Movie Review: Rush Hour 3
If I had to be one star in Hollywood, it would probably be Chris Tucker. In 1998, despite not having an established track record, he was paid $3 million for Rush Hour, which ended up grossing $140 million at the domestic box office. Based on this success, Tucker held out for more money for his next film, which turned out to be Rush Hour 2 and ended up grossing more than $225 million. Thanks to his $20 million salary, Tucker didn’t make another movie for 6 years, during which time he hung out with Bono in Africa, testified at a Michael Jackson trial and traveled with Bill Clinton… nice life, if I can say so. Thanks to $25 more million and a percentage of the gross, Chris Tucker has come out of hibernation for… you guessed it, Rush Hour 3.
Rush Hour 3 reunites Tucker with Jackie Chan and director Brett Ratner. The movie kicks off with an assassination attempt on a Chinese ambassador, as he plans to spill the beans on the ancient secrets of the Chinese Triads. Inspector Li (Chan) and Detective Carter (Tucker) must team up again to bring down the Triads and keep a promise to the ambassador’s daughter. The chase leads them from Los Angeles to Paris. Along the way, we have the expected comedy bits (the kung-fu dojo scene sticks out), Carter’s motor-mouth and not much else.
Rush Hour 3 was damn predictable, perhaps because it pretty much lifted its plot from its 2 predecessors. It basically screams as a cash-grab by getting Tucker/Chan/Ratner together again. If you don’t know the main villain or who the assassin is within the first 20 minutes, you’re an idiot. And the plot is so full of holes that the movie really does not make sense. This scares me, because IMDB tells me the writer of Rush Hour 3 is the same writer as Indiana Jones 4.
Having said that, I was entertained at points. Tucker delivers in the comedy areas again and Chan has a couple of decent fight scenes. Also, the running time of approximately 90 minutes makes this movie more palatable than others.
At best, I would say Rush Hour 3 is mediocre. It not only ranks behind the great trilogy movie of the summer (The Bourne Ultimatum), it is behind the good one (POTC: At World’s End) and the good-yet-still-disappointing one (Spider-Man 3). I’ll pass Rush Hour 3 because I enjoyed the first 2, this one has its moments and a theatre full of people seemed to get some laughs out of it. (5.5 out of 10)
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