DVDs We Love: Rush Hour 2 (2001)

This should be an easy transition: as you know, we've spent the last few weeks on Code Redd Net revisiting some Classic Chan films. Now we return with a new recurring feature, one that aims to spotlight some of the best, most valuable and most interesting DVDs/Blu-rays on the market. Too often films released for home viewing provide little incentive for purchase beyond the quality of the film it contains. Our purpose here is to draw your attention to those discs laden with special features, special features that make repeated viewings worthwhile, that keep the DVD/Blu-ray in question spinning in your player for years. To that end, we can find no better way to kick things off than by returning to Rush Hour 2. In addition to being a beloved CRN Awards winner and longtime site/blog staple, it's also one of our favorite DVDs ever released. Find out why below.

Ricky, you sly son of a gun, just look at you.

Rush Hour 2 is not the best Jackie Chan film. In fact, looking over the items chronicled in our recent Classic Chan series, arguably eight of those ten films feature better fights, better stunts, and overall a more competent use of Chan's physical abilities. What those films lack, though, is the sheen of Rush Hour 2, its efficiency of storytelling and style. Undeniably, Rush Hour 2 is lean Hollywood filmmaking, all its excesses contained in 90 minutes and rounded off by the credits. Hollywood is at its best when taking something mediocre and inflating it to the absolute limit, usually via astronomical production values. So while Chan's choreography is below average in this film, so much else around him is of a higher quality (everything from the lighting, the sets, the cameras, to the film stock itself) that we can temporarily forget the handcuffs put on our favorite action star. It's a decent enough compromise for the Chan enthusiast and the casual viewer, I suppose.

Besides the quality of the film, the DVD for Rush Hour 2 really delivers the goods. As part of the abandoned Infinifilm brand of New Line, the Rush Hour 2 disc is loaded with stuff:

• Commentary with director Brett Ratner and writer Jeff Nathanson
• Featurettes: "Making Magic Out of Mire", "Fashion of Rush Hour 2", "Jackie Chan's Hong Kong Introduction", "Culture Clash: West Meets East", "Language Barrier", "Attaining International Stardom", "Kung Fu Choreography".
• Evolution of a Scene
• Visual Effects Deconstruction
• Deleted Scenes/Outtakes (with optional director/writer commentary)
• Theatrical Trailers
• Cast and Crew bios
• Fact Track
• DVD-rom with a script you can read alongside film
• as well as the usual plethora of language/subtitle options and chapter selection

This may not sound that impressive at first, but the DVD's Infinifilm option integrates almost every one of these elements into the film's presentation. Menus pop up onscreen, inviting you to watch short clips, snipped from the full featurettes listed above that deal directly with the scene.

In this example, the massage parlor fight is supplemented with material describing its construction. Play the clip and the disc returns you to the film at exactly the same point you were at before. Though the disc obviously needs a few seconds to gather up the selected data after you click an option, and a few more to get you back, it's nothing too jarring; and it helps that the clips are usually interesting and engage you more thoroughly with the film. Certainly the Infinifilm feature could become annoying for those watching the film for the first time, but it's not the default option on the disc. For those looking for a reason to watch it again, though, it's a perfect means to do so.

Outside of the Infinifilm, you can access all the supplemental material individually and in full. Though there's plenty of flatulent industry fluff, like "Fashion of Rush Hour 2" and "Making Magic Out of Mire", many of the other features are worth watching. Evolution of a Scene, essentially rehearsal footage of some of the more expensive/explosive scenes, is an interesting opportunity to see Jackie's method of choreography at work. I always appreciate the inclusion of deleted scenes, though in this case they were clearly deleted for a reason; same goes for the outtakes, really.

