With Rush Hour 3, it seems writer Jeff Nathanson (The Last Shot) and Chris Tucker (Rush Hour 2) live by one principle – if it offends someone, it’s funny, as long as it’s delivered in the most obnoxious voice possible. And unfortunately, Nathanson and Tucker seem to have enough bad jokes in them for another sequel in the Rush Hour franchise – especially if Rush Hour 3 makes enough money to shove The Bourne Ultimatum off the top of the box office charts.
Tucker, reprising his role as LAPD detective James Carter, wastes no time offending the masses. After blackmailing two girls to go on a date with him and regrettable pal Chief Inspector Lee (Jackie Chan, The Medallion), he steals their car and nearly runs down his partner, all in the name of meeting the girls. “You can have the fat one,” Carter says.
After numerous attempts at losing Carter, it looks like Lee is stuck with him yet again in what promises to be a high-octane, hilarious adventure in horrible scriptwriting, directing and acting.
This time the duo is off to Paris in search of the mysterious organization trying to assassinate Chinese consul Han (Tzi Ma, 24) and his family.
Before leaving the U.S., Carter manages to get in his jabs against women, Asians, the obese, anyone who isn’t American, gays and Middle Easterners. “Just because they can cure cancer in rats doesn’t mean they aren’t terrorists,” Carter says, when asked why he jailed a group of Iranians who happened to be UCLA researchers.
Once in Paris, Carter gets on the offensive, literally. At least this time, he’s properly provoked. French cab driver George (Yvan Attal, Munich) refuses to drive Carter and Lee because he thinks Americans are too violent. So what does Carter do? Holds George at gunpoint and forces him to sing “The Star Spangled Banner,” of course. Despite the rough start and a requisite high-speed chase, George befriends the guys, discovers a newfound love for America and turns out to be the only lovable character in the movie.
Director Brett Ratner, who nearly ruined the X-Men series last year with X-Men: The Last Stand, is back behind the camera for Rush Hour 3. And despite a long gap between Rush Hour 2 and 3, it appears Ratner hasn’t learned any new tricks. Recalling the first two movies in the series, Ratner decides to take his tried and tested route with the film, setting a similar story in Paris with similar, predictable plot twists and tired old jokes.
The movie has everything one would expect from a buddy cop film: prevalent homoeroticism, the obligatory break-up between the main characters and their triumphant reunion minutes later once danger looms. But Rush Hour 3 offers little more – it just doesn’t bring anything new to the table.
It’s obvious Tucker and Chan have decent on-screen chemistry, but that was established long ago. While Lee’s quiet, respectful nature does well as the yin to Carter’s shoot-first, brag-about-it-later yang, it’s the same relationship we’ve seen before.
Despite Carter’s ever present bigotry, there is more to the movie. But it’s so hard to get past Carter’s initial obnoxiousness – which only gets more and more embarrassing as the movie progresses – that by the end you don’t care if there’s a heartfelt meaning to Carter and Lee’s story.
Lee does plenty of nifty stunts, and every once in a while Carter will miraculously land a funny joke, but those moments are rare. Lee shows depth as he tries to save the consul and stop his criminal “brother,” Kenji (Hiroyuki Sanada, The White Countess) who is the ring leader of the mob, and was friends with Lee when they grew up in the same orphanage, but the movie doesn’t pursue this angle enough. Ratner ends up too focused on Carter and his antics and ends up leaving Rush Hour 3 stuck in traffic.
It’s been six years since Rush Hour 2, which did well enough at the box office to let Tucker hold out for a $25 million payday for Rush Hour 3, and it’d be irresponsible to not expect a fourth movie in the series. Director Ratner has already gone on the record saying that he’d love to do another – let’s just hope Rush Hour 4’s commute takes a long, long time.
Contact reporter Jason Koebler at diversions@dbk.umd.edu.
