Rush Hour 2

Up next in this funny trilogy is “Rush Hour 2,” which was released in 2001. Worldwide, this film made $347,325,802, making this the most successful film in the “Rush Hour Trilogy.” When Brett Ratner was in an interview, he admitted that the beginning where Chris Tucker (who we hadn’t seen in film since the first Rush Hour) is singing Michael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough” originally wasn’t supposed to be filmed. The reason why was Tucker refused to act like Michael Jackson when the cameras were running since Chris Tucker was really good friends with Michael Jackson. However, Ratner was very sneaky and told the cameraman to film it without having Chris Tucker notice. When Tucker was being interviewed by the talk show host who only wants to talk about cars with his guest, Jay Leno, Tucker said that when they were filming the movie in Hong Kong, many of the people there thought he was NBA star Kobe Bryant. If you remember the part in the film where Tucker is running up the stairs to the ceiling when Chan is fighting the gang, a Chinese woman yells at Tucker saying, “Move out of the way, Kobe.” In the DVD commentary, Ratner confesses that writer Jeff Nathanson came up with that line shortly before they shot that part.

If you notice the mural on the wall in the Heaven on Earth Massage Parlor, it was a copy of the one from the 1983 classic, “Scarface,” both of which Harris Yulin and Ratner appeared in. If you remember when Chan and Tucker are picking girls at the massage parlor, that part came from Bruce Lee’s very famous movie, “Enter the Dragon,” which Chan appeared in, and I have yet to see that movie. Also, the scene where Chan and Tucker are running naked on the streets of Hong Kong was an actual shot. Production could not block the street for that shot. That scene was inspired from a part in Chan’s film, “The Accidental Spy,” which came out before this film. When Ratner saw the movie, he decided to have a similar scene like that in “Rush Hour 2.”

The part where Ricky Tan, played by John Lone, is having that boat party, the song playing in the background is “Tian Mi Mi,” which was also in “Year of the Dragon,” and that was a film John Lone co-starred in. Here’s a little tidbit that nobody probably knows: the hot Hispanic actress, Roselyn Sanchez, gets seasick, so that is shown when Tucker was trying to put the moves on her.

When Chan and Tucker are on the plane flying to Los Angeles, Tucker says that Asian people panic and run when Godzilla would appear. That was a reference. He shouts, “Hayaku! Hayaku!” That is Japanese, which means, “Quickly! Quickly!” When Tucker gets the kosher meal on the plane, originally Tucker turns to Chan and asks him, “Want some of my gefilte fish?” after the stewardess leaves. However, the scene had to be removed because Tucker could not pronounce gefilte, but you can see it in the outtakes when the credits are rolling.

“Rush Hour 2” had a couple of cameo appearances. The first was by Don Cheadle, who agreed to appear on two conditions: he gets to speak Chinese and pick a fight with Chan. When Tucker and Chan are in the business suite, Ernie Reyes Jr appeared as a worker who the two chases. Jeremy Piven also makes a cameo appearance as the gay Verace salesman. Piven and Cheadle were both in “The Family Man,” which was directed by Ratner.

Now the Red Dragon Casino in Las Vegas owned by Ricky Tan and Steven Reign, played by the great Alan King, was actually the Desert Inn hotel and casino. There were red lights that shined which made it a scarlet color. When the 50 year old Las Vegas Strip property was closed in August 2000 by Steve Wynn, the “Rush Hour 2” production moved in and redesigned certain areas of the place as a Chinese themed casino/hotel for the movie. When they had finished production, the Desert Inn was demolished in October 2001 for a new $2.7 billion Wynn Las Vegas resort. Notice how the casino was named “Red Dragon,” which is also a movie that Ratner would go on to direct a few months after “Rush Hour 2,” which is also the name of a real casino in Mountlake Terrace, Washington.

The fake cash in this movie was called, “In Dogs We Trust.” Some of it had “escaped” from the set and eventually went in a few casinos in Las Vegas.

Here’s a quick trivia: Chan’s favorite number is 32. If you remember that gangster’s car’s license plate of 32 when Chan had spit the grenade out of his mouth and landed on the roulette table, it landed on 32 when it exploded.

At the end fight, Tucker improvised many different speeches after he fought the dangerous Hu Li, played by the very lovely and beautiful Zhang Ziyi. Ratner felt that it would not work and told Tucker to call her the B word, but he refused, and it took hours for Ratner to convince Tucker before he finally agreed. When filming the stunt where Tucker and Chan slide down the wires of Chinese Lanterns, there was a real car chase happening. This is true. A car full of drunk tourists got into an argument with the Taxi Driver, and a car chase ensued down onto the set, narrowly missing crew members, extras, and a crane which had a camera and crew. The good thing is no one was injured. The police detained the driver and the passengers of the taxi.

In a deleted scene, Phillip Baker Hall reprised his role of Captain Diel from the first film. Carter speaks with Diel about what happened when him and Lee were in Hong Kong and how he got in the Triad case. The Triads were the Hong Kong gang that Lee and Carter fought in the beginning. On the DVD commentary, Ratner said that he would have loved to have that scene in the movie, but it did not further the plot, and was left out.

Zhang Ziyi only speaks three English words in the film, two was when she asked Roselyn Sanchez’s character, Isabella, “Some apple?” If you can read lips, than you can see that she is seen in the part where Lee and Carter are spying on Isabella in the next door hotel, Hu Li comes in and says, “Here’s your package. You’re welcome.” Chan was Zhang’s translator while they shot the movie. “Hu Li” actually means “fox.” Here’s a funny story: her role was originally written for a man.
 

Notice how the first two films start in Hong Kong and end in a USA airport. Now the time gap between these two films is approximately four days.

One recurring joke is when Lee says to Carter, “You are a civilian. In Hong Kong, *I* am Michael Jackson and *you* are Toto.” Carter then responds, “You mean Tito! Toto is what we ate for dinner last night!” Another is when Lee thought that Carter was dead in the bomb explosion at his office, and when he finds him on the boat, Carter goes, “Who died Lee?” Lee responds, “You!” Carter than asks, “Detective Yu?” Lee keeps trying to tell him “you” but gets agitated and asks, “Do you understand the words that are a-coming out of my mouth?” (If you remember, Carter asked Lee that when he went to pick him up from the airport.) Carter then responds, “Don't nobody understand the words that are comin' out of your mouth.” Another joke is when Carter throws Lee’s “Beach Boys” CD out of the window, and Lee says in anger, “That's my CD! Don't you ever touch a Chinese man's CD!”

We also find out in the movie that Ricky Tan was the partner of Lee’s father. Lee then tells Carter that Lee’s father was working on a big smuggling case, found out that Tan was working with the Triads, but was killed before he could prove anything. Every evidence disappeared, Tan resigned, and the case was never solved. This film shows Lee and Carter growing, as partners, and I would say that this film is funnier and more enjoyable than the first; so do check it out if you liked the first one.

But how does the third one rate in the trilogy? Find out next time when I look at the final film in the