MovieChat Forums > Rush Hour 3 (2007) Discussion > Ratner kills my dreams

Ratner kills my dreams

posted 16 years ago by croth4
4 replies | jump to latest

Rush Hour 2 is probably my favorite movie. It's just plain enjoyable. Chan and Tucker have great chemistry, it's quotable, funny and full of great action.

Rush Hour 3, on the other hand, let me down. It just has no remnants of the feel of the series.

For one thing, it came 3-4 years too late. Jackie and Chris have not aged well and are clearly just in it because they signed on. You can tell that they are not having any fun.

Second, why take the movie to France? Terrible. Naturally, it should have followed into the New York story that is left hanging at the end of Rush Hour 2. Only logical and would have been more true to the series.

Third, the action scenes are very weak. They dumb it down for Jackie, who is clearly capable of much better. I saw Chris Tucker on a talk show promoting this film before the the release and I heard him say he had a stunt double. My heart sank. What makes the first two movies great is that Chris Tucker, not a martial artist or stunt man, is in there mixing it up in every fight scene. The fight in the massage parlor is one of my favorite scenes in any movie. Seeing Jackie and the back of some guy's head that is clearly not Chris Tucker really killed the magic. For all the money he demanded for this movie he could have at least stuck to the winning formula and gave full effort. The car on 2 wheels scene and spinning around on a tall man's staff scene would be ridiculous even if it would have been Chris Tucker.

The story and character of Kenji are embarassing, pointless and forced. The whole story overall is honestly pretty goofy.

Most importantly, the political undertones are awful and cast an ugly shadow over the rest of the movie. The writers and director take potentially great action flick and turn it into an America-bashing political commentary through the cab driver and other dialogue.

Between this and the butchering of X-Men 3, Brett Ratner lost anything he gained through Rush Hour 1 and 2 and messed over two movies that I really looked forward to, tried to like, but couldn't. Big letdowns.

[–] cousyrules1 16 years ago

couldn't agree more, I thought Rush hour 1 and 2 were both *beep* hilarious and had excellent action scenes, but this one just didn't do anything for me

[–] Ichiban_Sensei 15 years ago

Agreed. RH1 and RH2 had awesome chemistry between Tucker and Chan and even though they were not classics by any stretch of the word they were funny, feel good action comedies.

Sadly RH3 feels forced, the magic has gone, the action is limp and the jokes are weak. Jackie is looking old, tired and pale. Tucker is looking fat, bored and anxious for his next paycheck. The formula that just about stretched to the second movie (hello recycled jokes) sadly doesn't have enough in it for a third film.

RH3 is still worth watching, its still funny and it does have some clevage in it but I wont be watching it with the same smile as RH1 + RH2.

What is your function?

[–] notorious_souljah_17 15 years ago

They definetly waited to long to do RH3, should of been done around 2003, 2004. The humour is still there, its still damn funny but the action scenes were a big let down. Jackie has gotten to old and the fighting was poor.

[–] kartman9 15 years ago

Rush Hour 3 was a total let down... waited so long for it and it felt empty to me :(.