'Rush Hour 3' Does the Franchise Proud

Phil Villarreal Arizona Daily Star

Director Brett Ratner gives and he takes away. After destroying one trilogy last year with "X-Men: The Last Stand," he revives another with "Rush Hour 3."

If the third teaming of yappy comedian Chris Tucker and martial arts wizard Jackie Chan isn't the best "Rush Hour," at least it's the one that tries the hardest. It seems as though there's a joke every 30 seconds and an explosion every 45. One moment the mismatched buddy cops are swapping gunfire with an army of gangsters and the next they're weaving through the streets of Paris in a cab ride that makes the arcade game "Crazy Taxi" seem tame by comparison. Then they're parachuting off the top of the Eiffel Tower, each holding two corners of a giant flag.

"Rush Hour 3" trades on the sort of ludicrous, nonsensical high jinks a couple of Kool Aid-addled 5-year-olds playing with action figures and toy cars would invent.

The story is the same as the other "Rush Hour" movies. Chan is Lee, a by-the-book Hong Kong law enforcement pro serving as bodyguard to a diplomat who's constantly targeted for assassination. Tucker is Carter, a yap-flapping, womanizing LAPD officer who fluctuates between cowardice and heroism depending on the needs of the script.

As always with this series, the joy comes as much from the banter between the heroes as it does from the screen-scorching set pieces. Lee and Carter trade race-baiting cutdowns and reignite running arguments that have been going on for close to a decade now. They inevitably fight, separate in a huff, then reunite just in time to save each other's backsides.

The chemistry between the two leads overrides most of the film's problems, which are many. It's dreadfully predictable, entirely too repetitive with its humor and chase scenes, and about as believable as Barry Bonds' negative drug tests. But Ratner happens to have cast the two perfect actors, and because of that, he can hardly do any wrong with the franchise.

Chan, who's now 53, has lost much of his bouncy athleticism but none of his charm. The writers took this under consideration, having his character struggle in fights and stunts. One sequence with surprising emotional impact finds Chan dangling from a great height, unable to maintain a grip on someone he's trying to rescue.

Since 1998, Tucker, 34, has starred in nothing but "Rush Hour" films. Inasmuch as the last one was six years ago, you could call Tucker lazy, but then maybe he's just been saving everything he's got. Tucker unleashes six years' worth of latent comic energy into the film, zipping off a motormouthed running commentary on all the madness onscreen. Please, Chris, don't make it until 2013 until we see you again.

And hopefully the "Rush Hour" series will march on as well, providing its every-few-years fix of buddy-cop bliss.

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Movie Review: "Rush Hour 3"

***  (three stars, out of four)

--Rated: PG-13 for sequences of action violence, sexual content, nudity and language.

--Cast: Chris Tucker, Jackie Chan, Hiroyuki Sanada, Max von Sydow

--Director: Brett Ratner.

--Family call: Not for kids.

--Running time: 85 minutes.

Copyright 2009 by Arizona Daily Star