Rush Hour

Click here for IMDB's info on Rush Hour

Rush Hour is a fast-paced action-comedy mini-epic designed to fill as many seats in the movie house as possible, but nothing more. It's still enjoyable, though, as long as you can look past the utter predictability, generic plot line, laughable plot twists and horrendous acting, because its fun to watch. Thats all it tries to be, anyway.

The plot is something like this: Hong Kong kick-boxing detective Jackie Chan chases mysterious bad guy to Los Angeles, and gets saddled with motor-mouth LAPD pain-in-the-ass Chris Tucker , and together they attempt to find the daughter of an important Chinese diplomat who said-bad guy has kidnapped. Along the way, lots of action, lots of laughs, lots of things go boom. And they get cuddly and become best friends, and learn to understand each other. Awe.

No matter, I'm recommending this flick because its fun. Fun fun fun. Nothing more. I laughed. I got excited. I laughed harder. I got more excited. Eddie Murphy-clone Chris Tucker has charisma, believe it or not. Jackie Chan, well, he delivers, as expected. Who cares if they come up with every single Asian stereotype they can think of, right down to the da-da-da-da-da-da-dum-dum-dum Oriental theme played when Chan steps off the plane. Tucker and Chan clearly had fun making this flick. They make a good team and play off each other well. Does it matter that this is basically Lethal Weapon 5? Nah.

As told by the recent box-office receipts, their careers in America are sealed in cement. And the outtakes during the final credits are sometimes funnier than what ended up in the final cut. So go see this flick expecting some laughs and action. Don't expect deep insight into the human soul; leave that to Tucker's stand-up.

--Jordan Rockwell