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Review: Rush Hour 2
Even though it's only the second movie in the series, Chan and Chris Tucker have already achieved a lot of the chemistry that worked so well for Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in the Lethal Weapon series. Chan and Tucker don't act as well, and the plots and writing are weaker, but they're funnier, and Chan's martial arts tricks, gags and maneuvers are, as always, amazing. It was a nice touch to pair these two -- who do a non-stop series of black/Asian riffs on one another -- with Crouching Tiger's brooding and beautiful Zhang Ziyi.
This movie is neither balletic or inventive, but nobody expects it to be, and it makes no claims for itself that it doesn't fully deliver on, a rarity this summer. The movie is fast-paced and good-hearted. Tucker is a bit shrill, but he gets off a furious string of put-downs, double entendres and racial spoof lines, and plays well off of the good-natured Chan, who can kick-box 20 bad guys but can't yet say "Madison Square Garden" on the first take. The settings are neat too -- the movie skips from Hong Kong to L.A. to Las Vegas as Tucker and Chan track down one of the mysterious Hong Kong Triads - yes, they're in Lethal Weapon also -- bent on flooding the U.S. with counterfeit money.
The plot is even more ridiculous than the first Rush Hour but it doesn't matter. It's striking to see the impact Hong Kong cinema has had on American movies, from this comedy to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to The Matrix. Jackie Chan deserves a lot of the credit, bringing the genre to the attention of Hollywood studios and many moviegoers.
This is an honest Grade B comedy, playing off a few very good lines, lots of well-choreographed martial arts battles -- one goes up the side of a building under construction, another takes place in a steam bath with combatants clad only in towels. Chan and Tucker obviously have a lot of fun working together, and it comes through in the movie. There is always the sense of two cultures sparking off one another in funny ways, as Chan struggles to deal with hip-hop and Tucker mangles phrases from his Chinese-English dictionary.
Nobody will say this is a great movie, but it was plenty of fun. Chan's hilarious, self-mocking outtakes are, as always, well worth sticking around for. He brings the audience into the movie-making process in ways that are open and appreciated -- everybody in my theater stayed behind. He seems to be reminding us -- and maybe himself -- not to take things too seriously. CT Throwing in my 2 bits on this just because I can (complain all you want posters! I'm abusing my privilage!) I enjoyed the flick a lot. I walked in, and was entertained. Final Fantasy and Moulin Rouge were the last 2 movies that I can say that about. The action sequences are nothing compared to CTHD, but damnit, they're fun. Many shots are super spoofy and just really funny, but I only saw maybe one shot that looked really fake (and thats including the shots that were supposed to look fake). Tucker and Chan are terrible actors, and half of the jokes are the bland Saturday Night Live caliber comedy that I would leave the theater over, but then they hit a zinger. Dammit I laughed and had a lot of fun. Then I went home and watched Romeo Must Die to see some real action.
Everyone usually sees only what they want to see. It's not even because they don't understand the objective truth, they're just not comfortable with it. Likewise, it's not that you can't think of a black comedian who doesn't fit the aforementioned "style", it's that you don't care to. That is truly telling. Quite frankly, I could probably name ten black comedians off the tip of my tongue, and I'm just a run of the mill vitimin D deprived white guy. On the off chance that you're actually telling the truth, take a break from the MTV and HBO, you might be shocked at how big the world really is.
--Jimmy has fancy plans; and pants to match.
Sorry, but the plot was actually GREAT, and yes, Chris and Jackie ARE good actors. It's amazing how there seems to STILL be a anti-Chan bias even among geeks and longtime fans in western culture. The same fanboys who will rave about how great Akira was will then turn around and unfailingly undercut Jackie Chan with off the cuff comments like, "Grade B plot" and clumsy references to acting skill.
It's like every film reveiewer has a compulsion to go out of their way to assert that a Chan movie had to have some weakness of plot or direction or acting. This wasn't mere escapist fare, it was as strong a plot as any of the movies this summer or last. Perhaps its threatening to see an Asian style film start to really take ahold in the West. Maybe you just wouldn't recognize a good plot in a Jackie Chan film if it bit you in the ass.
