Jackie Chan is a huge star across the world after making many great Hong Kong action pictures such as “Police Story”, “The Legend Of Drunken Master” and “Armour Of God”. He’s also made it big in America with films such as “Rush Hour” and “Shanghai Noon”. However, his earlier attempts to be a hit in the United States didn’t go so well.

Apparently, he left Hong Kong partly due to trouble with local gangs. However, he obviously was also focused on becoming more of an international star with recognition in Hollywood. He landed a role in “The Cannonball Run” alongside big stars such as Burt Reynolds (“Smokey and the Bandit”) and Roger Moore (“Moonraker”). However, Jackie barely got to do anything. His amazing martial arts skills were used so briefly that you may not even realise that you’re watching one of the best martial arts stars in the world.

Chan then got a starring role in “Battle Creek Brawl” (also known as “The Big Brawl”). Unfortunately, they had him fight a lot of big guys that moved rather slowly. They just can’t keep up with Chan’s fast-paced style and as a result, the choreography is pretty poor. It’s a shame considering this was a film from Robert Clouse, who had made Bruce Lee’s “Enter The Dragon” (a movie Chan was a stuntman in).

Chan decided to do one more Hollywood movie in the 80s before giving up and returning to Asia. He starred in “The Protector”. It’s a typical 80s cop movie with violence, bad language, nudity and drugs. All these things are the opposite of what Chan is known for. While the movie is not terrible by any means, it feels more like a film for Clint Eastwood (“Dirty Harry”) or Sylvester Stallone (“Cobra”) than Chan. Jackie was so disappointed by the movie that he went and made his own cop films with the “Police Story” franchise.

Chan eventually returned to the United States after some help from other action stars such as Stallone, who helped ensure that Chan’s films got a better distribution in America. Hollywood would fully embrace Chan after the hit that was “Rush Hour”. His earlier attempts to be a Hollywood star are still intriguing to look at as we see how the Americans just got everything wrong.