1998)
Chan’s first huge American hit came when he was in his 40s, on the heels of a number of his Hong Kong titles being repackaged and released into American cinemas. Here, he stars with Chris Tucker, as they are teamed up to find a Chinese consul’s kidnapped young daughter. Chan doesn’t get to show off much in this, but he and Tucker make up a great comedic team (they made two more Rush Hours after this). But the highlight is in the finale, when Chan has to fight off two bad guys while keeping a giant, priceless vase from falling, and it has a great comic payoff.
8. Dragons Forever (1988)
In this movie, Chan plays a lawyer who’s interested in a woman on the opposing side of a case for which he’s been hired. She’s the cousin of a lady who owns a fishery that is suing a chemical plant for poisoning the water. Chan hires his buddies, played by Sammo Hung and Biao Yuen, to spy on the fishery owner, leading to farcical complications. This movie does contain kung fu, but it’s almost a complete farce for a while, and there are some absurd moments. The best fight scene takes place on a yacht, where director Hung uses some low-angle shots to capture the action and elevate the intensity.
7. Shanghai Noon (2000)
Here, Chan teams up with Owen Wilson, and the result is a surprisingly fun tale told in the Old West. Chan is a part of an Imperial Guard coming to save a kidnapped princess, who is forced to work in a labor camp building the railroads with a number of other Chinese people. Wilson’s comedic schtick works pretty well with Chan’s too-serious soldier. The highlight of this movie is the bar fight, where Chan is able to use the objects around the bar to his advantage, including moose antlers. Sound familiar? Finding something ordinary, non-threatening and using it as a weapon and as defense is a movie trademark of his.
6. Project A (1983)
This is the Chan movie with pirates! The corrupt Hong Kong government is selling weapons to the pirates that attack the city, and Chan joins a marine police force to stop them. And while there is a great fight at the end of this movie at the pirate lair, the best scene is when Chan gets on a bicycle and evades his pursuers through the narrow alleyways of a close grouping of houses. He uses the restriction of movement to his advantage in a variety of entertaining ways and finds methods to turn his bicycle wheels into viable weapons.
5. Drunken Master (1978)
Chan plays a young man who is an absolute jerk in this movie; he’s borderline unlikeable for a while. When he messes up so bad his father can’t take it anymore, he sends him to Beggar So, a kung fu master trained in the art of “drunken boxing.” Even Beggar So can’t contain Chan’s character. But after a resounding defeat at the hands of an assassin named Thunderleg, he decides to take the training seriously. The final “rematch” with Thunderleg is the movie’s highlight, and he’s one of the most entertaining villains Chan ever fights in his career.
4. Rumble in the Bronx (1995)
Rumble in the Bronx was the first in a slew of Chan releases from Hong Kong that would give him name recognition in the States leading up to the release of Rush Hour. This movie is 0 percent the Bronx, as it was shot in Vancouver, but it does have many rumbles! When he goes to a motorcycle gang’s hideout, Chan makes great use of all the appliances that are stored inside, especially the refrigerators. Chan uses the doors as weapons, gets inside one of them to protect himself, and shoves another guy inside a fridge to get him out of the way. He even makes sure to open the door and punch that guy again before closing the door again, just for good measure.
3. Operation Condor/Armour of God II (1991)
The Armour of God series is like Jackie Chan’s Indiana Jones franchise, and the sequel came out in the States as Operation Condor in 1997. In this film, Chan is looking for gold stolen by the Germans during World War II. There’s a great fight in an old military base buried by the sands of time, ending with a fight in a hangar that acts like a wind tunnel, and Chan getting to play Superman.
2. The Legend of Drunken Master/Drunken Master II (1994)
The sequel to 1978’s Drunken Master, this film shows Chan at perhaps his goofiest. Alcohol is to his character like spinach is to Popeye, turning his mannerisms into an over-the-top, inebriated fighting machine. While “drunken boxing” isn’t supposed to be performed while actually drunk, it certainly adds to the humor. The final fight in a steel factory is lengthy and spectacular, including a stunt where Chan is knocked into a bed of hot coals.
1. Police Story (1985)
Chan went all-out with Police Story. It contains the most spectacular stunts of his entire catalog, especially during the climactic fight at a multi-story mall. With Chan on the top floor and the bad guys on the very bottom, he jumps on a pole decorated with light bulbs and slides all the way down through a glass ceiling to catch up to them. The movie even gives you two “instant replays” with different camera angles. Your jaw will be on the floor.
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