Rush Hour (1998)
Directed by Brett Ratner
When Hong Kong Inspector Lee is summoned to Los Angeles to investigate a kidnapping, the FBI doesn't want any outside help and assigns cocky LAPD Detective James Carter to distract Lee from the case. Not content to watch the action from the sidelines, Lee and Carter form an unlikely partnership and investigate the case themselves.
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5 films that influenced Rush Hour
What critics say influenced Rush Hour
This is especially true of Tucker, who is essentially doing a caricature of Eddie Murphy in the "Beverly Hills Cop" movies, as he runs on at the mouth as he's wont to do and garners a few laughs from an arsenal of "it's a black thang" maneuvers.
Before you could say 48 Hours (or Beverly Hills Cop or Lethal Weapon...), Chan found himself paired with Chris Tucker in a stupidly sure-fire vehicle.
Pacing is improved and the story line holds up better, the latter owing to the script contributed by Jim Kouf (Gang Related, the two Stakeout films) and Ross Lamanna, with uncredited assists from Antwone Fisher and Jeff Nathanson.
It is patterned most obviously after the Lethal Weapon series, featuring two unlikely partners whose personalities clash more with each other than the criminals they're pursuing.
Before you could say 48 Hours (or Beverly Hills Cop or Lethal Weapon...), Chan found himself paired with Chris Tucker in a stupidly sure-fire vehicle.
I love a good buddy cop film, whether it’s “Lethal Weapon” or “Red Heat.”
The earlier two films were essentially camp chop-sockies packaged for Westerners, but Rush Hour, with its high production values and Lethal Weapon–style cop-buddy formula, is pure Hollywood formula moviemaking, pairing Jackie with the unlikeliest of partners: abrasive comic Chris Tucker.
We have seen a lot of films like this, like "48 Hours" and the "Lethal Weapon" series.
The film is built on tired buddy cop conventions long worn out by Riggs and Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon franchise.
Here is a man sometimes so hilarious and influencing to this movie that it seems hard to believe that he at one time appeared in rubbish like "Friday."
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Pacing is improved and the story line holds up better, the latter owing to the script contributed by Jim Kouf (Gang Related, the two Stakeout films) and Ross Lamanna, with uncredited assists from Antwone Fisher and Jeff Nathanson.