Jack No 1 (Rumble In The Bronx) Review

For all the Jackie Chan fans who came here looking at some name unheard of before: stop drooling already. It's old wine, and in an old bottle, too - only the label is new. The good news is that it is real good wine - this is one of Chan's largest hits released about half a decade ago, Rumble In The Bronx. In fact, the name of the movie is still the same - only the posters have the Jack No. 1 thing, showing again how lax our laws are if some seedy distributors can get away with such blatant cheating of a whole city through a mass medium.

Rumble In The Bronx is the story of a right man at the wrong places and at the wrong times. From the very British-like gentlemanly culture of Hong Kong, Teung (Jackie Chan) lands up in the (in)famous bylanes of Manhattan (the usual black dominated crime-riddled area that's Uncle Sam's answer to Bihar) called Bronx, and begins assisting his uncle in managing his supermarket.

As expected, the area is full of punks with Mohawk hairstyles and tattooed skins, and riding Harley Davidsons (the very association that cost Harley dearly in the American market when Honda came in with its "nicest people on a Honda" thing). These jerks high on dope can go to any extent to have fun, including smashing windshields, have bike races on car roofs, smashing bottles on helpless passersby... and murder too.

As expected, Teung has his encounter with some of the gang members in his uncle's store, and they bear the brunt of his Kung Fu skills. And the movie begins.

The whole gang is after the Chinaman to teach him a lesson, and the cat 'n' mouse game is one fun ride. In one of these encounters, Teung meets Nancy (Anita Mui), a member of the gang who later becomes his ladylove. As the game continues, coincidentally the Mafia gets involved, and the story takes dangerous turns. However, Jackie with his acrobatics and Kung Fu gets out of it unruffled. The climax, on a hovercraft is cool, and was straightaway lifted in Akshay Kumar's "Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi".

For those who love martial arts films, this is a must see - and even otherwise, it's a good entertainer. The stunts are breathtaking, and the fact that Jackie Chan performs all his stunts himself makes them even more fascinating. The comedy amidst all this is so natural and well-crafted that the scenes are hilarious.

Those who missed this movie earlier should not this time. Perhaps those who didn't, too!