Rush Hour - 3/5

This movie is one of the better examples of Jackie Chan’s foray into western moviemaking. It directly addresses the east-meets-west nature of the film and makes it the central narrative conceit. As always the martial arts is great and Jackie gets several scenes in which to show off his moves and it’s filmed well enough to give the audience a good view of the action, unlike many of his other western films. Chris Tucker’s humor is annoying to me, but if you enjoy him you should definitely check out this movie.

Closest comparison: It’s like Shanghai Knights with cops instead of cowboys.

Setting: Buddy Cop
Plot: Police Procedural
Tone: Action Comedy

Wu Assassins (Netflix) - 2/5

This show could have been great, and it starts off well. But like so many other shows it loses its way about halfway through. The martial arts is very good, where present, but they use drama for drama’s sake to pad out the runtime, a common trend among Netflix titles. The acting is overall mildly uninteresting, except for an ancient mystic wu assassin character who provides top tier terrible acting every moment she’s on screen. The effects are modern TV level and ultimately not even the presence of Iko Uwais and Mark Dacascos can salvage the show from boredom.

Closest comparison: It’s like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon by way of The Fast and the Furious, but without the fun.

Setting: Modern Crime
Plot: Martial Arts
Tone: Fantasy