Review of Rush Hour 3 (2007) by David L — 27 Jan 2013

I haven't even seen number 1 or 2, which may be a bad thing if the franchise is deteriorating as it progresses, although at least I didn't feel I was missing too much of the script from joining in at this late stage.

There were a couple of references to previous dealings that the two cops had been involved in, but nothing that lost me completely! I think it's a pretty basic principle to follow anyhow - two partners in crime given a new case to explore, with a few comical mishaps on the way.

In this instance, Chan and Tucker are on a quest in Paris, in an attempt to locate and arrest Chan's brother Kenji, who's the head of the enemy clan. There's also a villainous performance from Max Von Sydow, but it's nowhere near as good as his legendary role of Ming the Merciless in Flash Gordon.

As you'd expect there's a lot of fast paced Kung fu action scenes, whilst Tucker provides the majority of the laughs. I wouldn't say it's a laugh a minute, in fact it can be quite few and far between, but it is still a good source of light hearted entertainment, which never becomes boring.

It's one of those films where you can't really go wrong, but it's never going to deliver a 5 star serving of quality either. In terms of a film to choose, I imagine this series is always a safe bet when catering for a wide range of tastes, but it does admittedly leave me that feeling of my glass being half empty as opposed to half full.