Movies – Rush Hour 3

I just saw Rush Hour 3 for the first time on TBS, and as a fan of the far more superior first two installments, I rather enjoyed this latest outing.

Sure, it got hammered by critics upon its theatrical release in 2007, and its box office returns, while robust, failed to live up to the expectations set by its predecessors. Granted, the plot is quite thin, and the series no longer has the new car smell of the first film.

But for me, it was fun to see Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker back in action. Chan as Hong Kong Inspector Lee and Tucker as LAPD Detective Carter make a great action-comedy buddy-cop duo. In fact, they are my favorite such pair. They still have great chemistry and play off each other very well. They are as hilarious in this movie as they are in the first two, especially as always in the outtakes.

Series director Brett Ratner is no slouch behind the camera, either. He has crafted yet another glossy, globetrotting affair, with Carter and Lee tracking the lethal Chinese Triad gang from Los Angeles to Paris. There, our heroes run afoul of a wacky French cop played by Roman Polanski, get driven around town in wild car chases by a local taxicab driver who fulfills his lifelong fantasy of being an American superspy, and face off with the bad guys in a spectacular climactic showdown at the Eiffel Tower. My appetite is whetted for Rush Hour 4.

If you own the first two films, this is well worth adding to your collection.

--Raj Manoharan