MovieMantz Review: ‘Rush Hour 3’

One Last ‘Rush’ of Excitement

by Scott Mantz

“Rush Hour 3”
Starring: Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker
Directed by: Brett Ratner

In “Rush Hour 3,” Inspector Lee (played by martial arts maven Jackie Chan) slides down a high-rise building and onto the busy streets of downtown Los Angeles, where he jumps across a slew of freeway overpasses while in hot pursuit of the evasive assassin who just shot the Chinese ambassador. When he finally catches up with him, they duke it out in a decrepit back alley — until Chan lets him go, much to the chagrin of his old buddy, streetwise LAPD Detective James Carter (Chris Tucker).

Not a bad way to spend the first 10 minutes of “Rush Hour 3.” And while the rest of the film is just as exciting, it pales in comparison to the adrenaline-fueled visual panache of “The Bourne Ultimatum,” which opened just a week earlier with almost $70 million (ironically, beating 2001’s “Rush Hour 2” as the biggest August opening of all time). But since “Rush Hour 3” is full of the good-natured humor we’ve come to expect from the series, it stands on its own. And with a lean running time of just 91 minutes, it gets in, does its business, and gets out.

First their third go-round together, Lee and Carter fly off to Paris in an effort to expose the inner workings of the Triads — the most powerful crime syndicate in the world. But they face a boatload of obstacles, including an invasive French inspector (Roman Polanski), a bitter cab driver (Yvan Attal) who hates Americans and a deadly Triad assassin (Hiroyuki Sanada) with a mysterious link to Inspector Lee. But when Soo Yung (Zhang Jingchu), the now-grown daughter of the fallen Chinese ambassador, is kidnapped, Lee and Carter must come to her rescue before the City of Lights turns the lights out on them.

It’s been six years since the last “Rush Hour” film, and while 53-year-old Jackie Chan still has a few good kicks left in him, it’s obvious that he’s not as fast as he used to be (then again, he’s still a lot faster than most people half his age). Perhaps that’s why screenwriter Jeff Nathanson and franchise director Brett Ratner focused more attention on the comedic elements, while Chris Tucker — who hasn’t done anything but “Rush Hour” films since 1998 — has more action scenes than he had in the previous installments.

But otherwise, “Rush Hour 3” feels like more of the same, especially after Soo Yung is kidnapped yet again. It’s also somewhat predictable, as the relationship between Lee and the Triad assassin will come as a surprise to no one who saw “Star Trek V.” And once Max von Sydow’s character is introduced as the head of the World Criminal Court, it doesn’t take long to figure out where the story is going. But since the film is infused with such a jovial spirit, there’s a lot of fun to be had — especially during the climactic showdown on the Eiffel Tower and when the outtakes are shown during the closing credits.

So after a long, hot summer in which a new Hollywood “threequel” was unveiled almost every weekend, “Rush Hour 3” appears to be the last of them. At least it ends the season on a good note, even if it does feel like an easy jog compared to the marathon run that was “The Bourne Ultimatum.” But since “Rush Hour 3” goes a lot further than it probably deserved to go on this tank of gas, here’s hoping that the filmmakers won’t try to re-fill it again anytime soon.

VERDICT: SEE IT!