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Chan achieved fame as Hong Kong's top action star by doing all his own stunts. He has more than 100 scars and hours of hilarious outtakes showing how often stunts misfired that validate his reputation.
Then came last year's comedy The Tuxedo, in which Chan used extensive wire work to allow his character to fly through the air and execute many of the moves in the fight sequences.
"I'm used to shooting where I am in control of the action and I know what is going to happen and what it's going to look like on the screen.
"Doing Tuxedo you don't know even after six months what a scene is going to look like, because they have to do the special effects with computers," Chan was saying at a recent Los Angeles press day for his new comedy Shanghai Knights. It opens in town today.
He recalls that shooting The Tuxedo in Toronto was frustrating because "one whole day, I'd use just my shoulder and the next day my hand. Then the next day just jump, jump, jump and after six months and a lot of editing the scene comes together.
"When I see it and don't like it, it's too late to change it."
It's understandable Chan might rail against The Tuxedo, which did not recoup its $60-million US budget in its North American release last fall.
But to hear Chan say he is not a fan of his Rush Hour movies is puzzling.
Together the films have grossed more than $370 million in North America alone and that's without video, DVD and pay TV profits.
There is already a Rush Hour 3 in the works.
"I do the Rush Hour movies, but I don't like them because I don't know the jokes. I don't understand the humour. The action, for me at least, is the worst action."
Chan doesn't even like the process of making the Rush Hour films.
"They don't give me time or everything they promise me.
"They rush me. They tell me I have to finish an action scene even if I don't feel it is right.
"I tell them I need two more days. They tell me I have to finish now.
"The Rush Hour movies do well in America but, in Asia, they bomb. It's not what my fans back home want from Jackie."
Chan is, however, proud of his Shanghai comedies.
Shanghai Noon, which was shot in Alberta in 1999 for $55 million grossed just $57 million in North America, but it was enough of a hit in its international markets to warrant making its sequel, Shanghai Knights.
More importantly, its star loves the concept and was allowed to oversee the action sequences.
"Shanghai Knights is the best U.S. film I've done. I understand why it is funny. I enjoyed working with Owen Wilson.
"Every day we were working on this movie I understood the humour, the jokes, and I loved that everyone was smiling when we were making it."
In Shanghai Knights, Chan and Wilson travel from America's Wild West to Victorian England, although the film was actually shot in Prague - on a $50-million budget.
Chan is so excited about Shanghai Knights that he and Wilson are talking about another sequel.
"We are talking about maybe setting it in Africa and going to the pyramids. We could call it Shanghai Dawn," says Chan. "And we could do many more."