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Rush Hour 1&2 - a_very worthwhile DVD box set for action comedy fans. - Rush Hour 2-Pack - Epinions.com
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Rush Hour 2-Pack
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Rush Hour 1&2 - a_very worthwhile DVD box set for action comedy fans.
Aug 21 '07 (Updated Aug 21 '07)
Action Factor:
Special Effects:
Suspense:
ProsBoth films are funny with good action sequences, some nice extras...
Cons... predictable, boring female characters...
The Bottom LineIf you like action comedies, and particularly if you like Jackie Chan and / or Chris Tucker, you'll enjoy the Rush Hour films.
Full Review
Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie''s plot.
I wanted to watch the first two Rush Hour films before I saw the third at the cinema, so we got the double pack featuring Rush Hour and… erm… Rush Hour 2. If you like action comedies, then this is a good value DVD set for you.
Dubbed The Fastest Hands in the East meet the Fastest Mouth in the West, Rush Hour takes the tried and tested formula of mismatched cops being unwilling partners and later of course becoming buddies. It’s been done before, but it still manages to feel relatively fresh here. In the first film the plot involves a kidnapping, the second involves an audacious forgery scheme. Pretty much every plot element you would expect is there - from the desire to avenge a former partner’s murder to the lessons learned from their fathers who also worked on the force. Nothing extraordinary as far as storylines go, but it works well enough.
Jackie Chan is Chief Inspector Lee, a dedicated Hong Kong cop, while Chris Tucker is Detective James Carter - a loner who has never worked with a partner (“Did Kojak had a partner? Did Colombo?”). To begin with I found Tucker more irritating than funny, but he gets a lot better as the film goes on, and by the second his character is set up to the extent that he mostly manages to be funny and rarely annoying. As you would expect with a Jackie Chan movie, the fight choreography is superb - if anything it’s actually better in the second film. There’s plenty of laughs to be had along the way and the Director, Brett Ratner, combines the humour and action to good effect. Chan and Tucker give solid performances and spark off each other quite well, although I didn’t think the chemistry was as good as Chan / Owen in the Shanghai Noon / Knights films. Most of the best humour is visual, though there’s quite a lot of dialogue-based humour too.
Overall I do prefer the first film - it feels fresher (whereas much of the second film mimics the first but with the characters’ roles reversed), is funnier, and has better characters. One frustrating thing about the first film though, which is rectified in the second, is that when people are speaking Chinese there are no subtitles so you don’t know what’s being said - though usually you can work out the general topic of conversation by the immediate context. There are some good supporting performances in the first film, most notably Philip Baker Hall as Carter’s superior in the LAPD ("This is the LAPD. We're the most hated cops in all the free world. My own mama's ashamed of me. She tells everybody I'm a drug dealer. " - the best line in the first film!). His colleagues don’t like him much and have a lot of fun at his expense. His love interest in the first film is deathly dull - in fact for some reason it’s the female characters that are the weak link throughout the second film. Not that the actresses are bad, but their characters are uninterestingly written (not to mention they get away with far too much), though a saving grace is that one of the characters has a slight “whose side is she on?” twist - pretty easy to work out but at least it’s approaching the third dimension as far as characterisation goes.
Well that’s about it for the films themselves (released in 1998 and 2001 respectively, both rated PG-13 for action / violence) - they’re full of action and plenty of laughs but rather predictable. Ideal popcorn entertainment but not having much depth. I enjoyed both, with the first one definitely having the edge.
Now for the extras…
As my regular readers will know (stop hiding, I know all three of you are out there somewhere), I’m not really one for DVD extras. However there are some interesting features on both discs - the usual Director’s commentary, making of featurettes, etc, and the usual round-up of features on the choreography, fashion design, and deleted scenes (with optional commentary) and outtakes. In themselves these are actually quite good and often funny. Of more interest though are two short films by Brett Ratner, from his days learning the trade. There’s “Lady Luck”, a short film that it is admittedly only vaguely interesting, but also “What Happened To Mason Reese” - Ratner’s first ever film. It’s very short but quite funny, and the commentary to it is also rather interesting. It’s an interesting example of how one of the more well-known Directors of our time started out. An example of how one of the scenes was put together, with 3 views and the end product, is included to explain how some of the special effects were created, and though short was very educational. (In a good way…:-D) Oh, and there are a couple of music videos which may or may not take your fancy. In all there are 85 minutes of extras, of which, surprisingly, probably an hour or so is worth watching.
We paid a tenner ($20) for this box set, and it’s pretty good value (though you could probably get it cheaper online - we bought it at HMV as we'd got some gift vouchers). The first film I would rate 4 stars, the second probably 3, but considering that some of the extras were good I’m going to rate the set as a whole 4 stars. If like me you like Jackie Chan as a comedian as well as action actor, you’ll probably really enjoy this. I wasn’t too sure about Chris Tucker… but if you like him as well, you’ll probably love these movies!!
(Have you ever noticed how black actors can make jokes about white people and it’s seen as okay, but not the other way round? Just a thought! At any rate his joke about the rich white man always being behind the crime was funny so I forgive him…)
Related Links
Cop movies:
Starsky and Hutch
Action Comedies:
Romancing the Stone
Jewel of the Nile
Jackie Chan Movies:
Around the World in Eighty Days
Shanghai Noon
Shanghai Nights
See Also
Top Ten Action / Adventure Movies
Top Ten Comedies
Recommended:
Yes
Viewing Format: DVDVideo Occasion: Good for a Rainy DaySuitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older
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