Rush Hour 3 (2007)
Directed by Brett Ratner
After a botched assassination attempt, the mismatched duo finds themselves in Paris, struggling to retrieve a precious list of names, as the murderous crime syndicate's henchmen try their best to stop them. Once more, Lee and Carter must fight their way through dangerous gangsters; however, this time, the past has come back to haunt Lee. Will the boys get the job done once and for all?
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The plot, which involves Triad members up to no good in Paris, is inconsequential and predictable (I knew Max von Sydow shouldn't be trusted the moment he showed up), but it rolls along at a nice enough clip (though, again, antiquely slow compared to "The Bourne Ultimatum") and it does work as an excuse for a free-for-all homage to Asian action cinema, from old kung fu flicks (look for a reversal of the Bruce Lee / Kareem Abdul-Jabbar fight in "Game of Death", as Tucker takes on the world's tallest Asian!) to John Woo's gangster movies (watch Tucker work twin handguns in a hospital, "Hard Boiled"-style!).
If the third teaming of yappy comedian Chris Tucker and martial arts wizard Jackie Chan isn't the best "Rush Hour," at least it's the one that tries the hardest.
Some movie franchises, like the "Harry Potter" series, grow and change before our eyes; some, like Brett Ratner's "Rush Hour" movies, stay resolutely the same.
Los Angeles Police Department detective Carter (Tucker) has been demoted to traffic cop and Chinese inspector Lee (Chan) is a bodyguard to the Chinese ambassador (Tzi Ma) first seen in "Rush Hour."
Brett Ratner doesn't come near to transcending his influences like Tarantino did in "Kill Bill", but we're more or less on the same level of silly fun as Carpenter's "Big Trouble in Little China".
If nothing else, viewers should be thankful that Ratner and screenwriters Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn have resisted the impulse to pack X-Men: The Last Stand with one overblown action sequence after another - which is especially impressive when you consider that the three are collectively responsible for some of the noisiest movies in recent years (ie Mr. & Mrs. Smith, XXX: State of the Union, Rush Hour 2, etc, etc).