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August 10, 2007
Rush Hour 3
(out of four)
Rush Hour 2 opened one month before America was attacked by terrorists, and like all pre-9/11 Hollywood franchises, it suggests more innocent times. The sequel is no different. Rush Hour 3 is downright oblivious to everything that's happened since. For audiences in search of escapist entertainment, that probably comes as a relief.
There's something old-fashioned about both the story and the sense of humor on display here. It's as if the script were freeze-dried in the mid-'80s and thawed out only now to leaven the mood at megaplexes (at a time when even Larry the Cable Guy's latest romp, Delta Farce, comments on U.S. foreign policy).
Set mostly in Paris, Rush Hour 3 may seem like the obvious vehicle to send up the way the world (and France in particular) views Americans. Instead, director Brett Ratner peddles the same old stereotypes -- namely, that French men talk funny (a street singer's Francofied version of the Beach Boys hit "California Girls" goes, "And zee souzurn girls wid zee way zey talk, zey knock me out when I'm down zere"), and French women voulez coucher with tacky tourists (leaving "zose" hard-to-get California girls in the dust).
The movie reunites culture-clash buddy cops Lee (Jackie Chan) and Carter (Chris Tucker), one a super-serious Hong Kong inspector, the other a fast-talking Los Angeles traffic officer. Lee is a highly trained martial artist capable of pulling off stunts no average human could manage (the death-defying climax atop the Eiffel Tower being the best example). Carter's special skill is annoying Lee.
Carter may call Lee his "brother from another mother," but the movie's villain (Hiroyuki Sanada) does him one better: He turns out to be Lee's brother from the same mother. That surprise causes a temporary setback in the duo's friendship, during which Lee and Carter fill the void of one another's company by ordering fried chicken and take-out Chinese food, respectively.
Such is the movie's sense of humor. When Carter isn't busy propositioning women, he's basically dead weight. Tucker leaves most of the fighting to Chan, while supplying running commentary in his trademark shrill style (the only thing more irritating than Tucker's speaking voice is singing -- and Rush Hour 3 features plenty of singing).
If Casino Royale and The Bourne Ultimatum represent the new breed of 21st century action, then Rush Hour 3 is Stone Age stuff. Through a well-orchestrated publicity coup, Ratner has the world debating his merits as a director (for my money, the word "hack" is too harsh, but he has a long way to grow before "artist" applies). Nothing you see in Rush Hour 3 supports his case.
That said, considering what Tucker and Chan must have cost the movie's budget, Ratner does redeem himself slightly by fleshing out the cast with respectable actors (including Roman Polanski and Max von Sydow), but without decent material, there's not much point. The movie aims for irreverent, but delivers irrelevant instead. Let's hope the Rush Hour series stalls here.
[as featured in The Miami Herald]
Posted by Peter Debruge on