If this movie were filmed by John Woo, or if it was animated, it would be held up as a tour de force of moviemaking. Chan kicked ass this weekend and everyone who saw the movie without consciously wearing a "Reviewer" hat knows it.
Don't blame me - I voted for Howard Dean. http://dean2004.blogspot.com
So it's not a huge movie, and you're going to have to go to your local art-house theater to see it, but the funniest movie of the summer is "MADE". I know, I know, that's not saying much this summer, but any movie that has Dustin Diamond in a cameo playing himself has already achieved something awesome. The movie has some flaws (Vince Vaughn's "annoying guy" act gets, well, annoying) but overall it's better than any of the big movies at your local googleplex. See it, Katz!
Tracy Morgan would occasionally play Betty Curry on SNL.
Wayne Brady is the guy who sings the best songs on ABC's Who's Line Is It Anyway, and is appearently getting a new sitcom or variety show.
And A for singular. I might make the same observaiont about any individual I could put in any group. For the record, Wayne Brady is probably about as *contemporary*, as opposed to *popular*, as a comedian can hope to be. One has to do with a place in time, as per your objection to Bill Cosby, and the other mass appeal, or popular if you prefer. Few individuals will be able to beat Bill in a popularity contest, in fact such a contest might be an interesting poll of sorts. Of all comedians Bill Cosby, Richard Prior, and Eddie Murphy would all be near the top, so would Jerry Sienfeld (personally I find him about as funny as a dead kitten in a sack, but that's me).
--Jimmy has fancy plans; and pants to match.
When Jacki was here in Australia about 5 or so years ago making a couple of films that I was lucky enough to work on, he was adamant that he would never work in the US again (I think the last film he did in the US before then was Cannonball Run!). He hasn't got anything against the US as such, just his style of film making conflicts totally with the more professional, organised and unionised style of Hollywood filmcrews. Basically the guy is (or was) an insane workaholic, when he works on his own Hong Kong productions there's hardly a job on set and post production that he doesn't do. ;-)
I remember being on set one day watching him go about setting up a stunt scene. He correographed the stunt, wrote the lines to go along with it, directed the other actors then carried the camera to the top of a scaffold to set the camera angle he wanted. Later that evening, whilst he was in the studio where I was recording his voice-overs for a previous film, he broke the session so that he could look at the rushes from the previous days shoot. I thought he'd have an editor or an assistant do all the menial work for him but he grabbed the film cans and ran upstairs to the edit bench, laced up the print and sound himself. When I asked if he needed any help he got shitty and explained that he had an edit bench in his hotel room where he edited the film each night. He even did sound effects in the foley room later on when he wasn't happy with what the sound editors had done.
The main reason he doesn't (or didn't) like working for Hollywood was that union regulations wouldn't let him doing anything but act, he had to just sit in his trailer until his was called and they didn't appreciate his input into the correographing of fight scenes theat he felt were lame.
I guess things have changed a bit now, he's close to 50yo now and the injuries were starting to take there toll five years ago, so I guess that doing films like Rush hour are something akin to retirement for him
One more thing I have to say is, he really is one of the warmest, most genuine guys you could work with in the film industry, not one hint of pretentiousness at all he treats everyone he works with equally and is funny as hell.
The dude rocks all round.
The Taco is abusing his privileges again! I'm complaining! Er, what was the article about? Oh yeah. Jackie Chan rocks. His martial arts may not be pure coreography, but nothing I've seen so far even comes close to his talent for spoof and sellf-parody in martial arts movies. I have yet to watch a JC movie without having a good laugh. At the ending credits scenes if not anything else. :-)
Chris Tucker: Ok, I'll do every black stereotype I know, including the classics like what kind of music we listen to and how good we dance. And Jackie, you can be the butt of all my Chinese jokes.
Jackie Chan: Very good! And I will go up to black people and call them nigger because I don't know any better, and they will want to kill me and that will be a good excuse for me to show that I can kick their asses.
Honestly, I love Jackie movies (Shanghai Noon and Drunken Master were better, recent offerings) but the only humor in the first one was a bunch of stupid racist stereotypes.