Brett Ratner and his screenwriter writer provide feature-length commentary and it's mostly banal stuff that gets regurgitated elsewhere on the disc. There's a bit too much gossip, and way too much Hollywood name-dropping, but on occasion they provide an insight or tow. One of the more intriguing special features is the Fact Track (above), an option that places a running stream of incidental notes on the lower part of the screen. These include useful biographical bits on Chan, Tucker, and the minor or incidental characters that surround them, as well as trivia regarding the scenery, shooting locations, and Snoopy's height relative to Tucker's racially-charged estimation of Chan's height. Like the Infinifilm option, though perhaps less exciting visually, Fact Track is yet another way to make a repeated viewing of the film seem novel. Strangely enough, it's possible to watch the film with the Fact Track, commentary, and Infinifilm features all running at the same time! It's a bit too much for the senses, I think, but it nonetheless proves that the disc is loaded not only with special features, but with a highly customizable engagement with them.

All things considered, the Rush Hour 2 Infinifilm DVD is one loaded with replay value. By my count, there's at least four-five different ways to watch the film: by itself, with Infinifilm, with commentary, with the fact track, and with some combination of the above options. This is in addition to the standalone full features accessible via the menu. It's too bad New Line gave up on the Infinifilm brand, because I wish all my DVDs/Blu-rays had this kind of depth.

Get the DVD on Amazon for $.01 right here (and make sure you follow the link to the Infinifilm product specifically, as there's another, stripped-down and feature-less version of the disc in circulation).

Classic Chan: Digging Around in the Archives

Seems a bit impractical, Jackie, but impressive nonetheless.

If you haven't had a look yet at our ongoing Classic Chan review series, we implore you to do so by checking out our reviews of Police Story and Police Story 2. Keep an eye out for more reviews in the coming weeks. In the meantime, though, you should know that there's a wealth of Jackie Chan content already awaiting you on Code Redd Net. Here's what you may be missing:

Reviews:

Jackie Chan's Stuntmaster
The Forbidden Kingdom
The Medallion
Rush Hour
Rush Hour 2
Rush Hour 3
Shanghai Knights
The Tuxedo
Twin Dragons

Code Redd Net Awards:

Best Jackie Chan Movie
Finest Fight

From our Finest Fights series (featuring spectacular embedded videos!):

Police Story
Jackie Chan's Thunderball
Jackie Chan's First Strike
Rumble in the [Vancouver] Bronx
Who Am I?

and, of course, there's always the golden Time Life CD box set Solid Gold Chan.

Danny should upgrade to a PS Vita. A higher resolution screen
would be much better for playing those games which Jackie always
forgets to give him.

Classic Chan: Police Story 2 (1988)

It's axiomatic: for every good action movie, there bound to be a sequel or three. In that vein, join Thrasher as he follows Chicken Man's lead with a look back at Police Story 2. Keep checking in with Code Redd Net for more Classic Chan.

Police Story 2 is something of a lost classic, at least in North America, as it lacks both the critical sway of the original and the mainstream theatrical release afforded to the subsequent entries in the series Supercop and Jackie Chan's First Strike. It's a pity, as PS2 features some fine stunt work. In this one Chan plays the same cop as before, only this time he's been demoted to highway patrol duty as a result of his propensity for property damage. His obligations as a police officer and as a boyfriend are challenged when the mob boss he put behind bars in the previous film returns, determined to draw out the subdued Chan. Cornered, Chan retaliates and consequently resigns from the force, only to be reinstated when his former colleagues realize just what kind of results he's capable of producing. In something of a strange move, the film begins by recapping the most spectacular moments from the original before beginning this story in the proper manner. In a certain sense it works to set up expectations which this film seeks to supersede, but in another sense it doesn't work because it's a pretty high bar to meet. Nevertheless, Jackie continues to perfect here the action-comedy formula that has served him well throughout his career. As Chicken Man noted in his review of PS1, in these pre-watershed, pre-Rush Hour films, Chan does indeed get to play goofier characters that more effectively underline his immense talent for physical comedy as well as, and often totally in step with, his peerless athletic prowess. The choreography here is splendid, especially one of my all-time favorite fights, that being the playground brawl between Chan and a bunch of thugs. If, as Chicken Man suggests, the original's fight scenes impressed because they were "nearly believeable," PS2 is a bit of a lateral, pushing towards the ridiculous but not really going there. Jackie's films have a history of walking a narrow tightrope between the possible/probable and the pull of spectacle, and for the most part Police Story 2 keeps its balance.

