There have been many third movies in different series released this summer in addition to a few other sequels. I do enjoy sequels when they are well done if I liked the previous movie or movies. I've seen most of the sequels released this summer and have liked them to varying degrees. I did enjoy Rush Hour and Rush Hour 2, so I figured I would see Rush Hour 3 at some point.
Chief Inspector Lee was in Los Angeles with Ambassador Han who was going to address the World Criminal Court about the Chinese Triad. Ambassador Han was shot and the shooter, Kenji, got away. Han remained in danger along with his grown daughter Soo Yung. Lee and Carter were determined to protect the two and they ended up traveling to Paris as part of their investigation. Once there, they met Genevieve, a beautiful woman who was somehow connected to what was going on with the Triad.
I’m not completely sure how much time did pass between the end of Rush Hour 2 and the beginning of Rush Hour 3. Carter made a comment about something that I think happened soon after the end of the second movie as having happened three years ago. I got to wondering about the time line because as far as I can remember, the second movie picked up right after the end of the first movie. In the first one, Soo Yung was ten. She was clearly older than thirteen in this movie. I’m guessing she was supposed to be around twenty. Knowing how much time was supposed to have passed isn’t a big thing. It was just something I noticed and wondered about.
Anyone expecting Rush Hour 3 to be original will end up disappointed. The movie followed the same basic concept as the first two movies with not much new added. This movie had both Carter and Lee out of their elements when they traveled to Paris instead of just one of them like happened in the first two movies. Han and Soo Yung, who were missing from the second movie, were back and once again in danger. Carter and Lee also had to deal with the Triad again, though in a slightly different way. There was another beautiful Asian woman who was a deadly fighter as well. Really the only new element was George, a cab driver who decided he liked driving Carter and Lee even though it involved danger.
I laughed several times throughout Rush Hour 3 and felt that humor that was used worked for this movie. Yes some of it was silly, but that didn’t bother me. I like silly at times and I was expecting silliness because it was used in the first two movies as well. Carter and Lee both said and did things that made me laugh, including singing. George made me laugh a few times as well. There was one joke done that was a play on an old well-known comedy routine, but it worked very well for the movie.
The movie blended action with the comedy like was done for the first two movies. Most of the action involved Lee doing more of his impressive fighting. The fight scenes may have been a little bit tamer than the ones in the previous movies, but that’s understandable since Chan is getting older. What he did do was still very impressive. Carter talked about studying martial arts and how good he had gotten but he still had problems in hand to hand fighting. He did do a bit better later in the movie. There was an explosion and a few gun fights as well. The action scenes were well done and worked with what was going on in the movie. The violence really wasn’t extreme or graphic and was rather tame compared to what has been used in other movies. There was a little bit of swearing without it getting excessive. The word that rhymes with luck wasn’t used. The movie was rated PG-13, so parents may want to keep that in mind if considering letting a child watch the movie.
Once again, Carter talked about hooking up with women. He kept going on about how he needed to find Lee a woman. Soon after they arrived in Paris, Carter first noticed Genevieve and started trying to put the moves on her. A bit of romance that really didn’t go anywhere was hinted at between them. There were sexual comments and a few sexual situations but no actual sex scenes. Genevieve was shown in lingerie during one part. During one scene, Carter was in a dressing room at a club with a group of topless dancers. Only their bare backs were shown, so there wasn’t any actual nudity in the movie.
Carter and Lee continued to be the main characters in Rush Hour 3. Carter was still loud, a bit flamboyant, and he didn’t stop to think before acting more than once. He did consider Lee a very close friend, even calling him a brother. Carter was more than willing to work with Lee, a big difference from how he’d been so determined to always work alone in the first movie. Chris Tucker did get a bit irritating at times with the way he delivered his lines. Far too often the man yells them when there was no reason to.
Lee was still close to Ambassador Han and his daughter Soo Yung. Lee felt responsible for what happened to Han and was determined to deal with the situation. He did seem to be acting more like Carter from the first movie going on about how it would be better for him to do things alone. It did seem a little odd for Lee to be acting like that since I really don’t remember him having that issue in the first two. He was still a likable character and I think Jackie Chan was good in the part.
Ambassador Han was in very little of the movie, so Tzi Ma had almost nothing to do. His part was larger in the first movie. It was almost like he was brought back just as a reason for Carter and Lee to work on an investigation and head to Paris. Soo Yung had grown up and still considered Lee a friend. She also seemed to consider Carter a friend as well. Other than having her life put in danger again, there didn’t seem to be much reason for her to be in the movie. Detective Revi was a police officer in Paris that Carter and Lee encountered. I had no idea that Roman Polanski was playing the part until I was double checking cast information after watching the movie.
George was the taxi driver who started out hating Americans but then decided that he wanted to be an American. George handled being in dangerous situations with Carter and Lee very well. I did like the character. The character did remind me a bit of one of the characters in The Pink Panther. Genevieve was a beautiful, mysterious woman with a connection to what was going on. Varden Reynard was in charge of the World Criminal Court. He wasn’t in that many scenes, so Max von Sydow really didn’t have that much to do. Kanji was the main villain that Carter and Lee had to deal with. Kanji was devoted to the Triad and very good at martial arts.
Main Cast
Yvan Attal - George Jackie Chan - Chief Inspector Lee Neomie Lenoir - Genevieve Tzi Ma - Ambassador Han Roman Polanski - Detective Revi Hiroyuki Sanada - Kanji Chris Tucker - Detective James Carter Max von Sydow - Varden Reynard Jingchu Zhang - Soo Yung
Rush Hour 3 wasn’t anything original, but it was still very entertaining. Chan and Tucker still fit their characters and have good chemistry together. This is a movie to watch just for some mindless entertainment. People that enjoyed the first two movies should give this one a chance.
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