For the last three days, I’ve been trying to come up with something really incisive and intelligent to say about Rush Hour, and I can’t (which isn’t to say that nobody could; I’d be curious to hear what Jeff Chang had to say about it). That’s not to say that I think it’s a bad movie, because I don’t, but when the end credits roll, it’s hard to think of any unanswered questions that the film left hanging, except for one: is it still entertaining after twelve years, the disappearance of Chris Tucker, and the compartmentalization of Jackie Chan? For the most part it is, but that depends on how you remember it. If you remember a fairly entertaining buddy cop film with enough action to sustain its running time, it still holds water. If you remember much of anything else, you’ll probably be disappointed.
Detective Inspector Lee (Jackie Chan) is a Hong Kong cop whose nickname might as well be immaculate Harry; he’s by the book, practical, and (because he’s Jackie Chan) highly trained in martial arts. Det. James Carter (Chris Tucker) is a fast-talking Los Angeles cop who doesn’t play by the rules, but also doesn’t quite manage to do it with the same finesse that allowed previous renegade cops to get away with their shenanigans. When the daughter of the Chinese consul in the United States is kidnapped by shadowy underlord Juntao, Lee is sent for, but the FBI doesn’t want anything to do with them. Without other options, they pair him up with Carter for the duration of the investigation. Will the two of them be able to overcome their cultural and personal differences to get along and solve the case before the big, fancy FBI does? Will Chan perform martial arts along the way? Would it really count as a spoiler if I told you?
In buddy cop movies, there tend to be two archetypes: the practical one and the crazy one. There’s a roughly similar dynamic in ‘fish-out-of-water’ films, in which the protagonist finds himself in the middle of a country or culture with customs different from his own, and has to interact with a cast of characters that seems funny, strange, and largely one-dimensional. Both of these genres had been on their way out for a while before Rush Hour came out, but part of the success of the film is that it is able to combine tropes of both and bring them into a freshly racial dimension. Jackie Chan wasn’t a household name yet when this film came out, but he had enough experience to know exactly how to look, act and fight like a movie star. His presence and demeanor here seems more typical of an actor far his senior, as well as relegated to handing down wisdom to much younger lead character rather than jumping on and off the roofs of moving vehicles. Carter isn’t exactly the crazy one (he’s the model of composure when placed against Mel Gibson’s cop from Lethal Weapon), but his flashiness suggests youth and inexperience when placed beside Chan, and his fast-talking mannerisms make him an easy comic foil for any one at all more straight-faced (which is everybody). Both, however, are somewhat adrift in the larger culture that doesn’t respect them or want them around. They’ve been pushed aside from more important assignments due to wholly opposite stereotypes: Tucker as a black cop, Chan as the straight-laced Asian man.
This makes the move sound really serious, and it’s not. It is, however, a subtext that makes a fairly shopworn conceit seem less familiar than it might. For whatever reason, Chris Tucker never annoyed me (at least in this one) in the way I suspected he might have, and Chan has always been a solid addition to everything he’s been in. The pairing of the two wreaks of the studio chemistry set, but the way that the interaction between the two plays out is surprisingly light on its feet without being groundless, a feat that is surprisingly difficult if the track record of its success rate is any indication.
Blu Ray Bonus Features
The Blu Ray contains a commentary by Brett Ratner, some additional scenes, some quick featurettes on the making of the film, Ratner's short film Whatever Happened to Mason Reese?, an isolated score and a theatrical trailer. There are also music videos for "How Deep Is Your Love" by Dru Hill and "Nuttin' But Love" by Heavy D & the Boyz.
"Rush Hour" is on sale December 7, 2010 and is rated PG13. Action, Comedy. Directed by Brett Ratner. Written by Jim Kouf, Ross LaManna. Starring Chris Tucker, Jackie Chan, Tom Wilkinson, Elizabeth Pena.