Tim Medows.
Tracy Morgan (Unless dressing up like Oprah Winfrey is too hip-hop and edgy for you).
Wayne Brady.
I might add, that you only requested A black comedian, and did not qualify the remark further. But in reality, would it even matter? You seem to insist on things existing in such appallingly simple terms. As if Chris Tucker is only one way, or anyone else for that matter. I can virtually guarantee that viewed in a similarly harsh light everyone, you and I included, would appear little more than a caricature.
--Jimmy has fancy plans; and pants to match.
A review of a Jackie Chan movie by JonKatz, and no comment like, "Now, if only Chan and Tucker could bust into prison and free Dmitry while battling the evil creators of the DMCA!" :-)
There is no longer anything that can be done with computers that is nontrivial and clearly legal. -- Paul Phillips
Having seen a lot of Chan's movies, I have to agree. Even if it's only a split-second part of a fight scene, he'd prefer to have it done the best he can do rather then even have a small bit of it be bad. Does he always get his way? Well, it depends. If he's making the movie with HK producers, yes. They realize that he knows what he is doing. If it's with Hollywood, you can practically forget it. Look at "The Big Brawl" for the first example of Hollywood screwing up Chan.
I won't say he completely ignores the plot, but it does usually take a back seat to the butt-kicking scenes. But then, I don't go to a Chan movie to see plots worthy of Shakespeare. I go to see Jackie Chan use an entire prop-room's worth of stuff against his opponents.
Kierthos
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
To my surprised, he hadn't flubbed! But upon closer inspection, I noticed he got her name backwards.
Katz got it right. It *is* Zhang Ziyi.
And Mr. Levine, if you don't like Katz's articles, TURN THEM OFF.
Why is it that every time a review comes out, all these people come out of the woodwork to find little errors. Is it jealousy? Do you think you could write a better review and are jealous that he gets paid money for his?
/. should be told when the review their reading is factually acurate, or not. If he can't get the facts straight, what's the use of his opinion of them?
Have you been reading his reviews? I'm especially fond of his review of Jurassic Park 3, in which he admits he didn't even sit through it. I have, and could, write better reviews. I'm not jealous of the fact that Jon gets paid to write. I'm annoyed that he's so pretentious and sloppy about it (and getting worse.) I've been reading his 'reviews' on this site for a while and have let bigger errors slide. I pointed out the picky things that I did, because if he can't get details like that right, what use is the review? Why should people pay attention to his reviews if he cannot get the details of what he saw right?
As a reviewer, he has a great deal of latitude to give his opinion of what he saw, and I respect that. But, if he's gonna go beyond opinion to report what he actually saw, he should do so accurately, or not at all. People who read
Some people have a way with words, and some people, um, thingy.
In Rush Hour 1, the script was a little tighter and made a little more sense.
Funny; I didn't like the first Rush Hour; I only watched the second one because I was getting into the cinema for free. I thought it was a much better. Not sure why...
Chris Tucker was funny once again
Oh, yeah. Now I remember. Can't stand Chris Tucker. His high-pitched sreaming throughout the movie drove me fucking spare. In the second one, though, I was mentally prepared, so it didn't bother me as much. If I were to watch the first one again, I might enjoy it more.
What was the point of the "Snoopy tattoo"
So we could zoom in on her semi-naked bod? Best reason I can think of.
Why did the customs agent say she got rid of Lee and Carter when she really sent them to find the plates?
I'd assumed that she was sending them on a wild goose chase. Although now that you mention it, she wasn't. So: dunno.
Why did Ricky Tan look younger than Lee even though he used to be Lee's father's partner?
Must be a Jackie Chan thing. Anita Mui played his mother in drunken master 2. That would have been silly if it weren't for a fact that any Anita Mui movie is a cause for celebration.
My big question: why was Chris Tucker ahead of the Great Jackie in the credits? That's just not right.
Maybe I was smoking crack during that movie, but
I found it to be minimally funny. The only value
I found it to truly possess was amazing computer
graphic rendition.
