Rush Hour

Starring: Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, Tom Wilkinson, Chris Penn, Elizabeth Pena
Directed by: Brett Ratner
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action, Comedy
1998

Times Seen:
Tim: 3

Summary: After the daughter of a Chinese diplomat is kidnapped, he sends for his best detective (Jackie Chan) from China to help in the investigation. The FBI wants nothing to do with him, so they assign a loose-cannon L.A.P.D. officer (Chris Tucker) to babysit him and keep him away from the investigation. This situation causes the two men to strongly dislike each other, but they come together with their shared desire to crack the case themselves and try to rescue the kidnapped girl before time runs out.

Review:

Tim: This is a surprisingly entertaining action comedy that manages to be both very fun and very funny. The action-buddy film is an easy way to make an enjoyable film and this one exploits the concept to the fullest (arguably borrowing from every buddy cop flick ever made).

Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan are a dynamite team. Sometimes actors just click, and this is what happened here. Tucker's style of fast paced humor matches up brilliantly with Chan's quiet, more subtle sense of handling himself. Amazingly, playing up Chan's foreign background allows him to get more laughs than Tucker. Chan's martial arts ability is fully explored and result in quite a few breathtaking fight scenes. Action and comedy have always gone well together, and that tradition continues here. Tucker bringing the comedy and Chan bringing the action is great- but each's foray into the other's specialty adds an interesting mix to the film.

The plot is interesting, but not as important as Tucker and Chan's chemistry. They are incredibly fun together. This is a truly enjoyable movie with the perfect blend of action and comedy. Brett Ratner scores a huge success here, starting out a very good franchise.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Rush Hour 2, Shanghai Noon, Shanghai Knights