Rush Hour 3
| Rush Hour 3 | |
|---|---|
| File:RH3.jpg | |
| Directed by | Brett Ratner |
| Written by | Jeff Nathanson (Screenplay) Ross LaManna (Characters) |
| Produced by | Robert Birnbaum Andrew Z. Davis Jonathan Glickman Athur M. Sarkissian Jay Stern |
| Starring | Jackie Chan Chris Tucker Tzi Ma Noemie Lenoir Hiroyuki Sanada Max von Sydow Jingchu Zhang Yvan Attal Youki Kudoh Roman Polanski |
| Cinematography | J. Michael Muro |
| Edited by | Mark Helfrich Billy Weber Don Zimmerman |
| Music by | Lalo Schifrin |
| Distributed by |  New Line Cinema  Entertainment Film Distributors |
Release dates |   August 9 2007  August 10 2007 |
Running time | 90 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Languages | English French Chinese |
| Budget | $140 million |
| Box office | $192,126,927(worldwide) |
Rush Hour 3 is the third installment in the martial arts/action-adventure Rush Hour franchise starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, that began with Rush Hour (1998) and continued with Rush Hour 2 (2001). 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 Canada, the US, and UK.[1]
Academy Award-winning film director Roman Polanski co-stars as a French police official involved in (Chan and Tucker's characters) Lee and Carter's case. Tzi Ma reprises his role as Ambassador Han, Lee's boss and friend who appeared in the first installment. This film has received a PG-13 rating by the MPAA for sequences of action violence, some sexual material, and language.
The film will not be screened in Chinese theaters this year due to an "overabundance" of imported films released in 2007, as stated by an import official (China only allows a certain amount of imported films to be released nationwide in theaters each year).[2] The film is currently screened in Hong Kong theaters, however.
Plot
Three years after the end of Rush Hour 2, Carter is no longer a detective, but a traffic cop on the streets of Los Angeles. Lee is now the bodyguard for his friend Ambassador Han, the former Consul from the first film. However, there is a rift between them as Lee is still upset at Carter about an incident in New York City where Carter shot (not fatally) Lee's then-girlfriend, Secret Service agent Isabella Molina (portrayed by Roselyn Sanchez in the second film), an event which led to their breakup.
During the World Criminal Court discussions, as the Ambassador addresses the importance to fight the Triad, he announces that he knows the identity of the Triad leadership known as the Shai Shen. Unfortunately, an assassination attempt on Han's life takes place and he gets shot, disrupting the conference. Lee traces and pursues the assassin and eventually corners him, discovering that the assassin is his godbrother, Kenji. When Lee hesitates to shoot Kenji, Carter shows up driving towards the two but Kenji manages to escape.
In the hospital, Lee learns that the bullet had missed Han's heart and that he will make a full recovery. Han's daughter, Soo Yung (Zhang Jingchu), now grown up, arrives and makes Lee and Carter promise to capture the one behind the assassination in order to ensure her father's safety. She then informs Lee and Carter that her father gave her an envelope which contains important information regarding the Triad, and that the envelope is in her locker at the martial arts studio where she works. Lee and Carter make their way to the martial arts studio where they battle a giant, (Sun Ming Ming), but find out that a gang of armed men had already arrived and taken the contents from the locker. Lee and Carter realize that Soo Yung and Han are in danger and rush back to the hospital.
Once they reach the hospital, Lee and Carter notice that the security and staff have all disappeared. Yung explains that they had all been called away. At that moment, a gang of assassins arrive to kill Yung and Han. Lee and Carter manage to defeat them, with the help of Soo Yung, and interrogate the leader of the assassin squad. Much to Lee and Carter's surprise, the Asian assassin is speaking French. With the help of a resident nun (Maggie Smith) to translate, find out that they are marked for death by the Triad along with Soo Yung and Han. For her protection, they take her to the French Embassy and leave her under the care of Reynard, the French ambassador. When a car bomb detonates, nearly killing Reynard and Soo Yung, Lee and Carter decide to go to Paris to investigate.
In Paris, (after getting a painful cavity search from a Parisian commissioner, played by Polanski) Lee and Carter meet up with George, a taxi driver. George refuses to drive Carter, saying that Americans make him sick. However, George must get away in a high-speed chase to get away from the Triads, and Carter gives him inspiration by telling him to believe he is a superspy, to which George responds well to and performs driving maneuvers which get the chasers off their tail. Then the two attempt to investigate a Triad hideout disguised as a club. As Lee fights off a Triad assassin named Jasmine (Youki Kudoh), Carter meets a beautiful woman named Genevieve and is immediately smitten. However, Lee and Carter are both forced out of the club and after a harrowing car chase, are captured by the Triads. They manage to escape the Triads by leaping into the city sewers. Lee and Carter then have a falling out concerning Lee's relationship with Kenji and Carter storms out, intending to meet Genevieve again. Later Reynard approaches Lee and tells him that Han received his information from an informant, who knows where the list detailing the Triad leadership is. The informant turns out to be Genevieve and both Lee and Carter end up looking for her.
