Rush Hour (1998)
A fun addition to the buddy cop genre
4 January 2002
When a diplomat's daughter is kidnapped in the US, a Chinese policeman Lee is sent to help the FBI with the investigation. Not wishing his help the FBI arrange a LAPD officer Carter to keep him out of trouble. However with both Lee and Carter keen to be involved in the investigation, they set out on their own to find the girl overcoming both bad guys and cultural differences.

This is yet another buddy cop movie where different partners must overcome their differences to solve a crime. Here the difference is the black culture and the Chinese culture. The story is very unlikely but it makes enough sense to get by, all it needs is to hang in and create lots of set pieces. Which it does - there's not as much action for Jackie Chan as I would have liked and his fight scenes feel toned down in favour of Tucker's manic comedy (this was partially reversed in RH2). This is a shame because Tucker is funny but his manic antics can get a bit irritating in large doses - it needed more of Chan.

However it is funny and Chan does hold his own and get to show how fast he is. His fight scenes don't feel as inventive as in other films but he has a good chemistry with Tucker. The bad guys are quite characterless but it doesn't really matter as the lead duo manage to carry the film.

Overall a good buddy cop movie that is a good vehicle for both Chan and Tucker and plays on both their strengths to good effect. However as with RH2 most of the funniest moments come in the closing outtakes, which can't be a good thing.
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