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Rush Hour 2 (2001)

RushHour2

Everyone’s favorite crime fighting odd couple are back, this time travel from Hong Kong and Las Vegas.

Chief Inspector Lee (Jackie Chan) and LAPD detective James Carter (Chris Tucker) pick up exactly from where they left off, traveling to Hong Kong on a well needed break. As per usual Carter and Lee aren’t getting along, Carter wanting example to some Hong Kong’s delights, mainly its women. Lee being dedicated to his work leads both he and Carter into a money smuggling ring, where $100 bills are being made and shipped directly to Las Vegas.

The head of this smuggling ring is Ricky Tan (John Lone), being a former police officer and the partner of Lee’s father and it soon turns out to that Ricky was his murder, making this case very personal for Lee…

In this movie Elizabeth Pena is replaced with Latin delight, Roselyn Sanchez as Isabella. Isabella is a member of the US Secret Service, although she is giving out many mixed signals, one showing interest in Lee and showing interest in Ricky Tan!

This time even Carter has his own personal enemy, Ha Li (Zhang Ziyi). Ha being one of Ricky’s henchmen (or should I say hench-women) and she puts a kick into Carter’s life….well lets say three or four kicks.

As ever this film will give everyone a good laugh. The great mix of Jackie’s psychical comedy and Chris’s verbal comedy. Yet one thing I noticed Rush Hour 2 picked up right after the first film. So a 15 hour flight later, Chris Tucker had shaved and Jackie’s hair style has changed, strange. Its nice to see that the story has turned around. In the first Rush Hour, Inspector Lee had been put down as “The fish out of water” for being a foreign cop in America. Now Carter is the fish out of water as he is in Hong Kong and his only means of communicating is through his Chinese-English dictionary, which is leads to some very humorous scenes.

A nice touch setting the movie in Hong Kong, it gave the chance for Brett Ratner to introduce some Hong Kong Stars, although he didn’t really, just Zhang Ziyi. Zhang Ziyi was a excellent choice though, since American audiences were now familiar with her since her vast fame from Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Rush Hour 2 has turned out to be my favorite of the series so far, with the on going changes to Rush Hour 3, where it will be set in Hawaii, New York and even rumors of Young & Dangerous star, Ekin Cheng being roped into the third one as a student of Inspector Lee’s. But no one will know until filming takes place in 2005…

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