This Week in Movie Nights
We went back to the traditional two movie nights this week, though it was just me and The Pip watching. One Friday, SteelyKid was wrapped up in some streaming thing, and Saturday Kate was helping SK with some sort of big homework project.
Rush Hour:
We actually started out with the original 1976 The Bad News Bears because The Pip is really into baseball and thought it would be worth a shot. We weren’t more than fifteen minutes into that, though, when he said “I hate all these people,” so we pivoted to his favorite genre, action comedy.
This is perfectly adequate Hollywood Jackie Chan: there aren’t as many action scenes as in some of his Hong Kong movies, but the ones that are there are good fun. Chris Tucker is a little annoying, but it basically works.
Rush Hour 2:
The Pip was initially going to decline to watch anything, but when pushed said “Maybe a Jackie Chan movie?” so I suggested this. It’s pretty forgettable, honestly; the stunts are a bit more involved, and the comedy’s a bit broader than the first one. The highlight is really Zhang Ziyi kicking Chris Tucker in the face multiple times.
I should really look into which of Chan’s older movies are available and reasonably suitable. We’ve got a couple on DVD, but Rumble in the Bronx has some really racist stuff in the early going, and I recall Drunken Master II as having some really intense emotional stuff with his dad that I don’t think The Pip would enjoy. That final fight scene, though…
Anyway, that’s it for this week; I’ll put the usual buttons below, but if you have solid recommendations of better Jackie Chan movies to watch with The Pip, please do leave a comment.