I admit it: my guilty pleasure is the Rush Hour series. Sure it�s directed by Brett Ratner, who�s a bit of a prat, and stars the otherwise immensely punchable Chris Tucker, but it�s gained traction and a pathos all of its own. Better yet, the series just keeps on improving. Rush Hour was good, Rush Hour 2 was great (it had Ziyi Zhang in it!) and Rush Hour 3 is arguably even greaterer. The series strength rests solely on the spark that flies between Hong Kong action legend Jackie Chan and the workshy comedian Chris Tucker. Who I�d seriously punch, no kidding. They have a chemistry which is almost unheard of these days and the anything-goes nature of their camaraderie continues to impel interest.
In the third installment Chan�s Inspector Lee is back protecting his old friend Ambassador Han, while Tucker�s Detective Carter has been demoted to traffic patrol. After Han is shot giving a speech about the Chinese Triad organization the mismatched pair team up again and find themselves in Paris, chasing a witness who can bust open the centuries-old Triad organization. All in all the slight plot is there simply to contain the exuberance of Tucker and the martial arts mastery of Chan. Both were born to play these roles and continue to light up the screen. If there is a better action/comedy franchise coming out of Hollywood right now I�d love to see it.
The only negative I could really take away from the film, and this after a second viewing, is that there are no truly amazing fight scenes in it. At 53 you can excuse Chan from doing too much heavy lifting, but there was nothing in particular to match say the bathhouse scene from Rush Hour 2. Saying that the action scenes are more prevalent, and placed alongside Tucker�s brash comedy constitute two solid reasons to see the film. The third is Yvan Attal as a hapless French taxi driver they bump into early on, and who becomes central to their escapades. His every moment on screen is side-splitting.
None of this can hide the light nature of the movie but who cares when it�s this much fun? I even enjoyed guessing whether No�mie Lenoir, the actress playing Triad target Genevi�ve, was a man or not. Turns out she isn�t but it was hard to tell for a while. Max von Sydow plays the same character he did in Minority Report, Sarah Shadi isn�t in it enough and not enough fun is made of the French. Is that enough to knock a star off? |
