I was loyal enough to Jackie to shill out to see this in the cinema, and I knew in advance that it would be a step down from the first two Rush Hours, both of which I defend as being worthwhile films. But this was a lot more than a step.
The first 3 minutes provide basically the only laughs in the film, possibly as to that stage you don’t yet know how ordinary it becomes. “Fat Chris Tucker” replaces “Chris Tucker” as Carter, funny because they look similar.
So in summary Lee and Carter are now both working in LA, they have had a falling out though and are no longer friends. Circumstances dictate that they must join together once more and go to France to find a big Triad secret, unfortunately circumstances that dictate also the inclusion of the “long lost half-brother that we don’t speak of”.
I initially thought that was clumsy, clichéd and unforgivable, then they introduced more bit characters that make the film worse instead of better (a taxi-driver that hates Americans but wants to be one, a fugly Chinese hooker-assassin), THENNNN, they inject a terrible “improvised” musical number that must have taken years off Jackie’s career by itself.
The finale is Jackie running on 2 cylinders, no-one really seems to be trying any harder than they need to in order to get paid, and the final killer that saves them from the unexpected bad guy (that you picked out when you first saw him) is worse than Maggie Simpson saving Homer with a sniper rifle (Still can’t believe that happened).
P.S. There are over a billion Chinese people, surely they could find a hotter one than the actress chosen to be the grown up girl from Rush Hour 1?
1/ Are there any “WOW!” fights?
Nope.
2/ Are there any “WOW!” stunts?
The best part of the film is a motorbike/car chase.
3/ Which Jackie is it? Serious / Whimsical / Cocky…
“Cut the cheque quick Jackie.”
4/ Does he get to use Jackie-exclusive toys?
No.
5/ Do stolen relics come up?
No.
6/ Are there hot chicks (that usually can’t act)?
No. But I think they tried, which is worse!!
7/ Is there a blooper reel over the credits?
Yes, and it’s funnier than the film.
8/ Were there injuries on the shoot? Severity?
Not much.
9/ Has he still got it?
He’s still inventive, but nothing could elevate this.
10/ Is it a “Jackie Chan” film, or just one he is in?
Everyone has a bad day. Here everyone involved had a bad year. I felt sad watching it.
Final Rating – 5.5 / 10. This whole film is just lazy and reeks of “Meh”. Like Rocky 5 and Indy 4 it would be better if we could just pretend it didn’t exist.