After the two have encountered Genevieve they save her from an assassination attempt by the Triads and flee to their hotel room. However, they are attacked again by Jasmine and decide to hide out with George, who now believes he is a real spy and now has a great appreciation for the United States. They then learn that Genevieve doesn't just know where the list is, she is the list. The names of the thirteen Triad leaders are tattooed on the back of her head and that she will be decapitated and buried if the Triads get her. When Lee and Carter bring Genevieve to Reynard, he reveals 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 Soo Yung for Genevieve.
Lee arrives at the exchange point, the Eiffel Tower, with Carter, disguised as Genevieve. Kenji then challenges Lee to a sword duel and as the two are fighting, Carter breaks his cover and joins in on the fight. During the fight, Lee and Kenji fall off the tower and get caught in a safety net. Unfortunately, Kenji's sword cuts the safety net open and it collapses, leaving both men hanging on for dear life. Lee then grabs Kenji's arm, intending to save his life. Kenji tells Lee that if he holds on, both of them will die, but Lee is confident that he can still save him. Kenji then willingly lets go of Lee and falls to his death, saving Lee's life. Meanwhile, Carter single handedly defeats the rest of the Triad henchmen and saves Soo Yung. At the last minute, Jasmine returns and tries to kill him and Soo Yung, but she gets knocked halfway into a moving gear and dies. As they send Soo Yung down the elevator, more Triads arrive. In order to escape, Lee and Carter use a French flag as a makeshift parachute and float to safety. Unfortunately, they are confronted by Reynard, who is holding Genevieve hostage. Fortunately, George arrives and shoots Reynard before he can harm anybody else (earlier in the film, after George started to be a spy, he had said "Let me kill someone tonight!"). George then thanks Lee and Carter for teaching him how to be American. The police then arrive, with the commissioner from earlier claiming to have been helping (in reality trying to get undeserved credit). After giving the commissioner a team punch to the face, and with the case closed, Lee and Carter leave the scene dancing to War like they did in the first film.
Cast
- Jackie Chan as Chief Inspector Lee
- Chris Tucker as Detective James Carter
- Tzi Ma as Ambassador Han
- Zhang Jingchu as Soo Yung
- Noémie Lenoir as Genevieve
- Hiroyuki Sanada as Kenji
- Max von Sydow as Reynard
- Youki Kudoh as Jasmine
- Yvan Attal as George
- Roman Polanski as Detective Revi
Reception
As of August 13, 2007, the film had a score of 44 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 31 reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes the film had a score of 20% based on 124 reviews (24 fresh, 100 rotten). 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." [1]. Carrie Rickey of the Philadelphia Inquirer gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and said "by no means is it a great movie, but it is great slapstick fun, one of summer's guilty pleasures."[3] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two stars and said "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."[4] James Berardinelli of ReelViews gave the film one-and-a-half stars out of four, and said the movie was dull, uninspired and redundant.[5] Not all reviews were negative, however. Desson Thomson of The Washington Post said "at the risk of eternal damnation on the Internet, I admit to laughing at — even feeling momentarily touched by — Rush Hour 3."[6]
The film grossed an estimated $18.9 million on its opening day August 10. On Saturday it dropped 9.7% from its opening day to an estimated $17.1 million and on Sunday it grossed an estimated $13 million. Overall it opened as the top film in U.S. and Canadian theaters that weekend, taking in $49.1 million in the U.S., beating the previous week's #1 movie, The Bourne Ultimatum. As of September 12, the film has grossed $129,536,000 domestically including $62,590,927 foreign giving it a total of $192,126,927 worldwide. Rush Hour 3 is the fourth highest grossing film ever for the month of August. However, compared to the previous installment, Rush Hour 3 has grossed 55 million less in its first 3 weeks of release.
Footnotes
- ^ "Release dates for Rush Hour 3 (2007)". Internet Movie Database.
- ^ "China in no 'Rush' for Chan film". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 6.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ Carrie Rickey (2007-08-10). "Jackie Chan, what a 'Rush'". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 2007-08-13.
- ^ Roger Ebert (2007-08-10). "Rush Hour 3". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2007-08-13.
- ^ James Berardinelli. "Rush Hour 3". ReelViews.net. Retrieved 2007-08-13.
- ^ Desson Thomson (2007-08-10). "Rush Hour 3". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-08-14.