DVD Reviews

DVD Review: Rush Hour 3 (Two-Disc Platinum Series)

By Jeff Swindoll Dec 24, 2007, 11:39 GMT

After an attempted assassination on Ambassador Han, Lee and Carter head to Paris to protect a French woman with knowledge of the Triads\' secret leaders. ...more

Is the third time the charm?  Well maybe not since this seems like a tired retread of old jokes and situations. 

It doesn’t help if you have a low tolerance for Chris Tucker’s eardrum piercing voice. 

The plot is just something to hang the antics of Tucker and Lee on but it’s not very compelling however action-packed.

Inspector Lee (Jackie Chan) is accompanying Ambassador Han (Tzi Ma) to the World Court where the ambassador is going to reveal the identity of a mysterious triad gangster called Shy Shen.  Before this revelation can be addressed to the court the ambassador has an attempt on his life and nearly dies from the assassin’s bullet. 

Lee chases down the assassin (Hiroyuki Sanada), but recognizes him and cannot bring himself to shoot him.  Lee teams back up with Detective James Carter (Chris Tucker) to find out about the mysterious Shy Shen and the trail leads to Paris.  There they encounter a dangerous female assassin (Youki Kudoh), Detective Revi (Roman Polanski), an American hating cab driver (Yvan Attal), singer Genevieve (Noemie Lenoir), and French ambassador Reynard (Max Von Sydow). 

They also have to keep Ambassador Han’s daughter Soo Yung (Jingchu Zhang) from being harmed by the mysterious assassin who attempted to kill her father, cumulating in a finale atop the Eiffel Tower.  The plot is the barest of bones that hang each of the film’s comedy or action scenes. 

Unfortunately, many of those comic moments seem to be rather old hat.  Take for example when Lee follows the mysterious female upstairs and is observed by Carter, who has told him that he needs to get laid.  Well, Carter listens at the door cheering his buddy on in his good time. 

However, as we expect (and have seen in numerous other films) the lady turns out to be a killer and she and Lee thrash about the room with her trying to kill him and making all sorts of crashing sounds.  Carter interprets this crashing as Lee “getting his freak on” and makes some appropriate one-liners at the door. 

It probably doesn’t help that I have a very low tolerance for Chris Tucker’s voice and mannerisms.  Jackie Chan does his thing and still has the moves. 

This film seems like one that should’ve been made closer to Rush Hour 2 so that the audience might’ve been hotter to see the sequel.  However, this film is a good six years after that film (basically twice as long as between 1 and 2) and the years have not been kind to the series. 

This one seems superfluous and just has been made to try and make some money off of the popularity of the other two and seems somewhat lazy.  I suppose that fans might well be elated to see these guys return to the screen, but I thought that the jokes were lame and lazy in my opinion.  
Rush Hour 3 is presented in anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions.  A single disc version is also available separately.  This two-disc edition does have some nice special features for fans of the film. 

Disc one has a commentary with director Brett Ratner and writer Jeff Nathanson, the 2 minute theatrical trailer, and sneak peeks of other New Line DVDs.  Disc two starts off with 2 minutes of outtakes.  Next are 7 minutes of deleted scenes with optional commentary by Ratner and Nathanson. 

The comprehensive 87-minute “Making Rush Hour 3” examines the production of the film from before the beginning to the finished product.  The 2-minute “Digital Effects Reel” has scenes showing how they did the special effects scenes.  Finally there are 65 minutes of “Le Rush Hour Trois” Production Diaries. 

Each disc also has DVD-ROM and online special features, but I didn’t examine those in any great detail.  

Rush Hour 3 seems like a sequel that might’ve been made at least three years ago, but it still feels like a lazy sequel.  I didn’t really experience much excitement and it all seemed like stuff that you’ve seen in other films add to that Chris Tucker’s attempts at comedy that fall flat and it only adds to the boredom. 

I’m sure that fans of the series will eat it up (possibly, they may think it lazy too) but I’d have to say that it did nothing for me.  

Rush Hour 3 (Two-Disc Platinum Series) is now available at Amazon and AmazonUK. Visit the DVD database for more information.