Rush Hour 2

James Carter (Chris Tucker) goes on vacation in Hong Kong, meets with his good friend Lee (Jackie Chan) and wants to have a good time. Lee is more interested in investigating a bombing of the US embassy in Hong Kong. They soon learn of a counterfeiting scheme that involves Ricky Tan, the man who killed Lee's father.

Jackie Chan movies are in a category of their own. Is it a good film? How are we to judge it? No, this was not Citizen Kane, surprise, surprise. This was a movie made to entertaining, as are most of Chan's. There are some truly funny moments. There are some cool martial art moves. The plot is the usually bad-guy nonsense. The one noticeable flaw is the acting. The problem is; Jackie Chan cannot handle drama. At all. We forgive him, of course, because he's just such a damned likeable guy. But when the drama does arise, he just looks kind of silly. Chris Tucker can't handle drama either, but the inability to handle drama seems to be part of his character. It's unfortunate that having a more complicated and interesting plot actually hurts the movie. But, that's just how it turns out.

But Chan and Tucker are perfect together, everybody knows this. I know it. You know it. I can see it now, a room full of Hollywood producers slowly realizing what a beautiful monster they had created.

They complement each other perfectly, and it's so much more than just "Oh, he's black, he's Chinese." The first movie (and this one as well) was so successful for this reason and this reason alone. When Chan and Tucker are on screen together, the scene is infinitely more entertaining than when they aren't. The scenes in which they are separated (some of which are dramatic...) can get boring. When Tucker is alone, he's a bit annoying, and when Jackie is alone, he seems clueless. He's probably not acting.

The females in the film are decent. Zhang Ziyi, of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon fame gives us a nice dose of martial arts, not as impressive as Jackie's stuff, but still entertaining. Roselyn Sanchez does more acting than fighting, and she isn't a bad actress.

You either like Jackie Chan movies (American ones, at least...), or you don't. Why wouldn't you like them? Hell, I don't know. The movies are entertaining, the action is top-rate, and the writing isn't bad. So, should you rent it? Have you seen the first one? It really isn't required that you've seen the first, but it doesn't hurt. If you've got some free time, and you don't want to think until your brain hurts, why not? Rent it. It's better than most of the trash out there.

Everybody loves Jackie Chan. Just pray he never loses his accent.