Rush Hour 2

December 10, 2004

Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 105 min Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Rush Hour, the original, was a Hollywood attempt at a combination of fish out of water and buddy movie, and it worked pretty well and did good box office. It enjoyed enough success to make a sequel irresistable. Consequently, Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker are re-united.

Rush Hour 2

Rush Hour 2 starts out with Tucker’s character, Carter, on vacation in Hong Kong visiting Lee, Chan’s chacacter. This time Tucker gets to play the fish out of water as the African American in the orient while Lee keeps taking cases instead of taking time off to help him enjoy his vacation. This eventually lands both of them on a case helping the U.S. government solve a bombing at the embassy.

As is usually the case with a martial arts film, the plot is nothing more than a fabric used to hold together a bunch of fight sequences. And although he’s getting older, Jackie Chan shows he’s still one of the best and most creative at performing exciting martial arts while mixing in comedy. Chris Tucker looks a bit more comfortable in fight sequences than he did in the original, but he’s still there to be the motor mouth and provide the verbal comedy while Chan plays the straight man. Tucker is right on the borderline of being annoying, but in this movie it works out, and he’s quite funny.

We’re treated to some beautiful visuals ranging from Hong Kong, including the harbor, to Las Vegas. Along the way we get frequent scenes with Jackie whipping butts and Tucker providing the comedy. If there’s a major flaw in the movie, it is the villain. The movie fails to build up a real ultra-villain that you’re not quite sure our heros can defeat, instead they play the game of never quite knowing who is on whose side until the end of the movie. That’s a bit too complex for this type of movie and isn’t really effective. The super henchman martial arts expert is present at least, though in this case it’s a female played by Crouching Tiger’s Ziyi Zhang.

We give the movie 4 stars for delivering exactly what it promises though, good action and some good laughs. We got exactly what we expected. Also be sure to stay when the credits start to roll to watch the outtakes, they actually solidified that fourth star in our rating of the movie. Tucker and Chan have a pretty good chemistry, and the studio would love to see this franchise turn into another Lethal Weapon series, so dont be surprised to see these guys back in a couple of years for Rush Hour 3.

Posted by Billy Bob | Filed Under 4 Stars, Action, Chris Tucker, Jackie Chan, John Lone, PG-13, Roselyn Sanchez, Theatrical, Zhang Ziyi