Rush Hour 3 [M]

After an assassination attempt on the Chinese Ambassador, Lee and Carter head to Paris to find the criminal mastermind behind the attempt as well as the Triad leader known as Shy Shen. As always happens on cases pursued by the culture-clashing duo, things become bigger than they initially bargained for and soon, hidden secrets threaten their friendship… like the fact that the man they are hunting is Lee’s childhood brother on the wrong side of the law. 

Better, much better than the second film, Rush Hour 3 succeeds where its predecessor failed epically: there is more emotional substance, FINALLY! I may have had a fair bit of wine before watching this movie, but it seems to me that these films are (if you’ll pardon the culinary Master Class expression) a ‘cheat’s’ movie: the basic ingredients thrown in together and tampered with in a way that will always make it win out. What I liked most about this movie was that it had evolved and the writing was better, with less mindless action and more craft. 

After an assassination attempt on the Chinese Ambassador, Lee and Carter head to Paris to find the criminal mastermind behind the attempt as well as the Triad leader known as Shy Shen. As always happens on cases pursued by the culture-clashing duo, things become bigger than they initially bargained for and soon, hidden secrets threaten their friendship… like the fact that the man they are hunting is Lee’s childhood brother on the wrong side of the law. 

I’ll admit that I was pretty pissed off for the first 20 to 30 minutes of this flick. Within the first two minutes we’ve got a chase, an emotional and fundamental plot point dropped, and friction in the friendship between the two leads. 

But (and this is a big but), my negative feelings towards the movie changed as soon as some real emotional friction and disenfranchisement happened between the two leads, backed by a little Elton John track that made all the difference. Rush Hour 3 did not rely on Jackie Chan’s kung fu fighting like the second film did; it had evolved and the writers had had the epiphany as to how to emotionally fill the movie. It wasn’t as empty as its predecessor: a definite improvement. 

Starring Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker (who wasn’t whining all the way through and was actually rather funny), Max von Sydow, Hiroyuki Sanada, Yvan Attal (who rocked), Yuki Kudo, Noemie Lenoir, Jingchu Zhang, Tzi Ma, and Dana Ivey, Rush Hour 3 is a much more enjoyable film than its predecessor, filled with action, romance, friendship, drama, kung fu and samurai fighting, and comedy. My faith in these movies has been restored.