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When Rush Hour 2 was released to lucrative box office results, I thought they were ready to high-kick their way to a trilogy. However, neither Carter nor Lee made an appearance until 2007. A long time relative to where we stand in the action/comedy world.
Despite the franchise losing its steam during this hiatus, I was looking forward to once again witnessing Jackie Chan’s incredible kicks and Chris Tucker’s even faster dealing with a different parody of Rush Hour. So, this time featuring their brand of lawlessness in Paris. Unfortunately, while they were gone, it looked like the world had moved on from Rush Hour’s notorious clever and chaotic humour, with many jokes falling flat or worse. The movie ended up feeling like a cash grab to the audience.
Three years after Rush Hour 2, we find Carter and Lee almost in the same position as how we earlier encountered them. Inspector Lee is back to being the bodyguard of Chinese Ambassador Han, and Carter is somehow still a police officer, but one who has been demoted to traffic cop for what appears to be a rather silly violation. But, once Han starts casting threats on ending the Chinese mob with the aid of the mythical Shy Shen, he makes the perfect target for an assassination attempt, and with a sniper injuring him, the plan succeeds.
As always, Lee’s frenzied chasing style kicks in, but she discovers yet another figure from his past turned criminal has emerged in the form of his long-lost foster brother, Kenji, who proves once again that our hero has far too many dodgy connections for comfort.
On screen, Carter appears to be a perpetual nuisance. Han and his friend from France find themselves trying to figure out the reason behind yet another attempted murder that begins with an attempt to kill Han and ends with a tip-off that sends the two of them to France.
Carter and Lee make new enemies like a French radical cab driver, a stripper who has connections with Shy Shen, and a Parisian policeman who is too obsessed with clinically unnecessary searches. But now they have an entire new city to terrorize and overtake. Still, if they don’t get their act straight, Kenji’s next victim might be Han’s daughter, Soo Yung. Paris might be the location of the other city where their friendship comes to a shocking end.
This is where I must admit that I have never quite regarded Rush Hour as one of the best action franchises. Having said that, a lot of charm came from the mismatched pairing in the first film, plus I have something of a soft spot, or second, that more than makes up for what it loses in logic with a sense of amazing unrestrained lunacy. The stark disconnect in the chemistry idiotic of it all, however, sets in rather quickly. After about fifteen minutes into Rush Hour 3, it quickly becomes apparent that the off-the-wall fun for whatever reason has fizzled and what was a delightful series of action gags has been replaced with the awkwardly mundane.
We are introduced to a couple of new characters from the original film, including Ambassador Han and Soo Yung. We also get a brief glimpse at Tucker’s infamous Carter who ‘dances’ while directing traffic. Comedic relief is overdone; however, I didn’t expect Abbott and Costello’s lawyers to file a cease and desist order. From the start, Tucker screaming at two people for mistaking Yu and Mi for you and me sets the tone of the whole movie. In contrast to Bad Boys 4 Life, which explored deeper narratives of growing older alongside their ridiculous action sequences, Rush Hour 3 fails miserably to even attempt middle grounding. The indifference shows.
It is hardly shocking that Jackie Chan’s activity level has dropped, but regardless of that, the upbeat fights are now lacking their energetic enthusiasm (some of his fights are filmed in such a way, I am not even 100 per cent sure some of them are actually done by him this time). I am not precisely sure how you render the image of Jackie Chan and Hiroyuki Sanada’s sword fighting on the inner structure of the Eiffel Tower as banal, but somehow Bret Ratner achieves that. You feel that all the people who were part of the project would rather be filming yet another comedy skit.
But even the last movie seems disappointing and scenes where Carter confuses the sound of an assassination attempt on Lee to their engaging in vigorous lovemaking or the two trying to casually escape a posh hotel right after taking a bath in a sewer in Paris add comedic relief feel like painful sarcasm.
The controversial decision by Roman Polanski to include a French detective in the film which led to Polanski himself appearing as one, caused quite some international dub. But what truly shocked the audience was the fact that it was not only a cameo by Polanksi, his character was depicted as someone who forcibly performs cavity searches which he takes pleasure from, reflecting the misunderstanding that was the Miss Polanski cameo. This opened a lot of conversations as the humour turned sinister in nature. There have always been controversies surrounding Ratner and Polanski, but there is one new piece of information that becomes apparent with this new world-altering vision of him having a high sex drive. Beyond that, it is just disturbing. When he isn’t offering a car and having two young women bend over the hood while he handcuffs them and asking them out while arresting them, he’s invading a night club dressed as a clothing manager so he can make all the showgirls model for him with their breasts out. Not only is this extremely distasteful, it seems so outdated. In fact, during the mid-90s, many people would have been offended by the thought of Carter being disgusted by Genevive because of how they would have perceived her being bald. The thought of Carter developing from an annoying yet somehow able hound dog to a full on sexual predator is shocking in itself and when combined with the accusations posed against Ratner, it feels painfully embarrassing.
Putting aside the sexual politics, if there exists a Rush Hour movie that lacks excitement and funny enough jokes do not exist, then where do you go? The plot? If you’re able to pay attention to it then heck, you are among those that paid attention to it more than anyone else in the film. Even the likes of Sananda and Max Von Sydow’s presence makes it easier to follow.
For trust challenges films like this, cinematography plays an ominous role in the story. ‘People say what they believe to be true, and sometimes they really believe it’ is the omnipresent truth of this picture. Where else can one go when rumours have circulated that there have been discussions regarding a fourth instalment amongst the powers that be for the past few years? Blackbelt (1992)
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