Why God, why?

I'll be the first to admit that I was a fan of Rush Hours 1 and 2. They were funny, sure - the idea of a sassy black man, and an exceptionally well-trained Chinese martial artist working together to bust on international crime syndicates was novel enough, and had just enough realism to spawn 2 movies that left me smiling at the endof each.

To contrast, I sat in my seat at the end of Rush Hour 3 with my face contorted into a rictus of horror.

The whole thing starts off well enough: inexplicably demoted from his position as Detective, Officer James Carter directs traffic while dancing, using Michael Jackson-esque squeals and thrusts to deftly (and predictably) cause a bunch of cars to crash into each other. Nice work. Meanwhile, Inspector Lee accompanies his trusted friend Ambassador Han to a meeting of the World Criminal Court, where he is promptly shot by a Japanese guy Lee chases while Carter causes more accidents by commandeering a Mercedes Benz. Eventually, they catch up with each other, go to Paris, and whatever the fuck finish the damn movie.

My big problem with the movie is that the writers seemed to place more importance on sometimes-funny one liners, sight gags, and over-the-top action than on properly finishing the story. As I mentioned, Han is shot and nearly killed at within the first few minutes of the movie, and we never see him again. His daughter, who ostensibly remained in Los Angeles (or not, we don't know) somehow winds up in Paris, hanging from her wrists from the Eiffel Tower. Jackie Chan's Japanese "brother", who spends most of the entire movie antagonizing our plucky pair of crimefighters gets all of three lines of backstory. Screen legend Max von Sydow plays a character who despite presiding over the World Criminal Court risks it all to gain a list of Triad leader names for no discernable reason. Any one of these errors would be bad enough, but the very fact that everyone one of these showstopping oversights exists on one reel of celluloid is clear indication that the people behind Rush Hour 3 wanted to milk the franchise one last time by cobbling together a terrible mishmash (I refuse to use the word "film") of obscenely unbelievable storytelling and poor time management.

Vogue