Opening Day: 9 August 2007

Synopsis:

Officers Carter and Lee reunite in the third installment of the blockbuster RUSH HOUR franchise with more action, more comedy, and more hilarious adventure than ever. Reprising their roles as ancient global crime empire, as they attempt to unravel the mystery of Shy Shen or “Spirit of Death” – the Triad’s most closely guarded secret. No one knows exactly what the elusive Shy Shen is, but word that its about to go public at the meeting of the World Criminal Court has a network of underworld assassins on a killing spree. They Shy Shen trail leads our fast talking, fast kicking heroes to the streets of Paris. From dazzling Parisian nightclubs to the city’s high-fashion runways, RUSH HOUR 3 is a non-stop action, non-stop fun, climaxing in an astonishing, death-defying showdown on one of the world’s most revered moments – the Eiffel Tower.

Movie Review:

This is what I observed while watching “Rush Hour 3”, apparently it seems like the waistline of our two favourite heroes have expanded in tune to their bloating paychecks over the years. Perhaps there’s a scientific explanation behind this but since I’m a hopeless science student in my schooldays, we shall get back to the movie instead.

If you a fan of the first two instalments, you know Carter and Lee are going to get into trouble in a foreign land. You know they will solve the case despite their fumbling. And now both of them are in one of the world’s most beautiful city, Paris to thwart a criminal conspiracy and to save the life of Ambassador Han’s (from the first Rush Hour if you recall) daughter, Soo Yung.

The same old formula repeats itself here. Obviously Brett Ratner is not going to do a 360 degrees turn in this third instalment. Not that he is very creative in the first place. He can only do what Coke does. Transform Coke into Coke Light, Coke Zero or Coke Cherry but still, Coke remains as a refreshment product in the end. Ratner retains the speed of the motor-mouth Carter, his lust for pretty woman and of course Lee’s deadly moves here. So in order to “freshen” the audience a little, he throws in renowned Japanese actor Hiroyuki Sanada (“The Last Samurai”, “Sunshine”) as gasp Lee’s orphanage brother, upcoming Mainland actress Zhang Jingchu (“Protégé”) as the grownup Soo Yung, veteran actor Max von Sydow (“Minority Report”) and exiled director Roman Polanski as a cranky detective to change the scenery a little.

Nothing really exciting, heart-pounding for a Jackie Chan’ headed movie (the man is 53 this year for heaven’s sake) not even the finale action piece on top of the Eiffel Tower. Combining real onset shoot, visual effects and Jackie’s action choreography, the fight sequence lacks the vibrancy of Jackie’s past works and worse, the overall action sets are few and far as compared to the earlier two.

The script by Jeff Nathanson who wrote the previous Rush Hour series has a tremendous flaw. While it’s good to explore the continuous friendship of the duo, isn’t it a bit too coincidence to encounter deadly beautiful woman (remember Zhang Ziyi in Rush Hour 2) and triad syndicate all over again. Perhaps Rush Hour 3 is a nice lazy break from Nathanson’s punishing schedule as a scriber for Spielberg’s “Catch Me If You Can”, “The Terminal” and next year, “Indy 4”.

With an all-familiar plot, the tiring East-meets-West fusion and repeatedly racial jokes all rolled into one, the “Rush Hour” series is fast running past its expiry date. And did I mention Tucker’s distracting double-chin didn’t help either. Oh one last thing, stay for the outtakes, it's funnier than the actual movie.

Movie Rating:



(No rush to catch this piece of familiar work)

Review by Linus Tee