Rush Hour *** (1998, Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker) – Classic Movie Review 1342

Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker team up as Inspector Lee and Detective James Carter for entertaining, crime-fighting chaos.

Director Brett Ratner’s rumbustious, highly popular 1998 action comedy thriller stars Jackie Chan as a Hong Kong detective who joins forces withbig-mouthed maverick LAPD cop Chris Tucker, after a master criminal kidnaps the 11-year-old daughter of the Chinese consul in LA and holds her to ransom.

Jackie Chan is hugely entertaining and the film is good, infectious, energetic fun, but Tucker can be irritating and that normally fine actor Tom Wilkinson is shamefully terrible as the Brit baddie, Griffin.

The excellent fight sequences are this very likeable film’s highlights. The film’s sometimes a bit chaotic but director Ratner holds it all together. Ken Leung, Tzi Ma, Chris Penn and Larry Sullivan Jr co-star.

Chan and Tucker returned for two sequels, Rush Hour 2 (2001) Rush Hour 3 (2007), both again directed by Ratner.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1342

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