Review of Rush Hour 2 (2001) by Siddarth A — 18 Dec 2018

The success of 1998's Rush Hour, the film in which Jackie Chan finally successfully broke through the Hollywood barrier, mandated that there would be a sequel. For the most part, this is more of the same.

Tucker's character has been toned down a little (he's no longer consistently obnoxious - only occasionally so), and Chan has been given the opportunity to do a little more of what he does best.

While the inventiveness of the stunt work in Rush Hour 2 doesn't come close to that of Chan's best Hong Kong-produced films, at least this outing grants him more respect than its predecessor did.

However, although the action sequences work in Rush Hour 2, little else does. The comedy is sporadic at best (in all honesty, the funniest scenes by far come during the closing credits), with some jokes being overplayed to the point where they cross the line from mildly amusing to downright silly.

Worse than the comedy, however, are director Brett Ratner's feeble attempts at character building. Fortunately, Rush Hour 2 doesn't venture into the dramatic mine field too often, because, on those occasions when it does, it's laughably bad.