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R E V I E W
Rush Hour 2
New Line / 2001 / 89 minutes
Directed by Brett Ratner
Written by Jeff NathansonWith Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, John Lone, Zhang Ziyi
B A C K G R O U N D : director, in cinemas, recent and related films
Director Ratner is a NYU film school graduate. He made his name directing music videos; his first feature film was the 1997 comedy Money Talks, starring Chris Tucker. His second was the box office smash Rush Hour in 1998, and his third was The Family Man in 2000.
The film opened in US cinemas on August 3, 2001, and grossed about $67 million in its first weekend of release.
Ratner is next slated to direct Red Dragon, a prequel of sort to The Silence of the Lambs.
M O V I E : plot, performances, production, rating
Plot: Detective Inspector Lee of the Hong Kong Police and Detective James Carter of the Los Angeles Police try to solve a crime. Other Chinese and American people are also involved. Fighting breaks out at times. Many jokes are told.
Performances: At the very center of Jackie Chan's eyes, a faint glimmer of burnout is beginning to display itself. Yet he is still able to fling his body around with acrobatic grace. And for whatever strange and mysterious reason, he and Chris Tucker work well together; they exhibit a lively on-screen chemistry. John Lone portrays a fairly bloodless villain. Watching the magnetic Zhang Ziyi and Don Cheadle, both magnetic in separate scenes, makes me wish more screen time were devoted to their characters.
Production: The script itself is a joke. It sounds like the writer was handed a copy of the first film and told simply to change the dialogue and re-order the scenes. No matter how much director Ratner has been bashed by Asian film fans, it cannot be denied that the pace simply screams by with unrelenting speed — and he never misses a joke. Viewed as an action piece, the film would be a disappointment. But considered as a comedy with some action thrown in to liven things up, it's a success. And it made me laugh throughout. Sure it takes place in an alternate universe (Police Story Cliche World). Sure the action scenes would only place it in the bottom third of Chan films. Still, for someone like me, living far from the opportunity to see Hong Kong films in a cinema, it was magical to watch Jackie Chan moving through the Hong Kong cityscape on a big screen, to see the frame filled with Asian faces in the background and settings I'd only seen on my television before. I wish the story had remained in Hong Kong for its entire running time (no reason not to do so).
Rating: Equivalent to Category IIA. Some profanity; much fighting but little blood is spilled.
R E C O M M E N D A T I O N : buy a ticket, wait for the DVD, or pass?
Buy a ticket.
(Reviewed 8/10/01)
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