We're Busy

"Excuse me, but don't you mean gettin' busy?"

Enjoy this picture of Ricky Tan; he's a busy man, like us. We know November has been a lean month at Code Redd Net, but we promise to have some exciting, new content for you in December. Posts, podcasts, all that. Keep watching the skies.

Movie Review: Twin Dragons (1992)

I normally trust websites like Rotten Tomatoes, but in this case my confidence has been shaken. Right now Twin Dragons has a paltry 45% "rotten" rating, while another film in the Jackie Chan oeuvre, Rumble in the Bronx, has a very respectable 79% "fresh" score. Both are fun action films, so what might account for this disparity? In the grand generic tradition of all Chan action films, Twin Dragons is built upon a combination of both action and comedy, but this one certainly has more of the latter than the former. In fact, this film is quite unique in that its narrative compares favorably to classic screwball comedies such as Bringing Up Baby (1938), the kind of film that demands supreme physical talents from its actors and clear staging by its director. Like most screwball comedies, Twin Dragons has an unbelievable story that gets progressively more unbelievable as it goes on, and it all starts with the usual case of mistaken identity between two brothers seperated at both and raised in different social strata. It's in this way that, like most screwball comedies, Twin Dragons supports a modicum of safe, sanitized social critique. Boomer, played by Chan, is a hood who inadvertently crosses paths with John Ma, a famous classical musician. You can about imagine all the hijinks that ensue, and though they're typical, they're tried and true. Of course, the whole thing's fairly banal, but that's the point, and that's the charm of a Jackie Chan movie. As hackneyed as the premise may sound, it's used rather cleverly to draw out the differences in attitude and ability between Jackie's two roles. Simplistic, straight-forward, time-tested techniques such as intercutting bring together, for instance, a shootout and a classical concert, one of the many highlights of the film. Still, though, Jackie's stunt work is tops. His fight inside a car manufacturing plant is almost as virtuosic as his award-winning rooftop symphony in Who Am I?. Like many of Chan's films, this one was picked up and dubbed to English after he got his first real mainstream exposure in the original Rush Hour, so the dialogue can often be, I imagine unintentionally, funny. No outtakes in this one, I'm afraid, and that's probably the only Jackie Chan trademark missing here. Otherwise this is probably one of the leanest, most perfect and quintessentially "Jackie" martial arts movies ever made.

Rush Hour 4?

I knew the series was on the downslide, but damn.

"Found no rice, but only explosions."

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.

Movie Review: Rush Hour (1998)

Rush Hour 2 may be our sentimental favorite, but the original certainly has its strengths. For one, Jackie Chan's stunt work is far superior here than in the sequel. Though neither film really lets Chan's prowess completely loose (that is saved for less mainstream kung-fu fare, like First Strike and Who Am I?, where the story is tailored more specifically to showcasing action first and story second) in Rush Hour he has considerably more exciting and plentiful action scenes. You might consider this film (and its sequels, as well as other films made in the same buddy-cop-action genre, such as Shanghai Noon and Knights) a sort of primer for the uninitiated, and from here you can tackle his more straightforward kung-fu films if interested; there you will find Chan unshackled by the demands of Hollywood and its emphasis on dialogue. But the humor is brisk and lively in this one, though Chris Tucker is far more annoying here than in subsequent entries, spending his half of the screen time either yelling or reinforcing outrageous stereotypes, and quite often both simultaneously. The contrast between the high-pitched Tucker and the stoic determination of Chan is effective enough, though, and overall the film is extremely efficient storytelling. Recommended for Chan fans, but you might want to see First Strike or Who Am I? immediately afterwords if you want to really see what all the fuss is about.