Starring: Chris Tucker, Jackie Chan, Noémie Lenoir, Max von Sydow, Hiroyuki Sanada, Youki Kudoh, Jingchu Zhang

Directed by: Brett Ratner

New Line Cinema

The Official Site of Rush Hour 3

The Rush Hour franchise has become the Lethal Weapon of this generation. That may be considered blasphemy to some folks but does anyone remember or care what happen in Lethal Weapon 3 and 4? Rush Hour captures the same high action and fun and the buddy cop bond that the Gibson, Glover, Donner combo practically gave birth to. The biggest difference being that in Rush Hour the “weapon� can actually fight and funny one is actually funny. Of course Weapon featured characters we actually cared about, but I don’t see what that has to do with anything in the modern movie landscape.

Rush Hour 3 is actually quite enjoyable until you realize that, despite a trip to Paris, the story isn’t really going anywhere. Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker are both back and the story wisely shines it’s focus on the bond between the two, but forgets to share the same kind of consideration with anything else in the film. I enjoyed the addition of another mysterious character from Inspector Lee’s past (a black sheep brother played by Hiroyuki Sanada) as well as the return of the little girl from the first movie (played this time by Jingchu Zhang) who is now all growns up. Sadly, neither is given much to do and as much as I would have liked it… Zhang doesn’t sing Fantasy this time around. But for some reason Chan and Tucker both manage to get a song in. I wonder if that was written into their contracts… Apparently Chan is likeHasselhoff in China.

One memorable addition was that of cab driver George (Yvan Attal) who steals the show with his character’s romantic obsession with the American spy genre. If this were Leathal Weapon he’d be Joe Pesci except... you know… you’d be glad he was there as opposed to upset about seeing someone talented slumming it.

The movies predictability is it’s worst downfall. In the first and second movies Chan’s incredible stunt work and Tucker’s rising star were enough to keep you on the edge of your seat even if the plots were less than engaging. We had enough to keep things interesting. But nearly 10 years after the original Rush Hour came out we’ve seen every narrow escape and gun disarming trick that Jackie Chan could ever do (of his American films I think his most entertaining stunt work is in Shanghai Noon and Rush Hour 2), and Chris Tucker’s star ran out of gas. In the last decade he has only done Rush Hour movies, barely holding onto his movie star status despite being paid like a guy turning in hits every year. For Rush Hour 3 he made a reported 25 million inspiring a new generation of actors everywhere to find one thing that works… and then stop looking for anything else.

But I digress… Whatever the man is paid he’s worth it. Not because he’s funny (he really is. From the second he appears on screen he’s able to set the light-hearted, laugh out loud tone for the audience) but because, with Chan, he’s able to put the butts in the seats. Rush Hour 3 pulled in 49.3 million on its opening weekend. It’s well behind the debut of Rush hour 2 at 67.4 million but still nothing to squawk at. If anything, it’ll just make Tucker’s negotiations for 30 million to come back for part 4 a little more complicated. Here’s hoping they use that downtime coming up with a more substantial script and villains worth remembering.

Some of you may want to hear a little about director Brett Ratner who’s reputation of screen seems to be more important than anything he puts on screen, but I have nothing bad to say. While his body of work has often been hit or miss for me, it’s hard to slight the man as a filmmaker. He works hard, loves film both modern and classic, and makes movies that people love to go to see. He’s not changing the world but he knows that. We all can’t be Spielberg, Scorsese, Soderbergh , or Anderson (I’ll let you guess which one. WINK) and Ratner knows that. He also knows that the movies he makes entertain millions of people and there’s nothing wrong with that.

So let’s not harshly judge a movie for it’s hard party director or its use of Roman Polanski and a borderline inappropriate sexual reference, let’s harshly judge it for just not being that good. The elements of success are there but the third time is not the charm as Rush Hour 3 proves to be a movie with good intentions but nothing to do. We can all wait to see it on video, and Tucker should probably start thinking about finding his next cash cow.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10 One of the best parts about the Rush Hour experience is the closing credits where we get to see outtakes (of which there must be thousands) featuring Chan flipping into walls and clumsily trying to speak English. These outtakes show us two things. 1. Neither Chan or Tucker have a clear grasp of the English language. 2. They genuinely like each other and are have a lot of fun. That does come through on screen and it’s refreshing to have it confirmed in the closing credits, but the stories just not there. At the risk of sounding to cheesy – Don’t RUSH out to see this one in theaters. HOUR time is better spent on other films. …Three. ?

Getting this third outing on DVD seems a lot less necessary than it did with the first one when Chan’s stunts were still new and mind-boggling, and the second one when the story and action actually made it more than just a Jackie Chan action reel. For Rush Hour 3 there’s no one stunt or one joke that makes it required watching let alone required buying, but that doesn’t mean it won’t eventually find it’s way to my shelf.

