Popular reviews

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  Review by Willow Maclay ★★★★½

  In the english dub of this Jackie Chan says, "I will beat the ass off of you. You will be a man with no ass" to Tiger Leg as an insult.

  Motherfucking cinema, y'all!

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  Review by Julie ★★★★★ 7

  I'm breaking my rule and not reviewing both times I watched this film.

  I watched this on Friday night, and thought it was alright - some great fights, but nothing really stood out.

  But I knew I was missing something, and I immediately turned on the commentary, which I finished the next day. The DVD commentary is by Ric Meyers, author of Great Martial Arts Movies and a friend of Jackie Chan, and Jeff Yang, author of several books including co-writer of Jackie Chan's autobiography. It provided a lot of much-needed context, and it ended with me absolutely loving this film.

  A few of my favorite things I learned, which helped me to really appreciate the film - Drunken Master…

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  Review by ScreeningNotes ★★★★ 4

  Drunken ballet. Historically exceptional choreography. Character and story delivered through action (fights establish his sense of place: first is two great warriors against each other to set upper limit, second he beats his teacher to show he's talented, third he is beaten by his aunt to show he's not invincible, so that by the fourth we're rooting for him and get to enjoy his abilities as he defends a helpless old man). Journey from dishonorable mischievous jokester to honorable mischievous jokester via the path of alcohol. Unbeatable fight scene to not-fight scene ratio (13 in 111 minutes). My new favorite from Jackie Chan.

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  Review by matt lynch ★★★★

  Endless blistering, hilarious fights, perfectly choreographed. Jackie learns Drunken Boxing from Woo-Ping's dad.

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  Review by theriverjordan ★★★★ 35

  True Kung Fu is attained not only by mastery of strength, but also mastery of weakness. 

  Weakness so powerful that it becomes transformative into buffoonery, and finally… utter moronity. 

  Such is the central metamorphosis of Jackie Chan’s breakout role in “Drunken Master.” Teaming up for the second time in the same year with “Snake Under the Eagle’s Shadow” director (and later “Matrix” fight coordinator) Woo-Ping Yuen, “Drunken” finally found a way to market Chan’s talents to audiences: let the maestro play the fool. 

  The clown that could kick your ass is a part Chan would play for decades - using it to eventually break into Hollywood. There’s much to be lauded about his ease of melding movement into comedy; placing…

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  Review by CinemaJoe ★★★★ 1

  Wish I could do this while I was drunk instead of ordering McDonalds at 2am.

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  Review by Willow Maclay ★★★★ 1

  There's a great moment in the middle of this movie where Yan Ti San humiliatingly forces Wong Fei-hung (Jackie Chan) to crawl through his legs in defeat as he isn't even worthy to kill. Up to this point in the movie Chan's character had been an arrogant, misogynist, piece of shit who considered himself above training and unstoppable in the field of martial arts, but in that one moment by forcing Chan to submit to a dispicable man's prowess and utterly making a fool of our lead character Fei-Hung became sympathetic and Yan Ti San became the type of guy we wanted to see get his ass kicked.

  Vulnerability is an oftentimes forgotten key to making an action film work.…

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  Review by Jack-O-Lantern🎃 ★★★★★ 3

  "This is so bad", my Dad says, five minutes into Drunken Master. I'm visiting my parents for the weekend, and I've mentioned that I'm currently reading Jackie Chan's autobiography, and naturally my Mum and brother ask, "But why?"

  If you grew up in the 2000s, part of the cultural zeitgeist was that Jackie Chan was nothing but a goofy action star who flailed his arms around and made terrible movies. The name was now a brand, far removed from the man who defined a genre. People dismiss him as nothing but a novelty, but if you sit someone down and show them Drunken Master, maybe those thoughts will change.

  This is one of the foundational building blocks of the kung…

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  Review by 𝗙𝗥𝗢𝗡𝗧 𝗥𝗢𝗪 ℝ𝔼𝕍𝕀𝔼𝕎 ★★★★½

  Jackie Chan's second film with director Yuen Woo-ping, and the one that made him a huge star in Asia, is much like their previous collaboration, Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, but better on every level. The story is improved, the comedy is funnier and the action is spellbinding at times.

  The first major improvement is that Drunken Master places Chan in a position from the off to show off his incredible combat skills. Whereas Snake in the Eagle's Shadow took its time to introduce Chien Fu as a victim without the appropriate tools to defend himself, Drunken Master shows Wong Fei Hung as a headstrong, but talented martial artist from the off.

  Within the first 30 minutes there are four…

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  Review by CinemaVoid 🏴‍☠️ ★★★★

  Someone please call nine wine wine Jackie Chan is drinking and fighting again.

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  Review by Thomas Flight ★★★½ 2

  You will not believe this movie Jackie Chan does kung fu but acts drunk while he’s doing it. That’s the movie.

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  Review by Sean Gilman ★★★★★

  Much better subtitled than dubbed (obviously). Even still, the subs translate Jackie Chan's character's name as "Freddy Wong", which kind of obscures one of the most interesting things about the film: that it's a total subversion of the Wong Fei-hung legend. It's somewhat akin to what Young Mr. Lincoln would have been like had Lincoln been played like John Belushi's character from Animal House. A glorious sacrilege.