With that being said, I'm wondering how great Rush
Hour 2 could possibly be if you place it just
below Shrek in bang-for-buck...
A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
People like Samo, Jackie Chan, Chuck Norris and Jet Li would all acknowledge without hesitation that Bruce Lee is the father of the modern martial arts movie. Heck, Samo and Norris even got their starts in acting appearing in Bruce Lee movies. (Yes they are that old, and so is Chan)
Woopty Doo Basil, what does it all mean?!
Jackie Chan deserves a lot of the credit, bringing the genre to the attention of Hollywood studios and many moviegoers.
Along with Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, etc...
Wrong. While Lee, Norris, etc. brought in the martial arts genre, Jackie Chan single handedly invented the Comedy-Kung-Fu genre.
Most other martial artists make serious movies.
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon? :P)
(If you can't figure out how to E-Mail me, Don't.
I agree with Katz on this one. Jackie Chan's movies are always fun, and although I enjoyed Rush Hour 2, it wasn't as good as Rush Hour 1 or Rumble in Toronto -- I mean Rumble in the Bronx. In Rush Hour 1, the script was a little tighter and made a little more sense. Rumble in the Bronx had some of Jackie's best stunts, particularly in the gang fight scene with Stigmata by Ministry playing in the background.
Rush Hour 2 felt, well rushed, where the script needed a little more polishing. This makes sense because I heard that Chan wasn't happy with the results of the stunts in the movie. The first act was pretty painful, but the movie got better in Act 2 and 3. But the script could have benefited from a rewrite (or perhaps this was just an editing problem). What was the point of the "Snoopy tattoo"? Why did the customs agent say she got rid of Lee and Carter when she really sent them to find the plates? Why did Lee carry around his dad's badge all the time (he took it to the US on a spur of the moment trip with Carter)? Why did Ricky Tan look younger than Lee even though he used to be Lee's father's partner?
The movie was funny though. Chris Tucker was funny once again, and Jackie Chan still excels at physical comedy. Chan also gets bonus points for doing the incredible stunts himself -- which should embarrass American "action stars" like Swartzenegger, Willis, Stallone, Reeves, etc. In an industry where any person with access to a harness, a computer to digitally remove the harness, tons of explosives, and sunglasses can be called an action star, it's cool to see Jackie Chan do his own stunts and make them look breathtaking.
Insert simplistic political, ideological, or personal proselytization here.
Chan and Tucker don't act as well, and the plots and writing are weaker, but they're funnier, and Chan's martial arts tricks, gags and maneuvers are, as always, amazing.
I live in Hong Kong.
Chan pioneered a new style of martial art movie ever since his first movie in Hong Kong, Drunken Fighter,(Many years ago, you probably haven't seen it) which added comedy elements in martial fighting.
Jacky Chan said in a local radio that he had a hard time working with Hollywood movie makers. He doesn't like they took everything too seriously. For example he proposed to use a silver-dye paper gun for a gun-kicking shot. The Hollywood producers didn't like it, but he argued the kicking scene just took 0.02 sec and nobody would notice.
That's his style, he'd rather put more effort to add more action and fun in action movie, then to spend time to build the plot.
Frankly I don't like watching weak-plot movies but his work is still very entertaining.
one of the mysterious Hong Kong Triads - yes, they're in Lethal Weapon also --
Lethal Weapon 4, actually, but who's counting.
Jackie Chan deserves a lot of the credit, bringing the genre to the attention of Hollywood studios and many moviegoers.
Along with Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, etc...
This is an honest Grade B comedy, playing off a few very good lines, lots of well-choreographed martial arts battles -- one goes up the side of a building under construction
actually, it's already built with people living in it; and the building has scaffolding around it.
another takes place in a steam bath with combatants clad only in towels.
They're mostly in bath robes and it's a massage parlor.
I don't know what it will take for Katz to call a movie Grade A, or good, but atleast he conceded that this one is enjoyable. I, on the other hand, judge movies by how well they tell their story. If it's a comedy and it makes me laugh, by definition it was good. I had a good time watching this one and hope Katz is right about it being a franchise (something they elude to in the outtakes.)