While the film overall feels like a made-for-TV reunion special and doesn’t raise the bar in any way whatsoever, it also doesn’t do anything to embarrass the franchise either. It’s safe, the jokes are a little watered down and the stunts aren’t amazing as they once were, but the guys are still having fun and… I was too. As much as I would hope better judgment would keep this out of my collection it’ll more than likely come down to price tag and bonus features. If only Rush Hour 3 sucked just a little more.

Ok, Yeo and I had a bit of a conversation about this one. I was struggling on a punch line and I gave her two different options, which we completely disagreed on. I went with the one I felt was more unexpected and decided against the second option, which had Phil flying to the 4th floor. It reminded me a little too much of the episode of The Simpsons where Lucy Lawless saves the kids from “The Collector� by flying them to safety. The joke being that Xena can’t fly, but Lucy Lawless can. It’s much funnier in the episode. I promise you.

Yeo didn’t think the elevator gag was strong enough. I guess I’m hoping that the joke has a little more weight with the visual of the building and all it’s obvious items that one could climb on and scurry up. Jackie Chan would make short work of that building. But honestly… who hires painters and window cleaners to work on the same day? That’s just bad planning.

Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo Way back in the first year of JLCM I saw this movie and left the theater saddened confused. Here was a movie that was so obviously awful, but I loved it in every way. I even considered giving it a 10 out of 10. I realized of course that telling you guys this would mark me as a critic with almost no credibility, but I decided then to take that chance and be 100% honest. A couple of years later I’m still almost universally alone in saying this, but Deuce 2 is the Spiderman 2 of fart joke movies.

It may seem like an odd choice to compare to Rush Hour 3 even if both films are comedies. International kidnapping plots and male pornography are kind of different, but I picked Deuce 2, because it’s one of the only sequels that decided to take it’s franchise to Europe and was actually successful at it. Cody Banks, Van Wilder and countless others all died after taking the trip across the pond, but Rob Schneider and crew flourished, delivering a sequel that made us laugh harder and Elevated the character at the same time. Now, that might not be saying much considering the kind of movie we’re talking about, but I’ll give credit where credit is due. For the kind of movie it’s trying to be, Deuce 2

Shoot ‘Em Up There was a lot of good stuff in front of Rush Hour 3, but the one that stood out the most to me was Shoot ‘Em Up, the new extreme action movie featuring Clive Owen and Paul Giamatti. I was lucky enough to catch a Shoot ‘Em Up panel at Comic Con where Owen (My friend Rich and I joked that in real life – he’s pure sex.) and writer/director Michael Davis showed a few clips from the film. It’s a collection of loud and rowdy action for people that love big guns, hot babes and rock and roll. The story about a reluctant hero who comes to the aid of a woman and a baby could potentially be a little light on plot. But amidst the life lesson action movies, a story like this that doesn’t take itself to seriously and is more concerned with having good time than delivering a message is a very welcome thing.

A fiend of ours, Wiz Rollins has made it to the top three of the Platinum Comic Book Challenge. And now it’s up to the readers to decided by casting their votes. Before voting you should check over all the pitches for yourself and vote accordingly, but I’m throwing my support to Wiz because I know this story Gunplay has a lot of potential and I really respect everything I’ve seen from him.

You can show your support by voting through this link and I strongly encourage you to do so. This competition turned out a great product with last years winner Hero By Night and I would love to see the same thing happen, especially from a creator that I know can deliver something worth reading. Look into your heart. You’ll do the right thing.

There’s a lot going on now and I wish I could get into it, but I would rather focus on getting more stuff out to you. Basically I’m sorry for the lack of updates. There are a lot of reasons, including my other two strips that have still been updating regularly. In fact now that the race in Turtle vs. Bunny is over I’ll have more free time to get that focus thing down.

It’s complicated. The movie season has been a tough one for me. I feel overloaded by it and I grew tired of defending movies I didn’t care that much about. I also felt like the quality of the work was suffering because of my indifference and workload. When Comic Con, Wizard World, my 29th birthday, my 1st wedding anniversary and a slew of other things came along, I openly invited them as distractions from the summer of sequels.

The good news is that even though I’d grown tired talking in depth about movies, I wasn’t quite ready to stop making comics about them. I’ve got strips for a bunch of movies ready to go and I’ll be slowly putting them out over the next week as I find time to write the reviews. So there is some stuff ready to go. And I hope to get it to you sooner than later. But I am sorry for the hold up. Stick with me. I’ll treat you right. Ok, get back to work – your boss (and or teacher) is waiting for that report.