In 1998, armed with the power of a never ending stream of conscious thought bullshit emitting from the pie hole of Chris Tucker, Jackie Chan finally cracked America properly like Arnold Schwarzenegger and The Beatles before him and unlocked the template needed to aid any other martial arts star hoping to throw lightning fast hands in the West. It may have been rather a simple solution in the end, but you have to credit Rush Hour for figuring out the code needed to translate Chan’s iconic skills to the multiplexes. Simply put, all you had to do is let Jackie’s uncanny, physical comic timing do the talking that his thick accent couldn’t and bring in a partner who features a gift of the gab that hits just as hard as one of Chan’s flailing fists.
Hence bickering detectives Carter and Lee we born, and while they lacked the finesse of, say, a Riggs and Murtaugh, they proved to be a successful enough duo to warrant a sequel.
Now, sequels usually aim to be bigger and more spectacular than before, so this was obviously good news when it came to the various, complex fight scenes – but going bigger with Carter’s smart mouth? Is that really a good idea?
Mere days after the events of Rush Hour, we find Carter and Lee supposedly relaxing after the former has joined the latter for a soothing vacation in Hong Kong, but unbeknownst to him, his partner is still persuing his cases on the side. The newest issue to raise its head is the bombing of a US Consulate kills two American customs agents and so, under the guise of a little R&R, Lee starts looking into Triad leader Ricky Tan, the man who once was the partner to Lee’s late police father. However, after finally cottoning on to what Lee is up to after his attempts to chill at a karaoke bar and a massage parlor both ended up in brawls with Chinese mobsters, Carter isn’t best pleased, but after he storms out in a huff, Lee believes him dead after another bomb goes off in his office.
While the two investigate the case from different ends, they are reunited at a boat party held by Tan and are shocked when the gangster is shot by his own high kicking, bomb planting hench person, the unhinged Hu Li.
From here, what little plot there is evaporates as the case suddenly lurches back over to America and eventually settles in Las Vegas as both Carter and Lee struggle to work out the true alligence of Agent Isabella Molina as the case ultimately ends up being about something to do with counterfeit money or something.
Whatever the hell is going on, it gives Lee plenty of opportunities to kick multiple goons in the face while Carter loudly offers his opinion about everything and when the smoke clears, the complaining couple will no doubt be jiving to the Beach Boys for another day.
If you thought that Rush Hour ignored the basics of its entire plot in order to push its strengths to the center of the screen, then buddy, you haven’t seen anything yet as there are moments in the delightfully throwaway Rush Hour 2 where you will literally lose track of what our heroes are actually trying to achieve as they’re doing it. To be fair, watching a Rush Hour movie hoping it will be an intriguing insight into overseas police procedure concerning smuggling is about as useful as watching a Fast And Furious sequel in an attempt to learn the Cuban highway code and amusingly, the filmmakers seemingly agree. To be fair, they’re absolutely right as no one really gives two shits why Carter and Lee are getting into such scrapes, justvas long as they sort them out in their own, scrappy style. It’s in this respect, that Rush Hour 2 manages to become something of a superior sequel as everything, and I do mean everything, ultimately comes second to simply letting Chan and Tucker do their stuff – and do it, they do.
The expanded scope of the sequel means that Chan’s brand of extended comedic scrapping gets to move a little closer to the brain melting stuff he was perfecting in the 80s and while he’s noticably moving at half speed and all the moving parts are quite as complex as they could be, it’s still conceptually stronger than the stuff he did in the first film. One fight scene sees him scramble up the side of a building, leg sweeping guys off of some bamboo scaffolding, while the movie’s strongest fight sees an almighty brawl occur in a massage parlour that takes in flips, twirls and some poor sod getting towel whipped in the dick. Even the later scenes managed to keep that distinctive “Jackie Chan” energy when Lee has the misfortune of having an incendiary device cellotaped in his mouth and has to fight off people while he desperately thwarts the attempts of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’s Zhang Ziyi as she tries to detonate it.
Similarly, Chris Tucker obscenely verbose Carter is also given a grander stage to work his magic by having him attempt a spirited rendition of Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough at a Triad bar (surely Tucker’s greatest moment) and even though the dude is nothing more than a walking collection of alarming red flags, he still somehow remains perversely – if debatably – loveable. If you thought that some of the shit that came out of Carter’s mouth was problematic back in 1998, he’s completely off the fucking chain now as his dialogue seems to most consist of racial jibes aimed solely at the Chinese. When he isn’t mercilessly verbally assaulting their height (“I’m two feet taller than everybody in here!”), he’s taking aim at their food (“Toto is what we ate last night!”) and when taking cheap shots at their looks fails (“You third world ugly!”) the woefully predictable declaration that “all y’all look alike!” is busted out with worrying regularity. However, in a weird side-effect, the sight of Chan’s perpetually innocent features somehow manages to take the edge of the more iffier moments, even when an irritated Chan warns Tucker that he’s going to “bitch slap him back to Africa”.
However, one thing the natural charisma and chemistry of our leads can’t diffuse is the endless leering of women that goes on with an extended scene of the pair spying on Roselyn Sanchez’s undressing agent proves to be somewhat uncomfortable, especially considering the allegations of sexual misconduct that’s since risen up about director Brett Ratner.
However, it’s pretty obvious that Rush Hour 2 is essentially the Jackie and Chris show and everything else willfully gets lost in the noise – sure it’s stupid (oh by God is it stupid), but the sheer stopping power of the two lead’s chemistry is so much fun, you won’t even question the fact that the film barely even contains a single rush hour.
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