Rush Hour 2

Starring Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan
Screenplay by Jeff Nathanson
Based on characters created by Ross La Manna
Directed by Brett Ratner
website: www.rushhour2.com

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IN SHORT: second verse, same as the first. [Rated PG-13 for action violence, language and some sexual material. 90 minutes]

'For those who want the short version and haven't rummaged through the archives, no, we didn't like Rush Hour. We walked in thinking we were going to sit through another Jackie Chan flick, but got one starring the guy in a dress fro The Fifth Element. Frankly, Chris Tucker's character irritated the hell out of us. We didn't like it then. We haven't changed a lot in the intervening years. What has changed in Rush Hour 2, as it appears to us, makes this experience a bit more fun. But not much.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Rush Hour, rent. It's a lot cheaper than a ticket to the sequel, has all the background information that is reduced to a sentence or two in this movie and, basically, is the same flick. Of course, if you loved the first one, you've already come to the conclusion that we're out of our mind. So, whatever we say doesn't really matter, does it?

This time out there seems to be more Jackie Chan bang for the buck, which makes us much happier than we were with Rush Hour. Or, we could be mellowing in our old age because somewhere along the line in RH2, Chris Tucker's character actually got us to laugh a pair of times. Hell hath frozen, no doubt. What didn't make us laugh was the script, as hackneyed a piece of convoluted crap as you could possibly imagine. No, we doubt that. Your imagination is probably worlds beyond this junk, which plays out like a bunch of sitcom sketches interspersed with Jackie Chan martial arts action.

When last we saw ''em, our flabberjabber wuss of an LAPD detective, James Carter (Tucker) and his trusty fists of steel companion, Chief Inspector Lee of the Royal Hong Kong Police (Chan) were winging their way to Hong Kong. They finally got there, which means in terms of story time, Rush Hour 2 is a couple of years out of date. That makes all of its cultural jokes out of date as well, but who cares. In what once was the Royal Colony, Lee goes back to work and Carter complains about not getting the royal tourist treatment he believes Lee promised. Carter has only one thing on his mind, which he (nudge nudge wink wink) generously refers to as moo shu. We don't mean pork.

Lucky for Carter, Lee is assigned to investigate mobster Ricky Tan (John Lone) who happens to run a massage parlor. Going undercover, Carter does anything but. Sitcom sketch. Big fight. Holes in the plot. Big explosion. Lee goes to party on Ricky Tan's yacht which, according to one of the fine ladies on board, is actually owned by billionaire hotel owner Steven Reign (Alan King). A murder occurs on board so our intrepid heroes plunge into their detective shtick . . .

. . . by flying back to Los Angeles. The reason made us groan. It's also the kind of joke from Chris Tucker that helped kick the first movie into the upper heights of box office revenue. Simply put, Jackie Chan gets a better workout in this movie and Chris Tucker is introduced to villainess Zhang Ziyi's foot more than once. Ziyi, last seen in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is the nasty half of RH2's eye candy. She's complemented by newcomer Roselyn Sanchez who plays the badge bearing Isabella Molina. If you loved the first one, this is a xerox copy in a different pair of cities.

On average, a first run movie ticket will run you Nine Bucks. Were Cranky able to set his own price to Rush Hour 2, he would have paid . . .

$4.50

We're old but we ain't stupid. We put Rush Hour 2 at the dateflick level, for all of you folks that dated to the original and loved it so to death, that Rush Hour 3 was in preparation while Rush Hour 2 was still shooting. Fact of the matter is tat the out takes, which play at the credits of every Jackie Chan flick, are far funnier than the movie. Then again, you have to see the movie to appreciate how funny they are. Get it on tape and watch it again and again.

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