VHS Synopsis: Athlete, gymnast, martial arts supremo, stuntman, producer, director and comedy actor extraordinaire, there is no one else to touch him in modern movie history. Born in Hong Kong he was at the age of seven enrolled in a Peking opera school where, for the next ten years, he learnt dancing, singing, miming, acting and martial arts, most days working from 8.00am until midnight. Forty films later, his stunt work has truly astonished his audience of millions worldwide. He has broken nearly every bone in his body, performing every stunt imaginable including; jumping from the top of a building onto a helicopter ladder, rolling down a mountain inside an inflatable ball, hanging on the outside of a moving bus from an umbrella, running across a bed of burning coals and leaping from the top of a mountain into a passing hot air balloon. In short, he is a human phenomenon, a living legend and JACKIE CHAN: from stuntman to superstar will show you why! (60 Mins)

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Views: Narrated by Judd Rose, this History Channel documentary of the worlds most beloved movie star is typical in its production values for the mid 90s, which makes it very dated looking today. Using a number of US Jackie Chan fans and film critics to tell his life story such as Wesley Snipes, Ric Meyers, Fredric Dannen, Hal Needham, Michelle Yeoh and Stanley Tong, the doco also features a number of interviews with the superstar himself. And while Meyers and Dannen tell stories of Jackie's history, Wesley and Hal talk more passionately about Chan as a film maker and action hero with each of them following Judd's narration of Jackie Chan's timeline up to the mid-90s. The most exciting part of this documentary is getting to see Jackie at work behind the scenes on the Police Story films including First Strike, Armour Of God, and Thunderbolt, as well as listening to him tell his own stories and go over his worst accidents. The quality of the BTS footage and photographs is pretty poor by today's standards to be honest, but it still gives a good insight to what is going on – although there really isn't anything we haven't seen delivered better today on Blu-ray releases from 88 Films or others. At just 42 minutes long, it's a not exactly the perfect way to learn about Jackie Chan's life and career – in fact, you couldn't even fit his life story up until his teenage film career into that length of time – but its not a terrible introduction either. That said, with the wonderful world of the internet at our fingertips, its a documentary that could most likely be missed in return for a more dedicated production such as his very own Jackie Chan: My Story and Jackie Chan: My Stunts...

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In fact, I actually have a fan-made documentary on VHS simply titled, Jackie Chan Documentary that I bought from a private collector before DVD's were a thing. I couldn't tell you who was behind it, but it offers a hell of a lot more excitement and footage than that of the History Channel's beige production. Opening with an extended version of that famous footage of him choreographing 36 Crazy Fists, a short Australian documentary follows that gives some incredible insights to Jackie's thought process and unseen footage from Police Story 2, all delivered with a more natural approach than the A&E produced program. This particular documentary runs almost twice as long with many interviews, clips, mini documentaries, and lots of behind-the-scenes footage – including an embarrassing 'martial arts' display on UK television show Tiz Waz to promote The Big Brawl, where a gang of British karate students get to fight him in a staged scuffle. Once over, presenter Sally James actually gives a decent interview with Jackie that was fun to watch and less patronising than most of today's interviews would be with him. A rare Chinese trailer for Half A Loaf Of Kung Fu follows, as does original trailers for other Lo Wei/Jackie Chan films, and an incredibly rare Hong Kong interview on the set of Dragon Lord where Jackie recreates some stunt-work live before joining Lydia Shum on stage with his manager, Willie Chan. More great Hong Kong television interviews continue that show rare footage of Jackie off-set, taking place on entertainment shows, singing live, and so much more. It's actually any major Chan fan's wet-dream to have, but with my video tape on its way out I fear I might only get one more watch from it before it stops playing!

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Overall: A product of its time and typical in its American 90s television delivery, Jackie Chan: From Stuntman To Superstar is pretty dated, but still shows enough Jackie Chan footage to keep fans happy!