Jackie Chan and Serious Roles: Why I Think It's a Bad Mix

Well I remembered watching Jackie Chan movies as a kid namely Drunken Master, Drunken Master 2 and Rumble in the Bronx.  After many years when I've grown up to be 20 years old, I was thinking of viewing "The New Police Story" which I thought was a comedy but I was pretty disappointed it wasn't after seeing it maybe because I've typecast him with the funny stuff not the serious stuff.  So I can take serious films but one huge problem for me was that- Jackie Chan was NOT fit for it.  So he wants to be taken seriously but I do have one issue with him- he's a great martial artist but he definitely is not so great an actor to play serious roles which is probably a downside to being a good comedian.  Not really, other legends like Andy Lau, Qin Han and Aaron Kwok can do both serious and funny roles well but not Jackie Chan!


I don't give "New Police Story" a bad review, it had a pretty great plot and suspense but mind you, my problem with this film was Jackie Chan taking a serious role didn't do any convincing at all.  It's either I've been too used to enjoying him doing silly roles like he did with Drunken Master 1 and 2 but here, he just gives me the mark of "convince me" every time he tries to act serious, he is so bland for me when it comes to serious roles.  I really thoughht that while I admire him for being it a shot but I really just think it's a bad mix.  I was glad that the later roles he played after that like "Little Big Soldier" and "Rob B' Hood" were back to comedy though I am pretty not hopeful for what he will do with his New Police Story 2.  Hopefully he will improve with his second time though I'll admit I didn't like his acting in Shinjuku Incident either.