RUSH HOUR (1998)
Rating: 2.5 stars (out of 4.0) ******************************** Key to rating system: 2.0 stars - Debatable 2.5 stars - Some people may like it 3.0 stars - I liked it 3.5 stars - I am biased in favor of the movie 4.0 stars - I felt the movie's impact personally or it stood out ********************************* A Movie Review by David Sunga
Directed by: Brett Ratner Written by: Ross LaManna (story) and Jim Kouf (screenplay) .
Ingredients: Reckless cop teamed with Hong Kong detective, comedy, pratfalls, kidnapped kid
Starring: Chris Tucker, Jackie Chan, Julia Hsu,
Synopsis: RUSH HOUR is a standard cop buddy plot uplifted by the presence of its two stars: martial arts funny man Jackie Chan and comedian Chris Tucker. Tucker plays main character James Carter, an outlandish and narcissistic Los Angeles cop who is irritating to his superiors. As a result of their displeasure, Carter is assigned to baby-sit a visiting Hong Kong detective named Lee (Jackie Chan) whom the authorities want to keep out of the way as they investigate the kidnapping of Soo Yung (Julia Hsu in her acting debut), the young child of Lee's friend Chinese Consul Han (Tzi Ma). But Carter and his new acquaintance Detective Lee don't stay out of the investigation. They bicker over ethnic misunderstandings and botch things up, but finally work as a team to solve the case.
Opinion: I were a teacher giving grades, Tucker would get a B. He's good and funny, but his loquacious screeching is sometimes a bit much.
On the other hand, RUSH HOUR is proof positive that America is finally catching on to the world's appreciation international megastar Jackie Chan. Longtime Chan fans should be forewarned RUSH HOUR isn't a Jackie Chan or Hong Kong picture; it's a Hollywood buddy formula where Chan is merely the co-star. But despite not being the main character, Chan still gets plenty of chances to amuse us by hanging from dangerous ledges, climbing, leaping, kicking, or consoling a little girl. Chan gets an A, and if there's a sequel, I hope he gets more air time.
RUSH HOUR is lively, entertaining, and will appeal to people of all ages and ethnicities. The bad guys aren't impressive, and the plot is routine, but Tucker and Chan provide sufficient charisma, comic lines, timing, and acrobatics to give the formula enough enjoyable moments. I took my parents to see it, and they loved it.
Reviewed by David Sunga September 25, 1998 http://www.criticzoo.com
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews