In between bantering with Chris Tucker and butchering English, Jackie Chan found time to be one of the greatest kung fu masters of all time.
449630064- Like The Bourne Identity, Jackie plays a secret agent with amnesia who has no idea why people are trying to kill him. Luckily for him, his muscle-memory is photographic and he has no problem instantly recalling how to deliver a serious smackdown. In the best scene, two opposing agents think they can take Jackie out in 30 seconds, like some real-time version of Street Fighter. They, um, don't.
449630109- We know what you're thinking: Wouldn't it be Project B? But never mind that—Jackie is once again asked to take down a villainous underground organization with just his limbs and an impeccable sense of timing. At one point, he is chased down by a pack of thugs armed with hatchets while handcuffed to an effeminate man in a bowler hat (Jackie, not the thugs). It's vintage Chan mind-blowing and slapsticky all at once.
449630087- Native Americans have it rough. They get their collective asses handed to them by the white man in every movie, so the one time they stumble on some unsuspecting Asian dude they think maybe, just maybe, they can pull off one victory and not get shut out. They perform valiantly (the catching the tomahawk trick is nice), but ultimately it's back to designing those casinos, courtesy of Jackie.
449630076- Chinese audiences love seeing Jackie play a cop—it's like us seeing Clint Eastwood play a cowboy or Robert De Niro play a mobster or Jimmy Fallon play an annoying douche bag. In New Police Story, Jackie takes on some thugs inside the happiest place on earth: a Lego store. Those brightly colored building blocks make potentially crippling injuries look so damn cute!
449630129- Ignore the fact that "the Bronx" in this movie appears to be surrounded by a picturesque mountain range and vast lakes, and instead take delight in Jackie strolling into a gang's hideout proclaiming, "You are all garbage!" He then bounces around pinball machines, refrigerators, and pool tables in order to take out the trash. But back to those mountains—does the 6 train go to Hunts Point via Vancouver now?
449630155- Considered by fans as the greatest Jackie Chan movie ever (you'll hear from it again), it involves two of our favorite things: kung fu fighting and booze. Having learned his style from a wine-guzzling uncle, Jackie stumbles, slurs, and chugs, and still kicks obscene amounts of ass. In one scene, Jackie double-fists the pain-go-bye-bye juice in order to get in the proper mind-set to practice real "drunken boxing."
449630174- Not only does this movie contain a shopping mall fight that puts Arnold's lumbering fisticuffs in Commando to shame, it ends with a stunt so eye-popping it made Jackie a superstar times two. (It also, by the way, nearly killed him). Escaping from his attackers, Jackie fireman-slides down a pole rigged with thousands of lightbulbs, each one with the potential to Kentucky-fry him.
449630197- The first The Legend of Drunken Master fight was pure comedy—this one is pure badass. His opponent is a bespectacled dweeb in a suit who looks like a wuss, until his crazy legs start spinning and he makes Jackie taste wing tip. Things turn back in Jackie's favor once he takes a few power sips of unleaded alcohol and, literally, starts spitting flames. Oh, and vomiting. But that sloppy grin on Jackie's face can only mean one thing: "It's on."