2 for the road - Rush Hour 2 Reviews

Joke-cracking Chris Tucker and jaw-cracking Jackie Chan team up again as reluctant buddy cops chasing down international complots and a wild goose or two along the way in RUSH HOUR 2. Asian martial arts superstar Chan plays the straight man as Tucker, supposedly vacationing in Hong Kong (yeah, right) gets dragged, kicking and screaming (often, literally) into Chan's investigation of a mysterious bomber and the gangs that might be responsible. This is Abbott & Costello for the new millennium. This movie knows that the secret of the success of its antecedent was the comical chemistry between the smart-mouthed Tucker and the mild mannered, but fun-loving Chan. Most of the movie is a sequence of obvious set ups, where Chan and Tucker are deposited into situations that barely move the story forward, but let Chan and Tucker do their thing. For instance, in early scenes, the duo tracks a mysterious gangster (John Lone) at a Hong Kong club, and a massage parlor. All the sneaking around does not develop a thing about the crime plot part of the story; but these scenes are great opportunities for improvisational comedy between the knowing Asian host (Chan) and his clueless, and frustrated, American guest (Tucker). Many other scenes have the same dynamic: first priority, to try to slap together some schtick, with plot development coming in at a distant second. This is not a complaint, though. Most of the time, the flypaper scenes set up by the screenwriters catch flies, and the resulting comedy is even, without many dud gags (with the possible exception of a pointless bit in which Tucker asks for directions and ends up buying a chicken). The plot is a sort of revolving door prank in which we constantly doubt the loyalties of certain characters, especially a Puerto Rican agent played by Roselyn Sanchez. Before the door stops spinning, straight man Chan will find himself in precarious straits, and it will be up to the theretofore buffoonish Tucker to save him. Will he be up to it? That's not much of a mystery, but it's all RUSH HOUR 2 has got in the way of plot clinchers. The movie contains an equally funny end credits montage of productions bloopers (just like the first film did), which tends to prove the point that the most important thing this franchise has got going is the Chan-Tucker chemistry. The outtakes are often as funny as what was left in the movie. Stick around until the end for what may be a last line every bit as satisfying as the famously satisfying last line of SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959). ("Damn! I guess *he* ain't gonna be in RUSH HOUR 3" -- I'll leave the speaker and the circumstances concealed so as to not ruin the effect for you.) (Carlos Colorado)