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Jackie Chan thought 'Rush Hour' was terrible when he first saw it

Who cares? It was entertaining. He literally did his fucking job.

I love the man's dedication, but for god's sake, it's the director/writer's vision too.
 
It’s still a HK film that just happens to be set in the US, right? They even dubbed over the Cantonese with English.

Filmed in Vancouver, directed by HK director Stanley Tong (the one who directed Police Story 3/4 and some others), a Golden Harvest production...not Hollywood at all.
 
I almost forgot this lol

rush-hour-carter-id-watermarked-x425.jpg
 
Seems like after that he went "WELP, obviously I don't have a clue" and started signing on to anything. Unfortunately.

I can understand where he was coming from. He felt he'd be indecipherable, but his accent isn't that out-of-place in america, and his physical acting is world-class. He's possibly the best that ever was, or at the very least a contender for it.
 

yepyepyep

Member
Well he must be a great actor then because the blooper reel during the credits made it seem like they both had a blast filming it.

He usually describes Tucker as a friend during interviews so the rapport and humour they share on set when they muck around or flub lines is probably genuine. He has been on record for a long time saying he doesn't understand all the jokes because of the cultural differences, so he probably thought the finished product wouldn't be very good when they were filming.
 
This will never work, im not 6'1"

Best joke of the whole film. It was a one two punch. I love jokes like that.

Anyway Jackie's comments don't ruin the movie. The whole point of the series (well at least the first two movies) is a clash of cultures. So it makes sense that Jackie was a fish out of water during the filming, that was the whole point of his character. Add to the fact that it was his first Hollywood movie, it's totally understandable.

I imagine if Chris Tucker went over to Hong Kong to make a comedy, he might not understand all the humor either. Absolutely normal. And Rush Hour was smart to play off that so the cultural awkwardness makes it even funnier.
 
Only Rush Hour 3 was bad.

The culture clash is what made it funny Jackie.

"This is the LAPD. We're the most hated cops in all the free world. My own mama's ashamed of me. She tells everybody I'm a drug dealer."
 
It was terrible.

Y'all were kids and liked it, that's fine but if it came out today it would get 40% RT score and everybody would post how shit it is.
 

Ri'Orius

Member
Rush Hour and Bad Boys were once in a life time movies.

Looking on paper, no way they should have been as good as they were

"Five movies that came out over the course of a decade were once in a lifetime movies."

Maybe it's because I was just in the immortality thread, but I feel like your estimate of a lifetime is a bit short.
 

depths20XX

Member
This has been known for a while. He was never a fan of the ways films were created in America. He had a great friendship with Chris Tucker but never enjoyed the Hollywood film making process. It's evident in many of his early interviews.

I believe he even mentioned Rush Hour 3 being a terrible experience on his late night interview tour.

He saw all the Hollywood films he did as a downgrade from the way he wanted martial arts films to be. It's also self evident when all his Chinese films are much better.
 

MilkBeard

Member
This has been known for a while. He was never a fan of the ways films were created in America. He had a great friendship with Chris Tucker but never enjoyed the Hollywood film making process. It's evident in many of his early interviews.

I believe he even mentioned Rush Hour 3 being a terrible experience on his late night interview tour.

He saw all the Hollywood films he did as a downgrade from the way he wanted martial arts films to be. It's also self evident when all his Chinese films are much better.

Yeah, seems reasonable.

I don't know much about Jackie Chan's pre-Hollywood movies, but The Legend of the Drunken Master is fun and people should watch it.
 

hiredhand

Member
Well to be honest, none of his Hollywood films are that great. Shanghai Noon/Knights were okay but quite forgettable.

I really wished he would have just stayed in Hong Kong (and made another Drunken Master film).
 

reKon

Banned
1 and 2 were good. Actually, 2 was legitimately a great film, featuring one of the greatest fights of all time on cinema. I trust GAF to know which one I'm talking about.

If you disagree with me, you should probably just banned.
 

depths20XX

Member
OP is so confused. Jackie Chan had a way of doing his films. He wanted to do everything. He wanted the film to be about the action, stunts, and comedy. All of which he did on his own. When he got to Hollywood it was all terribly scripted shit, and comedy he couldn't relate to. They wanted him to be the goofy asian guy. The action and stunts he did were also downgraded for shitty narative. It's no wonder he felt no connection to it. It was a completely different world from the martial arts movies he was used to creating. It all felt watered down to him.

It's no surprise that he felt Rush Hour was shit.
 
He said that a long time ago. Hated the Hollywood way of doing action, didn’t understand the jokes and how badly Chris Tucker behaved on set in the early days of filming.

Still managed to do a sequel

There only one sequel to Rush Hour, we don’t speak of the third one.
 

Diabelli

Member
I think I was a teenager (I'm 32) when I last saw Rush Hour. I used to love the fuck out of that film and me and my brother would always quote the shit out of it. Think it's time for a rewatch.
 

MarveI

Member
The bloopers are truly national treasures. You can tell they respect eachother off set too and Chris' really loves Jackie the way he is around him.

Remember the blooper where Chris' friend actually called him during filming ? Jackie's facial gestures haha like bro are you for real ? Then Chris' friend wants to talk to Jackie and Jackie scolds him for wasting all of their film hahaha and Chris just can't handle it and walks away laughing and finally Jackies look to the camera like can you believe this guy ?
 

waxer

Member
Yet here you are.
I enjoy a lot of his movies thus I have an opinion whether I bother taking on his or not.

So many difference in his personal views fame and culture, that what he thinks others would like or hate is probably very skewed.

Such as cheating on your wife is ok. I'm pretty sure he said that's ok and all men do it. Yet he was way off base with the reality of what other people actually think then as well.
 

yepyepyep

Member
I found an interview where he said he didn't like Chris Tucker during the first film because he was late to set and he talked too fast so he couldn't understand him. But nowadays he considers him a friend and they visit each other when they are in the same country. It's kind of funny that their relationship in the movie kind of mirrors their relationship in real life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=folvVXothDo
 

Hesh

Member
I enjoyed it back when it came out, but IFC has been replaying it as of late and I've watched it a couple times and I don't think it holds up. I think enough time has passed where if I want a good "fish-out-of-water" buddy cop movie I'll just go with Beverly Hills Cop, Lethal Weapon, or 48 Hours. I'm wondering if I'll still enjoy Shanghai Noon the next time I watch it as well since I've grown to enjoy Chan's original Chinese movies much more as an adult after being first introduced to Chan's work via his English Hollywood and dubbed work in the 90's. I must have watched Who am I? a few dozen times on HBO after school growing up.
 

DeathyBoy

Banned
It's a terrible Jackie Chan movie, but it's an entertaining movie by its own right.

For someone who likes to make good action, Rush Hour had jack shit for action.

Rush Hour works because the two leads somehow have chemistry together without having chemistry together, if that makes sense. They're just yelling at each other and neither seems to understand what the other is doing, but the result is fucking hilarious.

Rush Hour 2 and 3 fail because they consciously tried to bottle something which was lucked into.
 
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