Six years on from their last high kicking adventure, Carter (Tucker) and Lee (Chan) are back, doing battle with the forces of evil in a cross continental dual that culminates in a vertiginous punch up at the top of the Eiffel Tower.
Fate has dealt our heroes very different hands since we last saw them, with Carter now working as an LA traffic cop while Lee has been promoted to chief bodyguard for the Chinese ambassador... who just happens to be in the City of Angels as the picture begins.
Before long the mismatched comedy duo are back in tandem, dodging bullets and zinging one liners back and forth as fast as Lee’s grasp of English allows.
Carter’s advantage in this field doesn’t last long however as the crime fighting team head to Paris, where neither of them can speak a word of French (cue various hilarious attempts from our heroes to master the native tongue), to stop a gang of Triads from taking over the world.
They say:
Variety: "The latest picture to feature one of the movies’ oddest crime fighting tandems nevertheless stays true to the franchise formula of East West fusion action, broad cultural comedy and international intrigue.”
We say:
Can anyone actually remember a film this summer that wasn’t a threequel, or at the very least a sequel? In Rush Hour 3’s case it was always a matter of when rather than if after the first two episodes raked in a total of over $600 million - yes, you read that right – at the box office.
And who can blame Tucker for returning to the role that has defined his career (he hasn’t done anything else for six years!), especially if the reports of his $30 million appearance fee are accurate?
Director Brett Ratner, no stranger to threequels himself after X Men 3, leads us through the episodic action sequences with his usual chutzpah but Chan’s age is beginning to catch up with him and none of the set pieces are as energetic or entertaining as their predecessors.
Jeff Nathanson’s script delivers the odd decent quip early on (check out the nun interrogation scene) and Roman Polanski makes an enjoyable, if somewhat bizarre, cameo as the French chief of police with a penchant for anal cavity searches.
At barely 90 minutes long, however, the plot is virtually non existent (not a good sign for Nathanson’s next writing assignment on Indiana Jones 4) and relies on lazy French stereotypes and embarrassing slapstick for cheap laughs.
Admittedly, Tucker saves the film from utter disaster with his usual high pitched braggadocio and adept comic timing, but when he and Chan are hurled into an underground sewer system you can’t help but think their predicament is highly appropriate.
And the sight of the famously anti-Hollywood Max Von Sydow swapping his principles for a hefty cheque will have left his recently deceased mate Ingmar Bergman turning in his grave. Everyone tries to avoid the rush hour normally, we’d advise you do the same.
CAST
Jackie Chan
Chris Tucker
Hiroyuki Sanada
Youki Kudoh
Yvan Attal
Noemie Lenoir
Zhang Jingchu
Max Von Sydow
Yvan Attal
Roman Polanski
DIRECTOR
Brett Ratner
TIME
90 mins
POSTED...
Fri 10 Aug 2007 at 12:51pm
