Rush Hour 3 [review]

Anyone else have a movie-hungry teenage daughter in their house? I do, and every time the flavor of the month movie comes out (Spider-Man 3, Fantastic Four 2, etc.), I am bombarded with exclamations of “we HAVE to go see this!”, “I soooo wish I could see that!” or “Pops, I will kill you if you don’t take me to the AMC to check this over-hyped, underwritten monstrosity of cinematic affairs”… but I digress. While I wish we could attend the cinema more often, shit just don’t happen like that.

Then Rush Hour 3 came...

This is one movie series my family has bonded on. Countless dinners have been spent with us, in front of the TV, cracking up at James Carter doing his best MJ impersonation in Rush Hour 2. Or seeing Inspector Lee do his thing against many a Chinese gangster. The chemistry was there, the stories were actually interesting, by action-flick standards, and it was just a perfect blend of comedy, fast-paced action and an overall well-done pair of flicks.

Then Rush Hour 3 came…

Now, I was actually souped to see this flick. I hadn’t been out to see a movie since, God, I guess it was Night At The Museum, which I enjoyed. I was due for more grown-up fodder, no? OK so the nachos are being eaten, the subwoofer was way too loud, and I am ready for… James Carter, the singing traffic cop!?! Wait – how did he go from a detective who was investigating a C4 ring that ended up stumbling on an international cash and hostage situation, to fucking up so bad that he was directing traffic with his prick? And did Chris Tucker not feel it was right to drop a few pounds for this role? Jackie Chan never ages, however… he scales walls, dodges cars (in traffic!), and has a mean fist game. Sadly, this was the way the entire movie went… Jackie Chan was always on point, Chris Tucker was always a bit “too”: “too” funny, “too” overdramatic, and “too” loud. And the chemistry? “Too” missing…

Not to say the movie was devoid of funny moments: the scene where they interrogated the gangster with the nun was hilarious, although it dragged on too long. Carter’s “Yu/Mi” bit was hilarious. The scene at the cabaret where Lee and Carter sing a song I instantly forgot leaving the theater was classic, too. And the action – good God! There were some scenes in there that were just shot very well (like the motorcyclist gangster who drove in the air into a van, then crashed through the windshield, or the fight on the Eiffel Tower), and made up (somewhat) for the karaoke Carter (we know he sings, but there were about three scenes too many of him breaking out into song). And since when did Carter go from being bull-headed and cocksure to so alone that he has to learn Chinese to keep up with his best-friend? Lee made something for himself, while Carter seems to have been too caught up in their friendship.

Now, I don’t want to say that the story in RH3 was lacking, but any potential it had seemed to be clouded over by the bells & whistles of the shells of the Carter/Lee characters. Too many side-tracked laughs; for instance, why did we need to see them fight a large Chinese fighter? It served no further purpose towards the story or plot development. I guess, once everyone was a go for RH3, they figured they could build a story around recycled jokes and things that didn’t escalate the other movies (how many “I can’t understand your Chinese” jokes are needed?)… it felt like, when all else fails, let’s fall back on corny jokes.

Aside from all of that, I actually had a decent time. The action held my interest, and the bits that were funny were very funny. Then came the ending… or lack there of. It felt like, either the producers wanted to make the movie last a certain amount of time, or they forgot to fully complete each characters trek. One character asked if we wanted to know a secret, but got got. The one female who was the focal point for the 2nd half of the movie just gets whisked away. We get one character from RH1 who makes a return, but is sent down an elevator to call the cops, and is never seen/heard of again. And Carter and Lee dance down the road, seemingly taking it straight to the bank. The wool wasn’t pulled over our eyes, though: I smell a Rush Hour 4. If there isn’t another one, this will have to go down in history was one of the worst end pieces to a trilogy in a long time.

rock the dub gives Rush Hour 3 2.8 stars out of 5. The action was all that, some of the jokes were on point, but the rest of the movie flopped like a dead fish.

I am running a Rush Hour 3 giveaway, though! Win some t-shirts, hats, and tatoos! Check it out.
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