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Rush Hour 2

© Jonathan L. Bowen

Rush Hour 2 is the sequel to 1998’s surprisingly successful film starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker. Chan is a Hong Kong detective and Tucker is an officer for the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). In the second film, Detective James Carter (Tucker) is on vacation visiting Chief Inspector Lee (Chan) when a bombing at the United States embassy throws both Carter and Lee into duty and working together again to solve the crime.

Although creating a sequel to such an enjoyable movie as Rush Hour is no enviable task, the sequel is actually significantly better than its already hilarious and well crafted first installment. Not only is Rush Hour 2 funnier than its predecessor, it is also filled with superior action and the chemistry between Tucker and Chan is better than the first film when their two characters had just begun their friendship. Perhaps equally as impressive as the film’s quality is its stunning opening weekend gross. In a month that is typically slow for the movie industry, Rush Hour 2’s $67.4 million set an all-time record for the month, far more than doubling The Sixth Sense’s $26.7 million gross, which was a record until Rush Hour 2.

The action in Rush Hour 2 ranges from absurd stunts, typical of any Jackie Chan film, to exciting action, both with common objects such as trash cans and through fist fighting and standard martial arts techniques. Rush Hour and its sequel do not compare in terms of action with any of the more impressive Jet Li films or any of Chan’s earlier work such as Drunken Master II (1994) or Jackie Chan’s First Strike, but the movies are both more comedy than action. Chan has managed a long and successful career by gradually moving from pure action to mostly comedy mixed with action. Rush Hour 2 is easily his funniest movie and the most hilarious film of the summer.

While Jet Li’s films typically offer better action and more impressive martial arts, Chan has found a style of acting that will allow him to prosper for many years into the future. His English has steadily improved since making his American debut with Rush Hour and even as he ages and becomes less capable of the stunts he once performed commonly, he is just as enjoyable as before and Rush Hour 2 is one of his best movies, despite not having awe-inspiring martial arts action.

While many critics have complained about Tucker’s performance and his tendency to speak constantly, he is actually quite effective in the film and provides many of the funniest lines. He is intentionally somewhat obnoxious, just as Don Cheadle remarks in the movie that his mouth is like 7-11; it never closes. While everyone has their own preference of comedy and Tucker is too talkative and overbearing for many moviegoers, most people will find the chemistry between him and Chan far better in the second movie than the first.