Rush Hour 2 Review
by Tim Wick

Ah, critics.

I make fun of them, but I manage to write a review a week for this web site and apparently enjoy a loyal readership that has reached double digits. But the sad fact is that all of them (myself included) are simply proffering their opinion of what makes a movie good or bad. A friend of mine told me this weekend that they only agreed with my reviews about 1/3 of the time after having dressed me down for enjoying Evolution but hating The Mummy Returns. I wasn't upset because I know that ultimately all I a communicating is my opinion - one that is sometimes supported by the weight of other critics and sometimes stands apart from them, creating an easy target.

The point, I suppose, is that nobody will ever agree with any critic on their movie preferences. The best anyone can hope for is to find a critic they agree with most of the time (or disagree with most of the time) as a gauge of the likelihood they will enjoy a particular film.

In the case of Rush Hour 2, that could be difficult. In my case, I typically find I don't agree with Harry Knowles at Aint-it-cool-news. He felt that both The Mummy Returns and Jurassic Park III surpassed the original films and I think he's doing some very good drugs that I need to get my hands on. Yet he makes a good point about Rush Hour 2 in his review. He says that your enjoyment of this film hinges on your opinion of Chris Tucker. You hate him and you will hate this film - love him and you will love this film. Roger Ebert lands firmly in the "I hate Chris Tucker" camp, as do most other reviewers based on the 49% rotten Rating at "Rottentomatoes.com. Since I often agree with those two sources, historical evidence would suggest I'd hate this movie.

Add to that the fact I don't particularly find Chris Tucker funny, but I attribute that to being a geeky pasty white guy. His humor, by and large, is not directed at me. I don't find his humor tiresome, but it doesn't connect with me the way it does with other people. Not a big deal, but a fact that would suggest I would land in the Ebert camp on this one.

But the truth of the matter is that I enjoyed the hell out of this movie. It was an unapologetic buddy cop comedy that not only featured several good, cleansing belly laughs, but some fine action sequences as well.

I've spent most of the summer complaining about the way they shoot action in Hollywood these days. Tomb Raider, The Mummy Returns, Kiss of the Dragon, and even Planet of the Apes have by and large missed the boat on what makes an action sequence fun to watch. Having recently re-watched Raiders of the Lost Ark, I know that simplicity of camera angle, humor and concentration on character make a far better sequence than trying to break the world record for the greatest number of cuts in a single action sequence. A human fighting with another human is always more interesting than a human fighting with a CGI composite.

Well Rush Hour 2 understands this because it has Jackie Chan as Tucker's foil. His agility and ability to infuse character into the most complex fight maneuvers is why I make sure I get to see every single one of his "new" dubbed Hong Kong films as well as the mainstream stuff he puts out now. If he's in it, he can count on my butt being in the seat. The movie may still use more cuts than I would like to see in a Jackie Chan fight sequence, but overall the fight sequences are the best we've been treated to this year.

Tucker manages to recognize that his primary function is comic relief. Harry is right that your enjoyment of this picture does hinge somewhat on your opinion of Tucker, but I think he is funnier here than he was in Rush Hour and his jokes managed to connect with me much of the time. It is completely impossible to buy that Tucker is a detective. He isn't a smart ass Axl Foley who is a competent police officer underneath. He is an incompetent police officer who somehow manages to keep his job for reasons we aren't meant to understand. We are just supposed to laugh at him.

But who cares? I certainly didn't.

On this film, I will stand tall against critical mass because it seems too many of them forgot they were watching a buddy cop comedy and wanted it to be something more. It never will be and shouldn't be judged because of that.

Rush Hour 2

Four Beakers
(out of five)

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