9/12/2023 0 Comments Rushing hour movieThe FBI, the inevitable organization of dreary white men in suits, seeks to cool him out in some backwater, so it dredges up the most incompetent detective on the LAPD to baby-sit him. Chan plays a Hong Kong inspector seconded to Los Angeles when the child of a prominent Chinese diplomat is kidnapped. The movie here is routine enough, and no plot summary can do its body pyrotechnics true justice. I have yet to figure out how he can seem to change direction in midair it shouldn't be doable, not without computer morphing, but Chan is such an eel-clown of anti-gravity, he brings it off. He has moves that are so fast and subtle that they seem to deny several of Isaac Newton's more stridently defended policies. But he has that incredible ability to stay in character as he falls off a 40-foot building and breaks his ankle for the 19th time. In his Asian films he won't use stuntmen, and has broken nearly every bone in his body. Best of all it finds in Tucker a partner for him to play off, one who brings out his low-key charms and high-octane stunt work.Ĭhan is himself a miracle, one of the great cinematic moving targets. And the news, for Chanophiles, is good: "Rush Hour" is a sturdily entertaining vehicle, easily the little guy's best American-made film. His lost career has been relocated in "Rush Hour," a buddy picture where he matches and meshes styles with stand-up comic Chris Tucker, a kind of poor man's Chris Rock. Somehow the angelic-faced gymnast with the fantastic moves and the guts of a Green Beret just hasn't connected with American audiences. Jackie Chan, that is, who is arguably the world's most popular movie star except in the United States. In short, Rush Hour may be as brainless as they come, with its thankless support roles (Wilkinson as a British ambassador, Pena as an LAPD bomb disposal expert) ropey script, and entirely predictable outcome, but taken as an unfussy crowd-pleaser it amply delivers the goods.Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan star in "Rush Hour." The set pieces that follow are masterly, as Chan sets about defeating the bad guys with snooker cues, bar stools and, in one vintage sequence, a set of priceless ming vases he's desperate to keep intact. Luckily Chan, imbued with all the gleeful innocence of a tourist abroad for the first time, manages to save the day, actually tempering Tucker's hyperkinetic behaviour with some of his own as the pair attempt to overcome their cultural differences to save the day.Īnd here's where the movie really kicks in, because when Tucker is forced to stop whining and actually play off his new-found partner, he is far more likeable and of course, this gives Chan a chance to break into the blistering, balletic brand of action that made his name. Given that his obviously huge talents are here given over to lame Michael Jackson impersonations and all the variants on ass-kicking related dialogue the script can muster, this soon begins to grate. Forming the de rigueur initially reluctant partnership, the two decide to take matters into their own hands.ĭespite its title, Rush Hour takes an uncomfortably long time to fully crank up, with much of the first half devoted to Tucker's love-it-or-hate-it sub-Eddie Murphy shtick. It's a scheme that swiftly hurtles out of control Lee is determined to crack the case, while Carter, aggrieved with his apparent babysitting gig, has his own plans to rescue the kidnapped tyke. The FBI, however, far from keen to land in a diplomatic pickle if harm should befall the new arrival, employs the services of LAPD loose cannon James Carter (Tucker) to keep Lee as far away from the case as possible. The serviceable plot (for really it does just serve as a framework to showcase the manic energy of its leading men) has Chan, as Detective Inspector Lee, summoned from Hong Kong to LA by the Eastern city's US consul whose daughter has been kidnapped by Oriental crimelords. And if Chan and Tucker don't have quite the same box office pulling power here, this glossy blend of amiable comedy and beautifully choreographed action should still keep up suitable levels of interest. Arriving on these shores with almost $130 million of US box office receipts in its pocket, Rush Hour's attempts to resuscitate the buddy movie genre have proven so profitable that a sequel is set to make its mark in multiplexes as early as next Christmas.
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