Jackie Chan Ranked

Welcome to "Ranked", a weekly series where I rank a franchise or filmography from worst to best and hand out assorted related superlatives. This week, I'm profiling the work of Jackie Chan-whose latest project "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem" is in theaters tomorrow.  

Jackie Chan's Filmography Ranked:

18.The Tuxedo (D-)

17.The Medallion (D)

16.The Foreigner (D+) 

15.Drunken Master (C-)

14.The Forbidden Kingdom (C)

13.The Lego Ninjago Movie (B-)

12.Mulan (B-)

11.Shanghai Knights (B-)

10.Rumble in the Bronx (B-)

9.Rush Hour 3 (B)

8.Kung Fu Panda 3 (B)

7.Police Story (B)

6.Kung Fu Panda 2 (B)

5.Mr. Nice Guy (B)

4.Shanghai Noon (B)

3.Rush Hour 2 (B+)

2.Kung Fu Panda (B+)

1.Rush Hour (B+)

Top Dog: Rush Hour (1998)

Has it aged well? Not exactly! However, Rush Hour still manages to be a very entertaining, influential action comedy that features one of the great "forced" buddy pairings (Chan, Christ Tucker) in cinema history and goofy, high-energy action scenes that bring an American sense of chaos to its Hong Kong-inspired martial arts.     

Bottom Feeder: The Tuxedo (2002)

Once Chan established a real footing in American cinema following the success of Shanghai Noon and the Rush Hour films, the offers to appear in some real pieces of garbage started rolling in. From the duds he decided to appear in, the supreme stink of The Tuxedo really stands out. The Tuxedo is in some special company alongside such classics as The Master of Disguise and The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas of movies that were so dumb, dull and unfunny that I despised them when I was a kid.      

Most Underrated: Mr. Nice Guy (1997)

Mr. Nice Guy has all of the awe-inspiring fight choreography/stuntwork and slapstick humor of Chan's best projects paired with a sub 90-minute runtime that ensures that the fun stuff that is prioritized over getting overly bogged down with developing a silly story that is designed to be second to the fights and jokes anyways.     

Most Overrated: The Foreigner (2017)

Kudos to Chan for breaking away from his mold in the States by making something dramatic and still being able to move well in the fight scenes in his early-60's, but The Foreigner is a huge swing-and-miss. Whatever brief jolts of excitement come from the action are constantly overshadowed by an incoherent mess of a plot that's centered around an increasingly absurd government conspiracy and some brutally slow pacing that stops the movie dead in its tracks whenever it threatens to get exciting.