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After taking down Vegas and Hong Kong, the unlikely pairing of LAPD detective James Carter (Chris Tucker) and Hong Long PD Chief Inspector Lee (Jackie Chan) are after the biggest game of all in Paris, the leaders of the Hong Kong Triads. Brett Rattner retains the director’s seat he’s occupied for all three installments while Jeff Nathanson, who took over the writing for 2, repeats here.
In Rush Hour 3, Lee’s mentor Ambassador Han is about to reveal this great secret of the Triads before a made-up version of the World Court when he’s assassinated with Lee just a few feet away from the podium. Lee sees the sharpshooter and gives chase, running into Carter. Han’s daughter, now all grown up and hot, is kidnapped, sending the boys to France to finish the job Han started and recover the girl.
Tipped to a private gentlemen’s club, Lee and Carter connect with a hot Asian (Youki Kudoh) and French-African woman (Noemie Lenoir), respectively. Kudoh, unfortunately for Lee, is a Triad assassin and requires him to use all of his agility to get away but Lenoir is much friendlier to Carter. Max von Sydow and Oscar-winning film director Roman Polansky are not bad in supporting roles as the head of the World Court and a French police detective. Polansky, of course, has also been a fugitive from American justice for over 30 years on a statutory rape charge, so I was quite amused to see him playing a cop; von Sydow has played this type of roles so many times over the years that one worries he’s going to walk through his lines.
Hiroyuki Sanada is Kenji, the principal villain, beginning with Han’s killing and right to the climactic confrontation with Lee and Carter in the restaurant at the top of the Eiffel Tower. Along the way, through the three’s interactions, we finally learn a bit of Lee’s personal story and Carter shows he hasn’t been talking out of his ass when claiming to have spent the years since the duo’s last adventure studying martial arts.
Overall this was an enjoyable entertainment even if it is also the slightest of the three Hours. Rattner and Nathanson still to their formula like SuperGlue in every scene and line of dialog, and I’m not sure I’d pay to see Rush Hour 4, but since it’s a decent formula we walked out of the theater laughing and if they do make a fourth I’d certainly watch it on cable.
recommended
