I'll be one of those people who thinks that the first Rush Hour was a total bore, and I gave this one a go on the premise of more action than the last - and yes, I'm a big Jackie Chan fan as well. Indeed this sequel does pick up the pace a little more, but there's not much of an improvement. Most of the problems that plagued the first one is still here. Lousy camera work reduced Jackie Chan's sheer athleticism into those pathetic Tae-Bo "one-two" manouvres, and that annoying motormouth named Chris Tucker is STILL annoying as hell (although he is hilariously funny in the Fifth Element). He speaks too much like a chipmunk filled with helium. Can someone just please lower his voice digitally? It would ease our ears of so much aggravation.
*****SLIGHT SPOILERS*****
The jokes are a bit better this time, but unfortunately most of them are aimed at Jackie and not Tucker, which is unfair. For crying out loud, this is Jackie Chan's movie, and he's the star! I'm sure the audiences want a better balanced verbal punch-up between those two. While his english is not that great, it was funny nonetheless when Jackie gets to fight back with lines like "I'll b**** slap you back to Africa" we need more of those lines in this movie to even out their "clashing" buddy-cop dynamics! Then it occured to me when Tucker were ranting about slavery and Nelson Mandela on the crap table, in reality he is a movie star who gets $20 million (or something like that) to say those words. How's that for irony? Obviously the studio is using this movie franchise to appeal to the mainstream African-Americans, as the racial jokes were too one-sided. It shows just how undignified (or unimaginative) those Hollywood guys are.
Rush Hour 2 is obviously more exciting than the first, and in this movie Jackie even gets to kiss the girl. The last half of the movie gets better as well, which is good. The outtakes are also better this time, especially when Tucker kept saying "Jackie" not "John" which prompted Don Cheadle to say "His name is Lee godd***it!" But I miss seeing old-school Jackie Chan action, and I have a problem not seeing enough of Jackie's character fight back at Tucker's insults, or even better, tell him to shut up! Oh, those high-pitched whinings ... how I wished it was Tucker and not Jackie whose mouth was strapped with a grenade!
*****SLIGHT SPOILERS*****
The jokes are a bit better this time, but unfortunately most of them are aimed at Jackie and not Tucker, which is unfair. For crying out loud, this is Jackie Chan's movie, and he's the star! I'm sure the audiences want a better balanced verbal punch-up between those two. While his english is not that great, it was funny nonetheless when Jackie gets to fight back with lines like "I'll b**** slap you back to Africa" we need more of those lines in this movie to even out their "clashing" buddy-cop dynamics! Then it occured to me when Tucker were ranting about slavery and Nelson Mandela on the crap table, in reality he is a movie star who gets $20 million (or something like that) to say those words. How's that for irony? Obviously the studio is using this movie franchise to appeal to the mainstream African-Americans, as the racial jokes were too one-sided. It shows just how undignified (or unimaginative) those Hollywood guys are.
Rush Hour 2 is obviously more exciting than the first, and in this movie Jackie even gets to kiss the girl. The last half of the movie gets better as well, which is good. The outtakes are also better this time, especially when Tucker kept saying "Jackie" not "John" which prompted Don Cheadle to say "His name is Lee godd***it!" But I miss seeing old-school Jackie Chan action, and I have a problem not seeing enough of Jackie's character fight back at Tucker's insults, or even better, tell him to shut up! Oh, those high-pitched whinings ... how I wished it was Tucker and not Jackie whose mouth was strapped with a grenade!