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August 2007
RUSH HOUR 3 |
(August: Main Page * Features * Reviews * Screenings * Teen ) Cur * Archive |
By Kam Williams
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In any case, the story opens in L.A. where we find the motor-mouthed Carter demoted to directing street traffic while Lee is once more guarding Chinese Ambassador Han (Tzi Ma), as in the original. After an assassination attempt leaves Han seriously wounded, Lee promises the diplomat’s now-grown daughter, Soo Yung (Jingchu Zhang), to track down the shooter. The trail leads to a gang of Asian mobsters in Paris, and our heroes soon reunite and make their way over to France to crack the case. The mismatched partners immediately resume their oil-and-water bickering, a winning study in contrasts in which high-strung Carter’s constant trash-talking, womanizing and general incompetence is offset by Lee’s relatively low-key demeanor and suave savoir fare. A third stooge is added to the mix after they land in Europe, when George (Yvan Attal), an insolent cabbie with an attitude, becomes their regular driver. He can’t hide his contempt for American culture, and his presence not only infuses the film with some fresh energy but provides some of its most memorable moments of comic relief. As always, the brand of humor relies on simplistic stereotypes associating, say, Asians with eating rice and speaking pidgin English, blacks with acting a fool and being well-endowed, and now, the French with smelling and being rude. Fortunately, in the hands of director Brett Ratner, the material never crosses the line to coming off as meanspirited, but remains the sort of good-natured ribbing unlikely to offend any ethnic Despite the wafer-thin plot, at least the crime caper is compelling enough to keep you amused until the very end, though this is a flick to be savored scene by scene, for this joke, for that car chase, or for the grand-finale, a death-defying leap off the Eiffel Tower. Don’t forget to stick around for the credits, and you’ll be richly rewarded with a few minutes of equally-entertaining outtakes. The best buddy-cop comedy since Rush Hour 2. Excellent (4 stars) |
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