Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker ... the inscrutable East meets the running off at the mouth West in the latest pairing of buddies who hate each other and yet manage to win each others love and respect through battling their way through Adversity ... Rush Hour, hearts of gold, moves of mercury, script of silver ... all this and the oddest reading of 'War' you ever did hear...
Strangely, and against all my better feelings, I actually quite enjoyed this movie, despite its oh so bland predictability and lack of anything new. Lewis dave27 pestered me like mad to watch it when it came out on Sky and is still nagging me mercilessly to take him to see the sequel.
Now, we've all had a bellyful of buddy movies over the year and this adds nothing to the genre really, with motormouth Chris Tucker coming over all sub Eddie Murphy as a loudmouthed and quick talking rogue LA detective, while Jackie Chan is just Jackie Chan.
Let's get the story out of the way first ....
The daughter of the Chinese
Consul in LA gets kidnapped and the Chines Consul wants his own personal detective (Chan) assigned to the case. The FBI don't want any interference from outsiders and so call in Tucker to babysit Chan, although he actually thinks his application to join the FBI has been approved and that he is going to take a major role in the case. He's understandably miffed when he finds out the truth and he's even more miffed by the demands and earnestness of his new partner. The fact that he hates partners and prefers to work on his own is exactly what you'd expect.
Tom Wilkinson, a respected British TV actor, and probably best known for his appearance in The Full Monty, leads the kidnappers in an attempt at getting some revenge for the loss of a collection of Chines cultural treasures to the Chinese state.
Tucker and Chan take on the customary two man army role in bettering a veritable Chines army of thugs and recapturing the girl.
And really that is all there is to this story's rather slight and inconsequential plot. But the story isn't what this film is about at all. It's an all action beat em up battle with plenty of jumping up walls and athletics from Chan and Tucker whinging like mad about his smart designer suit getting dusty and muddy. Not a happy bunny and if anything his eyeballs get even more bulging and white rimmed than normal.
Your view of the film will rest largely on what you think of Tucker and Chan, and they are irresistibly just Tucker and Chan here. I'm not over keen, but Lewis loves them and it's easy to see why they're popular. Their set piece moves and interplay are neat, as is their enjoyment of 'War' and the clips of out takes where things went badly which is shown at the end clearly demonstrates that this film was a delight to make.
Really, the acting honours go to Wilkinson, who is out and out Mr Sinister and who does vileness as well as anyone I know. He's horrible here, a really shady and nasty piece of work, with a stiff upper lip.
Okay, facts of the matter out of the way, let's go into dave27 subjective opinion....
Chris Tucker is probably born for the phrase 'acquired taste', because his over the top facial gymnastics and non stop, running at the mouth gibber can easily make him just plain irritating, and he's absolutely manic here. He walks a very fine line, but normally blunders over it. I can see he'd be good at stand up, but in cinema where less is normally more he's like a big, bug eyed fish thrashing around helplessly out of water spouting unintelligible gibberish.
I'm afraid I've not acquired the taste for his particular talents and his only value here is of the nuisance variety.
Chan, however, is another matter and he's laid back and cool for the most part, with a masterly subtle performance apart from when his self performed stunts and fight scenes take centre stage. He's an incredible mover, both when fighting and when running effortlessly up walls (neat trick, that).
His restrained and skilful playing probably provides just enough of a counterweight to Tucker's mania and keeps the double act on track, although Murphy would have been a far better choice if they could have got him. But Murphy doesn't share top billing any more, so they obviously took what they could.
Shame!
There have been a lot better buddy movies too, with the Lethal Weapon series being one that leaps immediately to mind. These films rely on skilful interplay and meshing between the two halves for their success and here you've got oil and water - they just don't mix, and the oil is on fire to boot.
Having said all that, on the good sight, there are a lot of very funny scenes and lines, some excellent action scenes and as a light hearted adventure romp, this is quite palatable fare, if nothing to get particularly over excited about.
Now what time's Crossroads on?
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Production Year: 1977 - Action/Adventure - Director: Clint Eastwood - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring:Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Pat Hingle, William Prince, Bill McKinney
Production Year: 1964 - Action/Adventure - Director: Cyril Endfield - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring:Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth, Michael Caine, Nigel Green
Production Year: 2002 - Action/Adventure - Director: Vincenzo Natali - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Lucy Liu, David Hewlett, Anne Marie Scheffler, Joseph Scoren, Matthew Sharp, Jeremy Northam
I love this movie and I love Jackie Chan! Oh... And I also like Chris Tucker :) Go see the sequel, I have and it was pretty good.
Anyway great op! You've written so many! How do you do it???
Jess :)
The plot line may sound familiar: two mismatched cops are assigned as reluctant partners ... more
to solve a crime. Culturally they are complete opposites, and they quickly realise they can't stand each other. One (Jackie Chan) believes in doing things by the b...
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The plot line may sound familiar: two mismatched cops are assigned as reluctant partners ... more
to solve a crime. Culturally they are complete opposites, and they quickly realise they can't stand each other. One (Jackie Chan) believes in doing things by the b...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
International superstar Jackie Chan is teamed up with funny man Chris Tucker in this ... more
explosive thrill-a-minute adventure jam-packed with Chan's trademark daring martial arts stunts. Two cops from very different worlds must learn to trust each othe...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
International superstar Jackie Chan is teamed up with funny man Chris Tucker in this ... more
explosive, thrill-a-minute adventure, jam-packed with Chan's trademark daring martial arts stunts.Two cops, from very different worlds, must learn to trust each other ...
Advantages: Great acting from Chris Tucker and excellent stunts from Jackie Chan Disadvantages: Not enough stunts, not the greatest plot, vague conclusion
Loughran 10.11.2008 ·
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![Rush Hour [DVD] [1998]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/76772569.jpg "Rush Hour [DVD] [1998]")
Aug 14th, 2001
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