2001 / 90 Minutes / PG-13
Reviewed by Dale Nauertz

Let’s face it: if you liked the first “Rush Hour”, you’ll probably find more of the same to like here. If not, this probably won’t change your mind. Like the first film, this is a combination of streetwise comedy and the usual jaw-dropping Jackie Chan shenanigans. Except that this film seems to be slanted more toward the streetwise comedy aspect. But don’t let that fool you: Jackie still performs some amazing action routines.

The plot? Are you kidding? It’s some nonsense involving (I think) counterfeiting and Hong Kong gangsters and an American businessman (played by Alan King, of all people) who is up to no good. (When was the last movie where an American businessman wasn’t up to no good?) Of course, the plot isn’t really important. If you were expecting an airtight plot and riveting verbal interplay, rent a Mamet film. Or better yet, read a book for the love of God! No, you’re here to see Chris Tucker do some of his comic riff, poor-man’s-Chris-Rock schtick and Jackie Chan do some stunts with a balletic ease that puts most action performers to shame.

And yes, it does work…up to a point. Chris is funny for about forty-five minutes, and then his black Don Rickles attitude starts to wear a little thin. After while, when a criminal kidnaps him and puts a gun to his head, you’re sorta wishing they would just pull the damn trigger. Jackie is pretty much amazing, as always. His age is beginning to show, however, especially in one scene where Chris has to give him a push so that he can dispatch a roomful of bad guys. The scene where he is scaling a large network of bamboo poles and fighting bad guys, however, is graceful and awe-inspiring. It’s worth the price of admission all by itself. In fact, if there were just a little more Jackie and a little less Tucker, this movie would be almost perfect. Tucker is given too much free reign and the few scenes where characters make jokes at his expense were, for my money, the funniest of the whole film. I like Chris, generally, and this was the first movie that I can recall wishing he would put a cork in it. But I did wish that and I must admit it.

The supporting cast is full of neat surprises. Zhang Ziyi, fresh off her breakthrough turn in “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, is both extremely beautiful and extremely evil as an assassin sent to dispatch our two heroes. Whenever she is onscreen, everything is right with the world (okay, I’m a little smitten). John Lone is also good: effortlessly evil and genuinely menacing. He’s one of the better villains in recent memory. And Don Cheadle is great in a cameo as a black kung fu expert. A lovely, unexpected surprise.

In short: it’s pretty much what you would expect of a movie called “Rush Hour 2″. It’s not as good as the first one (and neither of them recall the witty chemistry that was in evidence between Owen Wilson and Jackie in “Shanghai Noon”) but it’s not as bad as I’d feared either. There is genuine wit, nice chemistry between the two leads, and a lot of adrenaline on display here. Now if only they could get a better plot and get Tucker to shut up every so often they’d really have something here.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 3rd, 2001 at 4:50 pm and is filed under Dale's Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.