I’ve saved my favorite martial artist, Jackie Chan, for my last post in my martial arts series. Jackie Chan is brilliant at Kung Fu, but he is a master at turning ordinary, everyday objects into weapons.

The bo staff is one of the best weapons to learn because, when you are in a fight, almost anything can be turned into a bo staff. Chan proves this point in the marketplace scene in Shanghai Knights. At one point, Chan grabs an umbrella and uses it as a bo staff, quickly dispensing with the bad guys. He also manages to throw in a tribute to Gene Kelly when he opens the umbrella and dances along some crates, which I think is cool. Chan somehow manages to finish off the bad guys in the process.

While that is a great fight scene and one of Chan’s best, my favorite fight scenes are from The Spy Next Door. In one scene, Chan turns a bicycle into the ultimate weapon. He does some great spinning and sliding maneuvers with it, which not only look great on camera, but take out three bad guys.

In the kitchen scene, Chan uses a pot of spaghetti, dishes, and pans as weapons. I’ve watched this scene at least one hundred times and still can’t believe how fast he is with those pans in his hands. By the way, one of the pans is a frying pan. I’ve said in the past that a frying pan makes a great weapon.

The Spy Next Door is a family movie, but I recommend it just for the fight scenes alone.

Jackie Chan announced last year that he was retiring from action movies. With three movies coming out in the next year and the possibility of Rush Hour 4 in the future, it appears that he’s not retiring after all, which means we’re in for more great fight scenes from Jackie Chan.

What do you think of Jackie Chan? Do you have a favorite martial artist?