Rush Hour

It appears that buddy cop movies always seem to have a lot of comedy in them. That was definitely the case in the “Lethal Weapon” series, but that also had a lot of seriousness in them until the much later films. However, if you look at the “Rush Hour” trilogy, it has more funny and some seriousness. Let’s take a look at the first film, which came out in 1998.

Brett Ratner was chosen as the director for this movie, and he was a big fan of Jackie Chan’s movies from Hong Kong. I have seen both “Drunken Master” movies, and the second one, which in the USA is called “The Legend of Drunken Master,” was really action packed. As a result, I don’t blame Ratner for casting Chan, since he is a great actor who trained at the Peking Opera House. According to wikianswers, Chan has studied several forms of martial arts. He learned from his father, GrandMaster Leung Ting in Wing Chun, Tong Long, and Bak Mei. He knows Hapkido, Boxing, Judo, Taekwondo and Hei Long, but his personal style mixes Wing Chun, Hapkido and Judo. This is the reason why he performs his own stunts and doesn’t use a double. However, Ratner felt that American audiences were unfamiliar with the jokes from Chan’s other movies, so he used some of his jokes on purpose. This can be seen in the part when Chan accidentally grabs Elizabeth Peña’s chest, which a similar situation can be seen in Chan’s 1997 movie, “Mr. Nice Guy.”

For the part of Chan’s partner, Martin Lawrence and Dave Chappelle (who are also two of the funniest comedians out there) were originally considered for the role. However, another funny comedian who has become a serious Christian, Chris Tucker, won the part. On George Lopez’s talk show, Tucker said that Chan used to make him look bad by showing up to work on time. He would tell Chan, “Take it easy in your trailer,” but Chan would respond, “Get to set on time, you wasting money!” Chan is also well-known for messing up his lines. Tucker would say that he would have Chan’s lines on cardboards all over him and he would stand behind the camera. Tucker only messed up one time and Chan rubbed it in his face.

The film grossed a total of over $244 million worldwide, over $141 in the US, and over $103 million outside the US. It was well received amongst critics, giving it a 61% on Rotten Tomatoes and is given a 6.8 on IMDB. This is one of the funniest buddy movies you will see, and I highly recommend you go see it.

You’re probably wondering: What is the film about? Hong Kong is just a few days shy of being a part of the British colony. Chan’s character, Detective Lee, is a cop who busts a smuggling ring, but they escape to USA. Once they arrive there, the leader, Thomas Griffin aka Juntao (Tom Wilkinson) captures Consul Han’s (Tzi Ma) daughter, Soo Yung (Julia Hsu). Juntao tells the FBI that he wants Lee, who is a family friend, to come to Los Angeles to help with the investigation. However, the feds don’t want a cop from overseas to help with the investigation, and they don’t want to get the LAPD involved. In order to do that, the LAPD chief, played by Philip Baker Hall, decides to get a detective that gives him a headache to keep Lee out of the way and also to get him out of the picture. That would be Tucker, playing James Carter, who works in dangerous situations.

Now this pair up is just great because neither one of them like teamwork and prefer to work alone. However, Lee is new to the country and Carter needs to impress his chief. This gives the writers, Jim Kouf and Ross Lamanna, a very good opportunity to write down as many funny jokes and one-liners they can think of.

Chan, as always, performs all of his stunts. The part where he jumps from a double-decker bus onto an overhead traffic sign and lands on a truck, or when he falls from a beam and lands safely on a silk streamer, that’s all Chan. Soo Yung in this film is not your typical helpless child that tries to kick and scream her way out of trouble. She instead is treated like one of Chan’s martial arts students. When Juntao and his men try to kidnap her, she doesn’t give them trouble. Tucker is also great in the way he tries to talk his way out of situations. He does this by using an amusing line of dialogue while he figures out what to do next. Roger Ebert himself said, “’Rush Hour’ is lightweight and made out of familiar elements, but they're handled with humor and invention, and the Wunza formula can seem fresh if the characters are Botha couple of engaging performers.” This is what Ebert had called a buddy movie as a subgenre, which can describe the contrasts between two characters in a typical movie.

Throughout the movie, Lee and Carter grow to become partners and work well with one another. Both had fathers that were legends in the police department, and when they fight over what their father’s did when they were on the force, it all boils down to both of them threatening each other to not disrespect their father. Later on in one of the serious scenes, we find out that Carter’s father was killed in daylight “making a routine traffic stop by some punk who didn’t want no ticket.” The sad part about this is that the partner did not even back him up when he was supposed to. He even tells Lee to prove him wrong in believing his father wasted his life and died for nothing without any honor.

Some of the funny scenes include when Carter tries to teach Lee how to say “y’all” to the Edwin Starr song, “War.” Another is when Carter says to Lee, “This is the United States of James Carter. I'm the president, I'm the emperor, I'm the king. I'm Michael Jackson, you Tito.” One of the memorable funny scenes is when Carter yells at Lee for touching his car radio and warns him, “Don't you ever touch a black man's radio, boy!” How about when Lee hears Carter say the N word and decides to use it himself, and ends up in a fight? One of the funny Carter lines is when he asks Juntao over the phone, "Fifty million dollars? Man, who do you think you kidnapped? Chelsea Clinton?"

Ebert also said, “The movie teams up Jackie Chan, king of lighthearted action comedy, and Chris Tucker, who crosses Eddie Murphy with Chris Rock and comes up with a guy who, if you saw him a block away, you'd immediately start wondering how he was going to con you. There are comic possibilities even in their personal patterns. Chan is not known for his effortless command of English, and Tucker is a motormouth. Chan's persona is modest and self-effacing, and Tucker plays a shameless self-promoter.” That’s all more reason to see this movie. Also, stay tuned after the film to see the bloopers while the credits roll.

The film also had two sequels that were released in the following years, which I will get to later on in the month. Thanks for reading this review, and I hope you enjoyed it.