Rush Hour 3 (English)
Director: Brett Ratner
Cast: Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, Hiroyuki Sanada, Jingchu Zhang
There is little to say about Rush Hour 3, primarily because there is little in the film that is new. After all, with a gap of six years between the last film and this one, the franchise had pretty much run out of steam.
And nowhere is this more visible than in the toned-down stunt work by Jackie Chan (as Inspector Lee). Having crossed over into his 50s, the grand old man of martial arts cinema seems less able to wow audiences than before. The issue here, of course, is that the script doesn’t allow him to find a more interesting space through straight-up comedy. And with the sometimes-grandstanding Chris Tucker (as Detective James Carter) taking even the slightest of moments and running away with them, Chan occasionally looks like he’s walked into the wrong movie.
Where the first “Rush Hour” pushed the boundaries, particularly with its cliché-bashing chemistry between Tucker and Chan, this film settles into comfortable, already-explored patterns. And the focus of comic conflict shifts to another cliché; the Americans versus the French. So there’s no one less than Roman Polanski as Detective Revi, and Yvan Attal as a French taxi driver who goes from anti-American to gung-ho Lakers fan after getting involved with the twosome.
Much of the film satisfies itself simply dealing in old jokes and obvious plot points. The villains of the film are one of the ubiquitous Chinese triad gangs. And as the film is based in Paris, the big finish inevitably heads over to the Eiffel Tower. The film still has its moments, when it doesn’t try too hard to purposely dumb things down.
RAKESH MEHAR