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Journalism of Courage
CAST: Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, Max von Sydow, Noemie Lenoir
DIRECTOR: Brett Ratner
Spiderman could do it, and so did Jack Sparrow and an ageing John McClane. So why not Chief Inspector Lee Chan and Detective James Carter Tucker? This is why not.
It is sometimes best not to overstretch an idea, particularly when it was lucky to have clicked the first two times. But obviously, in a year that has been populated by sequels, threequels and even four-quels and we are not even counting Harry Potter, Ratner and his colleagues couldn8217;t resist a Rush Hour 3.
And so what if it uses the same buddy-cop set-up, plays on the same cultural differences, uses the same action stunts and parrots the same jokes for a tired film creaking under the combined starpower of its actors and the unbearable lightness of its script.
Even a Jackie Chan who can never be accused of lack of enthusiasm doesn8217;t put his neck out for that little extra. Perhaps at age 53, he knows better. Chris Tucker is borrowing so much from so many sources Lethal Weapon for starters that it8217;s impossible to find it funny any more.
Max von Sydow is given too small a role to earn a mention, leaving us with the only saving grace 8212; a few good Frenchmen, and a woman who takes the pants off, literally, of everyone in the film. That would be French model Noemie Lenoir. However, even her role is as minimal as the clothes on her body, long enough to grab the eyeballs but short enough to not steal Chan and Tucker8217;s thunder.
Another French connection is a cabbie who constantly moans about Americans 8212; for their readiness to start wars and kill people, and for their equal capability for losing it to everyone from Vietnamese to Iraqis. Of course, as it turns out, he is actually sold on America, including Hollywood.
However, it is another indulgent bit of politics that will perhaps go unnoticed. Noted director Roman Polanski, who is on the run from American law for sex with a minor and who lives in exile in Europe, has a cameo here as a French detective who fingers Lee and Carter in ways that don8217;t fall in the police manual. And, no one bats an eyelid.
