As some of you know, I really like LETHAL WEAPON, and its superior sequel. Full of action, Full of humor, and great chemistry between Mel Gibson and Danny Glover.
Then I saw LETHAL WEAPON 3 as a young lad, and still remembering feeling very underwhelmed...and at an age where boys are easily impressed, there is a a disconnection.
The problem was that everyone involved knew that it would do gangbusters in theatres, and went ahead without a good finished script, because they figured they'll make enough cash before audiences realize they've been had. If enough action and one-liners are delivered, who cares about the story?
I sense that same situation with RUSH HOUR 3. Chris Tucker, Jackie Chan, and director Brett Ratner made headlines in Hollwood with the massive paychecks that New Line Cinema penned out for them, with the argument that it was a guaranteed money-maker.
The difference though is that HOUR 3 isn't a major step-down for that franchise...because it wasn't that good to begin with. But as a series of WEAPON knock-offs, they were entertaining in a pleasing, passive sort of way.
Chan and Tucker did have good chemistry in scenes mixing the martial arts with the jokes, which is surprising considering that after HOUR 3 came out, Chan admitted that he couldn't stand him nor the pictures. Then again, getting outpaid by someone who only worked in the HOUR movies since 1998 would annoy me too.
Certainly RUSH HOUR 3 continues the template with the fights, the Asian/Black jokes, the ENTER THE DRAGON references, and a really good actor stuck working as a lame villain. He may be the poor man's Richard Donner, but Brett Ratner is good at it.
All those movies carried this joke-platter of one of the stars going to a city they're unfamiliar with, and hilarity ensues. The gag now is that both Tucker and Chan are alien to Paris, which is a fine idea I guess.
The problem is that Chan isn't a butt of many jokes as much as the guy that Sam Jackson murdered in JACKIE BROWN. Yeah I get the joke, the French hate Americans, but don't Americans believe they hate everyone else too? Make the full use of that joke, I say.
Then again, the fortune shelled out for RUSH HOUR 3 didn't have much carved out for the script.
But there is something annoying about how the secret council meeting of the global Triads (or whatever nonsense) has an ultra-secret way of passing along the names of the sponsored chieftans, and Chan learns this from a person that should have been immediately suspected by Chan of dirty involvement.
SuperCop he aint.
This movie is lacking something to carry itself over the hump, to pull it through for the solid victory....and I know what it is.
Steven Seagal, a buddy of Chan, was booked originally as the villain, and that would have been the extra-mustard. Perhaps he isn't as action-credible as he once was (a major understatement), but Seagal is a name, and it would be fun to see the hero of UNDER SIEGE be the baddie.
Plus, imagine the countless fat jokes that Tucker could have spun at the expense of Flabby Seagull.
I don't think RUSH HOUR 3 is a bad movie at all, but that's about it. Its the sort of picture to escape the rain or reality with, and I sorta enjoyed the surprising TEMPLE OF DOOM homage.
Besides, where else would you see the great Roman Polanski harass the heroes by molestation? At least Ratner casted an actor with prior experience.
