Rush Hour 2 (2001)

Brett Ratner

USA

120 mins, color, English

RUSH HOUR was a fun movie. It had lots of top-notch action courtesy of the indefatigable Jackie Chan, it had a mildly interesting plot, and generally tons of unselfconscious laughter. It also had Chris Tucker, who was mercifully reined in. The sequel, on the other hand, has some action --- nothing even close to Chan's usual elaborate and very humorous stunts --- that is somewhat less than inspiring, a plot that might have been read from the back of a fortune cookie, and tons of embarrassing off-color jokes, all repetitive, that would make even talentless hacks like "comedian" Chris Rock blush. It also had Chris Tucker. Lots of Chris Tucker. Usually, one scene with said Chris Tucker is enough to vulgarize even the most refined humor. In RUSH HOUR 2, we get the iceberg that sent Titanic to the bottom of the sea. Like the iceberg, only a small brush with Tucker was enough to sink this film.

Judging by shows featuring stand-up comedians that target black audiences, there are some people who find loud, offensive, and humorless racist jokes to be funny. I don't, especially when they are delivered by that graceless buffoon Tucker (your pick which of the two, they have the same style). The loudmouth ignoramus of a L.A. cop, Carter (Tucker), almost immediately got on my nerves with his routine. I wept when the second bomb did not blow him to smithereens. Then I rejoiced because, like the fragments of a broken mirror, this would have saddled us with a myriad of small, but just as annoying, Carters. By now I have gotten used with black comedians hurling insults at whites and I have never cared. (By the way, I take exception to Roger Ebert's otherwise fine assessment of the film regarding the casino scene. I think the critic misses the point that Carter was purposefully obnoxious and offensive there. He had to get everyone's attention, he had to embarrass everyone, he had to get the dealer to respond in a way that would create a commotion. After all, this was supposed to be a diversion.) However, Carter's remark, repeated twice, that he could not understand what Lee (Chan) was saying would have been funny if people could understand Carter more than half the time. His rant, lacking any grammar of sense of English, on the other hand is typical of the modern "lingo" that requires certain habituation --- or is it "indoctrination"?

In any case, most of the attempted humor was lost on me and the other five people in the audience, who snickered here and there but mostly watched in embarrassed silence. The requisite eye candy is supplied in gratuitous doses by the bombshell Roselyn Sanchez, who plays the undercover agent Isabella and who can't even fake being able to fight, and by the absolutely gorgeous --- and deadly psychotic --- Zhang Ziyi, who plays the absolutely gorgeous --- and deadly psychotic gangster Hu Li. Ziyi has a great fighting scene where she almost annihilates Carter but regrettably fails to do so, mostly because the film-makers are probably thinking of a sequel. Sanchez should have undressed more. I would have overlooked her unimpressive martial skills.

At any rate, the two women were the needed relief from Tucker's endless tirades that bore down on me like a herd of frightened bulls charging down a steep hill. I was overrun, trampled, kicked, and broken, and that wasn't funny. I hear Tucker was paid $20 million to do that to me. My wife does it for free, so maybe she should star in the next sequel and let Ratner, or whoever directs it, spend more time and money on Jackie Chan and his stuff, for it is the only reason I, and I suspect most everyone else, go to see these films.

August 16, 2001.