Rush Hour 3

Rush Hour 3
File:Rushhour3poster.jpg Theatrical poster
Directed by	Brett Ratner
Written by	Jeff Nathanson
Produced by	Roger Birnbaum Michael Poryes Jonathan Glickman Jay Stern Arthur M. Sarkissian Andrew Z. Davis
Starring	Jackie Chan Chris Tucker Hiroyuki Sanada Yvan Attal Noemie Lenoir Tzi Ma Max von Sydow
Cinematography	J. Michael Muro
Edited by	Mark Helfrich Dean Zimmerman Don Zimmerman
Music by	Lalo Schifrin
Production companies	Roger Birnbaum Productions Arthur Sarkissian Productions Unlike Film Productions
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release date	August 10, 2007 (2007-08-10)
Running time	91 minutes
Countries	United States France
Languages	English French Japanese Mandarin
Budget	$140 million
Box office	$258,022,233

Rush Hour 3 is a 2007 American action comedy film. It is the third installment in the Rush Hour series, starring Jackie Chan as Inspector Lee and Chris Tucker as Detective Carter. The film was officially announced on May 7, 2006, and filming began on July 4, 2006. The film is set in Paris and Los Angeles. Rush Hour 3 was released on August 10, 2007, in the United States. A fourth film is currently in consideration by the series' creators.

Roman Polanski (a director and fan of the Rush Hour series) was given a small role as a French police official involved in Lee and Carter's case. In her first appearance in an American film, Noémie Lenoir portrays Geneviève, a beautiful stage performer who is one of the main suspects in the case as well as Carter's love interest. Tzi Ma reprises his role as Ambassador Han, Lee's boss and friend who appeared in Rush Hour. Yvan Attal co-stars as George, a cab driver who becomes Lee and Carter's new sidekick.

Plot

L.A.P.D. Detective Carter (Tucker) is directing traffic. Concurrently, Chinese Ambassador Han addresses the importance of fighting the Triads at the World Criminal Court, announcing that he may know the whereabouts of Shi Shen, a semi-mythical individual of great importance to the Triads. Before announcing, an assassin shoots Han in the shoulder, disrupting the conference. Chief Inspector Lee (Chan) pursues the shooter and corners him, discovering that the assassin is his Japanese foster brother Kenji (Sanada). When Lee hesitates to shoot Kenji, he makes his escape.

In the hospital, Lee learns that Han will make a full recovery. Han's daughter, Soo-Yung (Zhang), now grown up, arrives and makes Lee and Carter promise to capture the one behind the shooting. After following a lead that turns out to be a dead end, Lee and Carter intercept a gang of French speaking assassins who enter the hospital to kill Soo-Yung and Han. Lee and Carter defeat the assassins and interrogate one of them with the help of a nun (Dana Ivey), who can speak French. For her protection, they take Soo-Yung to the French Embassy and leave her under the care of Reynard (Max von Sydow), the French ambassador and the chairman of the World Criminal Court. When a car bomb nearly kills Reynard and Soo-Yung the duo decides to go to Paris to investigate.

In Paris, after getting a painful cavity search from Parisian commissioner Revi (Roman Polanski), Lee and Carter meet up with George, a taxi driver (Yvan Attal), who is prejudiced against Americans. He drives them to a Triad hideout. Once there, Lee is seduced by a Triad assassin named Jasmine (Kudoh) while Carter meets a beautiful woman (Lenoir) at a casino table. Lee and Carter attempt an escape that George finds exhilarating, but are ultimately captured by Kenji's men. Kenji offers to let them live if the two leave Paris immediately. While away from Lee, Carter spots and follows the woman he met earlier, learning that she is a stage performer named Geneviève. Meanwhile, Reynard reveals to Lee that Shi Shen is not a person, but a list of the Triad leaders and that Geneviève is Han's informant who had access to the list.

File:RushHour3CarChase.JPG

Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan during the car chase scene from Rush Hour 3.

After locating Geneviève and saving her from an assassination attempt, the two flee to their hotel room where Carter becomes intimate with Geneviève. They are attacked by Jasmine and decide to hide out with George who has developed a great appreciation for the United States. Lee and Carter learn that Geneviève not only knows where the list is, but that she is the list. The names of the thirteen Triad leaders have been tattooed on the back of her head, as per tradition, and Geneviève explains that she will be decapitated and buried if the Triads capture her. When Lee and Carter bring Geneviève to Reynard, they find out that he has been working with the Triads all along. Kenji calls and informs Lee that he has captured Soo-Yung and that he would like to exchange her for Geneviève.

Lee arrives at the exchange point, the Jules Verne Restaurant in the Eiffel Tower, with Carter disguised as Geneviève. Kenji challenges Lee to a sword fight, during which the two fall off the tower and into a safety net. Kenji's sword cuts the safety net open leaving both men hanging on for dear life. Not wanting them both to die, Kenji says goodbye to Lee and lets go, only to fall to his death. Meanwhile, Carter saves Soo-Yung and defeats Jasmine by kicking her into a spinning wheel. After escaping, Carter and Lee are confronted by Reynard, holding Geneviève hostage and threatening to kill her and frame them. However, George, having followed Lee and Carter, shoots Reynard from behind. The police arrive, with Commissioner Revi gloating and trying to get undeserved credit. After giving him a team punch to the face, Lee and Carter leave the scene dancing to the Edwin Starr song "War".

