Written by Jeff Nathanson
Based on Characters Created by Ross LaManna
Directed by Brett Ratner
“Come on, Crouching Tiger! Don’t you hide that dragon!”
Five reasons why Rush Hour 3 is extremely disappointing:
(1) The script. Why create an ultimate-enemy-Lee-can’t/won’t-capture/kill…then leave him out of virtually the entire film? Why bring back the ambassador’s daughter from the first Rush Hour…only to make her a kidnap victim again? Why fill the movie with unfunny jokes, compounded by truly dire & cliched French people? Worst of all, why would the writer of the sublime Rush Hour 2 write such a horribly dull script? Then again, this IS the man responsible for Speed 2…
(2) Chris Tucker waited six years to star in this? He’s not only wasted, but he’s absolutely CREEPY — whether picking up nearly-under age sluts in LA, or his inspection of the naked dancers as “Bubbles”…this is the least funny he’s ever been (or should that read “excruciating bore”). This is not the Chris Tucker of previous Rush Hour films…and certainly not the blistering dynamo of The Fifth Element.
(3) The action is becoming self-parody. Recycling a balloon/fabric final escape & rescue? Oh come on! The female assassin who keeps-coming-back and finally dies a horrible death is straight out of Austin Powers! The climactic sword fight/Eiffel Tower brawl is unremarkable to the point of boredom. The chase through LA certainly isn’t The French Connection or Bullit. Action is not supposed to be filler…in Rush Hour 3, it’s blubber!
(4) Roman Polanski – one of the greatest directors in film history – is given one of the most underwhelming cameos in film history. It’s not funny…it’s just achingly sad. And let’s not even talk about Max Von Sydow – a man who stared in thunderous epics from The Seventh Seal to The Exorcist…reduced to generic euro-trash!
And the final reason why Rush Hour 3 is extremely disappointing…
(5) It took six years to make a film that could have been xeroxed from bits of the previous two Rush Hour films…leaving me sitting in a theatre, desperate to laugh and have a moment of cheer…and my only reaction was “that’s it?” The trailer contained more humour than the entire movie!
This film series is dead. The coffin isn’t just nailed down, it’s hermetically sealed!
2
(One bonus point for the dojo sequence – the only funny part of the film!)
