The Bourne Inadequacy
There’s a saying that once something becomes possible, it becomes mandatory. That’s why you have to guard against accepting ersatz stuff. The jump cut ruined action movies. CGI just buried the corpse. When the impossible becomes easy, it also becomes mundane.
Jackie Chan never got mundane. Even though the action sequences in his movies consist almost entirely of wide, static shots, he never ran out of inventive ways to punch guys in the mouth. He joins the excitement of a trapeze artist to a boxing match. The thrill of wondering who will win is multiplied by the edge of your seat, cottonmouth fear that he might fall.
Wait, check that last sentence. My bad. We always know who’s going to win. Gravity can’t beat Jackie Chan. What chance do a dozen guys with weapons have?
One thought on “The Bourne Inadequacy”
JChan had a film appeal that Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee couldn’t muster. My kids always like JC after the first time they saw him on screen.
He mounts that high rail from a dead hang the proper way, too. Don’t get me wrong, I could never fist with the martial artists, but I could mount that rail like a boss in my heyday. But, most movies always wreck that move; Chan is believable for me because of that move alone.
I move we rise Jackie Chan to the level of Master of TheBorderlineSociopathicBlogForBoys, without stipend. I know I can’t scrape up any extra stipend, myself.