Oh yeah, there was a trailer for Fellowship of the Ring in front of this one.
Some people have a way with words, and some people, um, thingy.
The explicit reason I am not going to see this film is that given that Tucker and Chan have talent, it seems pointless to use "Exotic Oriental Chicks in Leather" or whatever as a draw.
Figures that the slashdot crew would be drooling over the Tiger Lily exotic whatever stuff.
Whenever a filmmaker resorts to T&A it's cause he or she has nothing else to say.
--- Jump!! Fire!! Bullet time!! - Lego version of the Matrix
> hopefully the actress in this one has a better character.
The two main women in this movie either kick his ass, or save his ass (depending on the woman). Nicely done! And Zhang Ziyi....oh my...she needs to be in a LOT more movies!
I read an interview with her in a Kung-Fu magazine where she said she wanted to take this role to prove to herself that she could portray a character so opposite of herself, someone truly bad. She _really_ pulled it off - she's totally menacing in this movie. Also note: she's _not_ a martial artist - she's a national champion dancer, though, and that's what allowed her to do the necessary moves so well.
I also have to agree with you about the camera being in waaaay to close for most of the scenes. I think it's much cooler to actually see some connection. I think the most egregious example of this is in the recent "Kiss of the Dragon" with Jet Li. I can see what the producers were going for here by pulling in the camera so close -- they were trying to accentuate Li's amazing (and I mean, amazing) speed by turning the flick into a veritable slideshow of dark flashes, which would be Jet Li's flailing limbs beating the shit out of some bad guy. But 15 straight minutes of this technique got really, really tiresome.
And I don't care what Taco says. For reasons other than just the way it was filmed, Romeo Must Die sucked.
I think there is a world market for maybe five personal web logs.
1. Zhang Ziyi
2. Ziyi Zhang
3. That cute Chinese actress whose name I keep forgetting...
insignificant sig
God, that movie had the WORST cinematography of any movie ever made. They had one trick: take a picture of the start of an action, cut to another angle so the actor doesn't actually have to do any work when jumping or kicking or firing a shot, and then cut to a third angle to show the denoument of the action. To anybody who's ever seen a real hong kong action film (and i don't mean those stupid "wire films," either), this American trick spoils everything. The actors in these films are genuinely talented...they don't need three takes to make one action look good. Some of the best Jackie Chan movies are filmed from a very far exterior angle shot, so you can see the surreal, comic fluidity of their motions. A perfect example of this is Supercop (see the HK version if you can...the changes made for the US release are notoriously dumb, and the lip sync horrid). Michelle Yeoh's high kicks and splits as she defeats 10 surrounding opponents is filmed in such a way that you can see every limb as she does so. It's obvious that there's nobody holding her up when she jumps, she's doing her own stunts and it makes the film much higher quality.
These American Chan films have a similar failing...they never show his limbs! Watch "Shanghai Noon" and try to count the number of times you actually see him connect with his foot when he kicks something, as compared to the number of times he lashes out and then they show a guy stumbling back. Count also the number of times you can see a character's face or upper body during an attack. It may be more "graphic novel" to show action in close up, but it's also more artificial.
I want my Chan where he belongs...in the director's seat, in control of the camera for action shots, working with somebody ELSE's script (so the film doesn't have the stupid touchy-feely multiculutral nice guy feel that Chan's movies often do). Just giving him a part or letting him choreograph a fight isn't enough; for a truly great Chan film you need to picture the whole scene...after all, what would Picasso's Guernica be, looked at through a toilet paper roll?
Hey freaks: now you're ju
I have to say, Jackie Chan doing his own stunts and making them look so easy never ceases to amaze me.
The one stunt that blew my mind was when he was running through the count room because that was one continuous shot. That was one heck of a stunt to try to do in only one shot.
The plot holes I found were excuseable. Nobody goes to a Jackie Chan movie expecting an Oscar calibur script.
The outtakes at the end were a little disappointing though, they're usually much funnnier than that.
