Saturday, August 11, 2007


Aug. 11, 2007 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) --
Chris Tucker has been quoted as saying he did not want to make a third 'Rush Hour' movie until the right script came around.

'Rush Hour 3' makes you wonder what the scripts that he declined were like.

'Rush Hour 3' is far from the worst of the summer's sequels ('Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer,' we're thinking about you), and far from the best ('The Bourne Ultimatum,' take a bow). Although it has the potential to be awful, 'Rush Hour 3' is surprisingly acceptable.

Memorable, no. But acceptable.

The 'Rush Hour' movies live and die on how well they do three things: comedy, stunts and camaraderie between the two main characters.

In 'RH3,' the comedy is somewhat amusing in parts, although the successful-joke-to-attempt ratio is a little low. The stunts range from very good to great, especially if the work on the Eiffel Tower is really on the Eiffel Tower and not just a visual effect.

But the main character camaraderie? Not so much.

Tucker and Jackie Chan are back as L.A. police Detective James Carter and Hong Kong Chief Inspector Lee, respectively. An attempted assassination of the Chinese ambassador to the United States brings the two together again on a search for some MacGuffin or other.

Who the assassin is is not a question. Lee chases him down but then lets him go. We later learn the killer is Lee's long-lost, long-forgotten and never-before-mentioned-in-two-movies brother, Kenji. But he isn't a real brother; he's just like a brother, so it's OK.

Clearly, writer Jeff Nathanson did not overtax himself on any part of the story. His job was to create a framework for Tucker to crack some jokes and Chan to create some stunts. Mission, such as it is, accomplished.

Nathanson's script sends our mismatched heroes to France on some pretext, but Paris is a lovely city and they can stage a fight on the Eiffel Tower, so why not?

Plus, a French setting allows the filmmakers to use the talents of Yvan Attal (probably best known in America for 'My Wife Is an Actress') as a cab driver. After an initial scene that is an embarrassment for both him and the audience, he turns into the film's most interesting character.

At 53, Chan is no longer able to perform unbelievable stunts, so the stunts he pulls off here are just believable. But they're still pretty impressive. And the Jackie Chan Stunt Team, which performs most of the other stunts, is also quite accomplished.

Director Brett Ratner has apparently enrolled in the Broken Glass School of Action Films, and with the care he typically shows to detail, most of the glass he breaks later heals and rehangs itself.

Unable to get better, however, is his lighting, which is simply ghastly, possibly because the film appears to have been shot on a fairly cheap cell phone.

At one time, the filmmakers thought about shooting a fourth 'Rush Hour' movie at the same time as this one. They didn't, and they shouldn't press their luck.

Contact Daniel Neman at (804) 649-6408 or  dneman@timesdispatch.com.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0177-18829915


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