Cast

• Jackie Chan as Chief Inspector Lee
• Chris Tucker as Detective James Carter
• Hiroyuki Sanada as Kenji
• Yvan Attal as George
• Zhang Jingchu as Soo-Yung
• Noémie Lenoir as Geneviève / Shi Shen
• Roman Polanski as Commissaire Revi (uncredited)
• Youki Kudoh as Dragon Lady Jasmine
• Tzi Ma as Ambassador Solon Han
• Henry O as Master Yu
• Max von Sydow as Varden Reynard
• Philip Baker Hall as Captain William Diel (uncredited)
• Dana Ivey as Sister Agnes
• Sun Mingming as Kung-Fu Giant
• Sarah Shahi as Zoe
• Johnny Chase as French Bus Driver
• Mia Tyler as Marsha
• Lisa Thornhill as the Nurse
• Julie Depardieu as Paulette
• David Niven, Jr. as British Foreign Minister
• Roselyn Sanchez as U.S. Secret Service Agent Isabella Molina (deleted scenes)

Release

Box office

Rush Hour 3 was produced on a budget estimated at $140 million.

It opened on August 10, 2007 and grossed $49,100,158 in its first three days. The film's total North American gross was $140,125,968, far below the gross of Rush Hour 2 and slightly behind even the gross of the original. Noted Brandon Gray of Box Office Mojo:

Rush Hour 3 was marketed as just another Rush Hour picture, in part because the movie itself is a slight romp, and lacked the event-style build-up that Rush Hour 2 had. What's more, Chan hasn't been on American screens for three years, while Tucker's last movie was Rush Hour 2. A repetitious entry in a series without a major new hook doesn't quite cut it after a six-year wait if the intent is to build or retain an audience. That Rush Hour 3 had a sizable debut is a credit to the good will generated by the first two pictures.

Rush Hour 3 grossed $255,045,928 worldwide.

Critical reception

Unlike its predecessors, the film received generally unfavorable reviews from critics, primarily on the film's more crude humor. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 44 based on 32 reviews indicating "mixed or average reviews". Desson Thomson of The Washington Post, giving it three and a half stars out of five, said "at the risk of eternal damnation on the Internet, I admit to laughing at — even feeling momentarily touched by — Rush Hour 3." On Rotten Tomatoes the film had a score of 19% based on 157 reviews with a consensus of "Rush Hour 3 is a tired rehash of earlier films, and a change of scenery can't hide a lack of new ideas." Todd Gilchrist of IGN movies said, "A movie that not only depends on but demands you don't think in order to enjoy it." Christian Toto of The Washington Times said, "The Rush job should put the franchise down for good." Christopher Tookey of the Daily Mail said, "Infecting this third movie is an extra, deeply unpleasant level of racism that we haven't seen before in the series." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times was slightly more positive giving the film two stars and saying, "...once you realize it's only going to be so good, you settle back and enjoy that modest degree of goodness, which is at least not badness, and besides, if you're watching Rush Hour 3, you obviously didn't have anything better to do, anyway." James Berardinelli of ReelViews gave the film one-and-a-half stars out of four, and said the movie was dull, uninspired and redundant.

Distribution in China

The film was not screened in Chinese theaters in 2007, to make way for a larger variety of foreign films for that year, according to a business representative. (The quota for imported films is 20 each year.)

Home media release

The film was released on December 26, 2007, on DVD, VHS and Blu-ray Disc. As of March 30, 2008, the film has made $80.75 million in Home Video rentals, making it the top rental of 2007.

Sequel

Main article: Rush Hour (film series) § Future

Because of the film's box office success, director Brett Ratner and writer Jeff Nathanson are currently considering the production of a fourth film in the Rush Hour series. In the DVD audio commentary for Rush Hour 3, Brett Ratner jokes that a Rush Hour 4 could be released in the future. Ratner and Nathanson are exploring many concepts, including the use of the motion capture technique for the possible sequel and various film projects with Chan and Tucker. It has been reported that the fourth film may be set in Moscow.

In a recent interview with Vulture, Ratner stated that the high cost of making a sequel is, "why another Rush Hour probably won’t get made, either: It'd be too much to pay me, Chris [Tucker], and Jackie [Chan] to come back."

In an interview, on May 12, 2012, Jackie [Chan] reveals that he is still planning on both a Rush Hour and a Karate Kid sequel.

Soundtrack

The original motion picture soundtrack for this movie was released on August 8, 2007 on CD and audio cassette from New Line Records and Columbia Records.

1. "Do Me, Baby" - Performed by Prince & Chris Tucker
2. "Less Than an Hour (Theme Song from Rush Hour 3)" - Performed by Nas & Cee-Lo Green
3. "War [Extended Version]" - Performed by Edwin Starr, Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker and Adrienne Bailon
4. "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" - Performed by Jackie Wilson
5. "Bonnie and Clyde" - Performed by Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot
6. "The Stoinked Quay (Original Score)" - Composed by Lalo Schifrin
7. "New Line Cinema Theme (Original Score)" - Composed by Lalo Schifrin
8. "Shaolin Fight" (Original Score) - Composed by Mark Mothersbaugh
9. "Adrienne Bailon!" (Original Score) - Composed and Conducted by Lalo Schifrin & Mark Mothersbaugh
10. "The Closer I Get To You" - Performed by Luther Vandross, Beyonce, Jackie Chan, and Chris Tucker

See also

• Jackie Chan filmography

External links

• Rush Hour 3 at IMDb
• Template:Allrovi movie
• Rush Hour 3 at Rotten Tomatoes
• Rush Hour 3 at Metacritic
• Rush Hour 3 at Box Office Mojo
• Template:Myspace
• Review At Famoso Magazine