I am very much looking forward to the proposed Jackie Chan/Jet Li project that's being tossed around. These two martial arts gurus in one movie will be mind blowing. I just hope the plot Robert Mark Kamen (Kiss of the Dragon) comes up with doesn't make it more of a vehicle for one or the other, however I think being in a film with Chan will help Li out quite a bit, giving him even more exposure that he is well deserving of.
Revolution Studios expects production to begin Fall 2002 and I can't wait!
Nobody will say this is a great movie
Bzzzt! This is a great movie.
I saw it last night, and I was thoroughly entertained. The Plot, while certainly not an Oscar contender, is well planned and executed.
There are many scenes in RH2 that are throwbacks to the first movie. The comedy is well paced, and manages to tag along with the plot very well. (I liked Chris Tucker's rendition of 'Don't Stop Till You Get Enough' in the karaoke bar. The massage parlor scene(s) were great too.)
Tucker and Chan aren't spectacular actors, but they're not "terrible" actors as CmdrTaco would have you believe in his *cough* 'privilage' *cough* abuse. They manage to carry the movie better than you'd expect, and deliver solid performances. Plus, the outtake scenes during the end credits are always a treat to watch. (I wish more movies would include outtakes. They're great.)
Jackie Chan's fight scenes are, as always, superbly done. I always love watching Jackie fight, because the entire sequences are so well put together. If you like to laugh, and like action, you'll like this movie.
And OH, my GOD.... Zhang Ziyi is absolutely beautiful.
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon? :P)
(If you can't figure out how to E-Mail me, Don't.
I think that's the basic point behind his reviews... that many geeks watch movies, therefore reviews of movies are a reasonable thing to have here. Personally, I'd say that movies are a branch of geekdom just like science or technology. Besides which, movies do tend to intersect technology in a lot of ways.
For the most part, I tend to disagree with his reviews although I find them mostly well-reasoned. They're useful to me in another more important way though... they let me know when that movie I wanted to see is out. =)
It's only really a waste of resources to people who don't think his reviews belong here and feel compelled to post about it. What's the point of getting bent out of shape about it?
~ Leilah
You hated The Mummy 2 because you didn't understand it was a spoof of itself...
You hated Planet of the Apes because it didn't live up to the original...
You hated Snatch because you couldn't keep up with it...
You liked Monkeybone and Down To Earth...
And now you're singing the praises of RUSH HOUR 2?!?!
Slashdot, or more specifically Katz, seem to defy description at times.
Cheers,
levine
The word 'nigger' is a.. what's the term I'm looking for... I don't know. It's a alteration of 'negro,' in any event. I'll never forget the time, when I was working for the Department of Indian Affairs, that I listened for a good ten minutes to a First Nations representative go on about how 'the white man' did this and 'the white man' did that. I stood up and said, quite purposefully, something about 'the red man's reaction' and got the expected 'do not refer to us as that, I am an Ojibwe' or some such. To which I replied 'then don't use the term 'white man.' Do you mean British, Scottish, Irish, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Belgin, Slavic, Czech, Slovak, Romanian, or what?' The look on his face was priceless.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
I saw Rushhour 2 yesterday and I agree that it was probably one of the best movies of the summer. The audience was laughing practically the entire time. I never saw Rushhour 1, but after this, I'm gonna go rent the DVD. I came into Rushhour 2 expecting it to be awful due to the very mixed reviews at metacritic.com but I was pleasantly surprised.
Kiss of the Dragon was nothing compared to this movie. Shrek, while I really liked it, is more of a kids movie (even with some of the adult jokes) so it can't be really compared to this movie.
The only negative part is Chris Tucker. He was just annoying for most of the movie. It seemed like he kept repeating the same "joke" over and over: Be annoying and act like you're a tough cop. What kind of cop behaves like he does? Jackie Chan was like Tucker's baby sitter.
Becauses reviewers lack the creativity to actually create a decent story, so they use their lack of creativity to critique the stories of others. Most movie reviewers only like movies about gays and retards, which is why Forrest Gump and The Crying Game were loved by critics all over.
...All I can say is that my life is pretty strange...
because in consumer tests 8 out of 10 geeks who expressed a preference said they loved martial arts films