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Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker
make like Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in that they're a mis-matched, odd-couple
partners in this cop caper. Chan, as an ace Hong Kong detective, is big in the
martial arts, while Tucker's weapon-of-choice is his big, bad mouth. Reluctantly
paired with each other, they're assigned to rescue a Chinese diplomat's 10 year-old
daughter who has been kidnapped by Asian thugs in Los Angeles. Screenwriters
Jim Kouf and Ross LaManna, along with director Brett Ratner, must have watched
all the Lethal Weapon pictures repeatedly because there's little that's
original here, except perhaps some Asian ethnic cracks like "I been lookin'
for your sweet-and-sour chicken ass!"
Poor Jackie Chan, a Buster Keaton-like hero whose screen career once literally went down the tube, gets only one significant scene in which he fights off a group of attackers while trying to prop up a fragile, antique vase. "Fifteen years ago, I really give up the American market," he says, recalling playing a racecar driver in "Cannonball Run." "At that time, I don't think the audience really accept me, this kind of fighting, this kind of comedy, so I went back to Asia, making my Asian films. Now, I give Hollywood another chance."
Chan's big beef with studio movie-making is their caution with dangerous stunts. "They waste two hours to check all the things. If I get hurt, the company really scared I'm suing it." On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, Rush Hour is a cliché-filled, copy-cat 4. The funniest bits are the blooper out-takes at its conclusion but, when I saw it, not that many people stayed in the theater long enough to laugh.
Also catch Ms. Granger's reviews on SSG Syndicate.
No
surprise that this cliche-filled, laughless Chan flick has been voted
most likely to be "rushed" to the video store. Starring
Jackie Chan, Christ Tucker. Dir: Brett Ratner