Typically Hollywood is full of sycophantic actors, actresses, directors, and producers who are more than happy to pay each other a compliment rather than speak their mind. After all, speaking their minds might hurt other people’s feelings, which might lead to losing a job in the future. You don’t want to offend that future employer after all. So it’s quite refreshing to see someone speak the truth, even if it’s not kind.
The truth hurts coming from Jackie Chan, who says he’s not a fan of his own Rush Hour franchise, despite the fact that it really put him on the mainstream Hollywood map. I can’t help but find this funny. Dislike of Bret Ratner’s popcorn formula is nothing new for movie patrons, especially evident in X-Men: The Last Stand, but now he’s getting negative comments made about his movies by the star? How funny is that?
The action star posted in a blog entry picked up by the Associated Press (accessed through Yahoo! Movies) that he only did the first one to test out the American movie market and it left him disappointed: "When we finished filming, I felt very disappointed because it was a movie I didn't appreciate and I did not like the action scenes involved. I felt the style of action was too Americanized and I didn't understand the American humor.” He went on to say he only did the sequels because of the “irresistible” amounts of money involved, which he could use to finance pictures he actually was interested in making.
Chan’s confusion over the humor might explain China’s rejection of Rush Hour 3 earlier this year. In fact, it probably would have been good if Chan had bashed the movie like this two months ago. Then it might have looked like the movie wasn’t imported because of the humor instead of the negative racial portrayal of the Chinese, like most suspected was the case.
The one downside of Chan’s jaded post is the comment that he’s not excited about his collaborative project with Jet Li, The Forbidden Kingdom. I know a lot of people are looking forward to a battle between the martial art greats, and hearing that Chan isn’t really into it is definitely disappointing.
