I like Jackie Chan. I like Jackie Chan’s movies: well, most of the ones I’ve seen anyway.
But when I think of Jackie Chan as a tastemaker, I’m reminded of an interview I read with him a few years ago, in which he argued that a particular move was “good”, not for any objective aesthetic reason, but because it made a huge amount of money. (I want to say that was an NYT interview, but I can’t find it now.)
That was the first thing I thought of when I read this article about Mr. Chan and his history of failed endorsements: air conditioners that exploded, shampoo laced with carcinogens, a VCD company that collapsed due to fraud, educational computers that flopped, a failed cola…
Still, calling the man the “Asian Terry Bradshaw” seems a bit harsh. After all, he does have most of his own hair.