892. Rush Hour (1998)

Starring: Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, Ken Leung

Director: Brett Ratner

Running Time: 93 mins

Rush Hour is an American film about an LAPD officer and a Chinese policeman who join forces to find the kidnapped daughter of a Chinese consulate, however their unorthodox approach to the investigation leaves them out on their own whilst the rest of the police search for the girl.

This film is completely stupid, but it’s just a hell of a lot of fun. It’s not got a particularly exciting or interesting action story, but it does succeed in its main intention of making a properly funny buddy comedy, thanks to a host of great jokes and some brilliant chemistry between the two main actors.

So, let’s start with that, the excellent on screen chemistry between Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan. The clever thing about how their relationship develops is that it’s not a complete ‘opposites collide’ affair, but instead features two guys who are pretty similar just getting on and fighting crime together, a story that prevents this from ever becoming that cheesy, and instead just adds to the fun by making this buddy comedy atmosphere.

Chris Tucker is an absolute riot in this film, he’s as crazy as ever and absolutely hilarious to watch on screen for his brilliant slapstick and insane voice, whilst Jackie Chan also does a good job of bringing his martial arts skills to the table to make for some good action, but he also manages to be really funny the whole way through.

This film is full of mad slapstick comedy throughout, and you’ll spend a lot of the time laughing, however the problem is that the story isn’t that funny or entertaining in itself. Of course, the main objective of this film is to make you laugh, and it succeeds at that, however when it does take a bit of a break from the comedy and go to the supposedly ‘wacky’ plot, it just doesn’t work so well, leaving you pretty bored.

The reason that it’s boring is because the action isn’t that great either. Jackie Chan’s scenes are fantastic, but the rest of it isn’t actually that exciting to watch, which really takes a lot away from your interest in the story.

So, overall, this gets a 6.9 from me, because despite its relatively poor storytelling and occasionally lacklustre non-comedy sequences, it’s the constant laughs and the brilliant chemistry between Chan and Tucker that make this film so much fun to watch.