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Rush Hour 3

This summer's last threequel is also its worst

By Matt Pais, Metromix

August 10, 2007

Critic's Rating:

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Inspector Lee (Jackie Chan) and detective Carter (Chris Tucker) are back to their mismatched shtick as they travel to Paris in hopes of finding a secret list of notorious criminals.

Big question: Can "Rush Hour 3" hold the interest of its existing fans and supply some entertainment for those who just wonder why Tucker hasn't made a non-"Rush Hour" movie in 10 years?

Skip it: "Rush Hour 3" finds humor in Carter's insistence that Iranian scientists at UCLA are terrorists and his forcing a "smelly" French cabdriver—who later reveals he longs to be an American—to sing the Star Spangled Banner at gunpoint. The detective is just an ugly American posing as a hero, and there's not a laugh on this entire hate-driven highway, which only goes from terrible to bad when the stunts do the talking.

Catch it: Abbott and Costello fans may or may not like Carter's "Who's on first?"-style routine in which he's confused by Chinese men named Mi (Me) and Yu (You). He also threatens to wrap them up like a California roll, and why take the time to differentiate between Chinese and Japanese cuisine when the material is this hilarious?

Bottom line: Chan's English still isn't good enough to achieve any comic timing, and Tucker must not need to be funny since the loudmouth can take his $25 million payday and laugh all the way to the bank. If the rest of the world sees "Rush Hour 3," consider America's reputation totaled.

Bonus: More tolerant wisdom from the movie: After Carter hears a Chinese man speaking French, he quips, "You're Asian! Stop humiliating yourself!" Later, Chan orders fried chicken as a way of relating to his partner. Tucker also scores two women for himself and his partner but informs Lee, "The fat one's yours."

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