Movie Review: Rush Hour 3 (2007)

Thankfully, Chris Tucker dialed down the high-pitched yelling (mostly) in Rush Hour 3. Sure, he still acts like an ill-disciplined and insecure child, he feels as if he has to hit on anything with two legs and long hair (and you should see his reaction when he discovers that the woman he is about to score with is only wearing a wig), but at least he's quieter this time around, even if he insists on being offensive. And you would never make the same complaints about Jackie Chan. In the first Rush Hour, Chan came to LA and worked in tandem with Tucker to rescue the kidnapped daughter of a Chinese diplomat. In 2, Tucker vacationed in Hong Kong with Chan and solved a mystery involving the Triads and counterfeit "superbills." Now, in this third installment, our duo head to Paris to protect a woman who has access to information which could finally dismantle the Triads. Somewhere along the way we are introduced to Chan's brother, Kenji; of course, he has to fight him in the climax of the film set (where else?) in the Eiffel Tower. If you think about these films in order, you will see a steady drop in the quality and quantity of Chan's famous stunt work. We forgive this in the second film because of our aforementioned affectation for it (due to outside factors, of course), but Chan fans have so little to look forward to in Rush Hour 3: his fight with his brother is fun, but nothing else really stands out, except for an inexplicable dramatic increase in the number of Chris Tucker fights, which are obviously of a lesser quality than Chan's work. So while this is a decent enough way to round out series, it is a bit of whimper. Jackie Chan devotees will be disappointed, but more casual action fans could find worse things to do.