ZHANG JINGCHU RUSH HOUR 3 SERIES

Things like motivation and logic are beneath the notice of Ratner and his cohorts.Ĭhan plays the same character he’s played, not just in the previous “Rush Hour” films, but in ever film he’s ever made, and that goes double for Tucker, who is often best taken in small doses. Watch as they serenade each other in a Paris nightspot!! Thrill as they’re beaten up by a giant!! Why? Who knows? Who cares? Certainly not the characters, who bounce around from place to place for no other reason than they must in order to keep things rolling. The results are scenes that don’t connect together or serve any sort of point beyond giving Chan and, especially, Tucker room to mug in. It plays as if director Brett Ratner (“X-Men: The Last Stand”) and screenwriter Jeff Nathanson (“Catch Me If You Can”) were holed up in his hotel room every night trying to figure out what they would be shooting the next day. The idea seems to be that Chan and Tucker are so inherently entertaining that they merely need to be on screen and the rest will take care of itself. Those are just convenient excuses to give Chan and Tucker a reason to do their thing, but “Rush Hour 3” has taken that mindset to all new metatextual levels. Originality isn’t usually one of the chief aims of a sequel, it’s more about repeating the entertaining parts of the previous installments, maybe upping the ante a little, but usually in as safe and comfortable a manner as possible, and the “Rush Hour” films haven’t ever really been about their stories anyway. “Rush Hour 3” takes it’s plot lock, stock and barrel from the original “Rush Hour” except for the parts it takes from “Rush Hour 2.” A couple of decently executed but pointless scenes later, and Lee, reunited with fast talking Detective Carter (Chris Tucker) realize they have to go to Paris to find Han’s source, and they’ve got to hurry before Lee’s evil foster brother and whoa, hold on, I’ve got to stop right there before my brains start to leak out of my ears. Inspector Lee’s (Jackie Chan) old boss, Consul Han (Tzi Ma), is attacked just as he is about to reveal information on the Triad gangs that are apparently taking over Europe.

And as is readily apparent less than five minutes in, novelty is about all “Rush Hour” has ever had going for it. It’s been six years since the last “Rush Hour” film, however, and the novelty has worn off.

In 1998 when the first “Rush Hour” premiered, Jackie Chan was finally making good on the promise of 20 years, finally breaking out of the cult status he’d built up over the years and into the mainstream with the patented brand of bravura martial arts-cum-slapstick routines he’d been working on since “Drunken Master.” Paired off with Chris Tucker’s relentless Eddie Murphy impersonation, it was fairly entertaining and only partially mindless. We could probably do without any more “Baby Geniuses” films.

ZHANG JINGCHU RUSH HOUR 3 SERIES

If I stop and really think about it, I could probably come up with a film series in less need of another sequel than the “Rush Hour” franchise, but it would take some time.

Zhang jingchu rush hour 3