25 Years Anniversary Review Of Rush Hour

The 80´s and the 90´s was a fantastic time for action comedies. Especially cop movies where you usually had two partners working together serving justice, there was just something magical about this genre during these time periods. You don´t see these types of films made that often anymore in present day, and perhaps that is because a lot of director´s know that it would be difficult to capture the same magic as we got back in the VHS era. There are several action comedies i could mention, but let´s stick to one of the biggest classics of all time. And i think we can all agree that has to be the 1987 action comedy Lethal Weapon from director Richard Donner ( who of course also gave us Superman and Superman II with Christopher Reeve ). Lethal Weapon proved that you could match two really crazy and funny characters such as Sergeant Martin Riggs ( Mel Gibson ) and Sergeant Roger Murtaugh ( Danny Glover ) working for the LAPD, and put them in some really crazy situations. I have to mention that Gary Busey as the character Mr. Joshua is a great bad guy in this film, so he was definetely a great choice for this character. Lethal Weapon is not only one of the best action comedies of the 80´s but it is also a classic for the effective action scenes, effective dialogue and also the chemistry between Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. There were 3 sequels made of Lethal Weapon and i really enjoy the second film from 1989. The third film from 1992 is entertaining and worth a watch, but the 4th film from 1998 just didn´t have the same magical touch as the previous film had. In fact i even refused to go see the 4th film in cinema with some of my friends back then, because the trailer looked awful. It turned out i was actually right. Let´s stay in the year of 1998 because this was the year when a different kind of action comedy would become a box office hit worldwide with a new cop duo. Legendary martial arts actor Jackie Chan and comedian Chris Tucker teamed up in the action comedy Rush Hour, a film that in some ways reminds us of Lethal Weapon but is more of martial arts version of a cop action comedy. This film turn 25 years this year so i decided to revisit the film to see if i still enjoy the first film. Since i have not seen Rush Hour for at least 10 years, is it possible Rush Hour have aged better compared to most action comedies from the 90´s or is it not as funny as i remember it would be?

On the last day of Brittish rule of Hong Kong on July 1, 1997, Detective Inspector Lee ( Jackie Chan ) of the Royal Hong Kong Police Force leads a raid at the wharf, hoping to arrest the crime lord Juntao. He finds only Sang ( Ken Leung ), Juntao´s right-hand man, who escapes in a boat. Lee recovers numerous Chinese cultural treasures stolen by Juntao, which he presents as a farewell victory gift to his departing superiors, Chinese consul Solon Han ( Tzi Ma ) and British police commander Thomas Griffin ( Tom Wilkinson ). Two months later, after Han takes up his new diplomatic post in Los Angeles his daughter Soo-Yung Han ( Julia Hsu ) is kidnapped by Sang while on her way to school. Han calls Lee to assist in this case, but the FBI are afraid that Lee´s involvement could cause an international incident, decides to send him off to LAPD instead. Detective James Carter ( Chris Tucker ) is tricked into "babysitting" Lee as punishment for botching a sting operation. When he finds out, he decides to solve the case anyway. But working together with Lee will not be as easy as he thought it would be. 

One thing that i come to think about watching Rush Hour after so many years, is that the comedy scenes in this film would never have been allowed in 2023. There are jokes in here about black people and Chinese people that would probably cause this film to be banned if this film was released today for joking about different skin colors. But back in the 90´s you could pretty much joke about anything without being cancelled, so i still have a good time watching Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker attacking each other. They are clearly two very different people with a different mind set as well, and that is one of the reasons why they have great chemistry on the big screen. One detail i especially appreciate about Rush Hour compared to the Lethal Weapon franchise is that the martial art influences are very clear in this film. Seeing Jackie Chan doing his special moves is of course always delightful, and there are some scenes where he really shows how talented he is at choreography. Comedian Chris Tucker can be annoying sometimes in certain films, but i actually think this is one of his better acting performances in the first Rush Hour film. His comedy timing is right on point, his dialogue lands exactly where it needs to land to work with his scenes and even if he is a lousy fighter, he still make the action scenes enjoyable as well even though Jackie Chan steals the show. The plot of the film is really predictable and that´s probably the weakest point of Rush Hour. You could basically say that this film works well thanks to the chemistry between Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, because you can tell they had fun together. The action scenes are fun and really feels like the 90´s when it comes to the style of the film and the dialogue. Director Brett Ratner ( who actually directed all 3 of the Rush Hour films so far ) knows how to use Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker to make an entertaining film that doesn´t need an interesting plot. Rush Hour may never be as good as Lethal Weapon, but i still think this is an action comedy that manage to combine these genres sucessfull. Definetely worth checking out on VOD, DVD or Blu Ray this summer, if you just want to have a good time.

Rating: DDD