Rush Hour 3 (2007)

Rush Hour 3 is a 2007 American buddy action comedy film directed by Brett Ratner, written by Jeff Nathanson, and starring Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, Max von Sydow, Hiroyuki Sanada, Noémie Lenoir, Yvan Attal and Youki Kudoh. It is the third installment in the Rush Hour franchise and centers on Inspector Lee (Chan) and Officer Carter (Tucker) tracking an assassin to Paris to unravel a mystery about the Chinese triads. Announced on May 7, 2006, filming began on July 4 on location in Paris and Los Angeles. Released on August 10, 2007, the film received mixed-to-negative reviews from film critics. Despite this, it was a box office success, grossing $258 million worldwide against a $140 million budget.

Plot.

Three years after the events of Rush Hour 2, Chinese Ambassador Solon Han, with Hong Kong Police Force Chief Inspector Lee as his bodyguard, addresses the importance of fighting the Triads at the World Criminal Court in Los Angeles. There, when Han starting to announce the whereabouts of Shy Shen, a semi-mythical individual of great importance to the Chinese mob, an assassin snipes him, causing a panic. Lee corners the shooter, but when he learns it is his childhood foster brother, Kenji, he hesitates, allowing Kenji to escape just as LAPD Detective James Carter arrives after hearing what happened over the police radio. Han survives the assassination attempt, and Lee and Carter promise his daughter Soo Yung to find the person responsible. She insists they head to the local Kung Fu studio to retrieve an envelope Han left her, but learn from the studio master the Triads took Soo Yung’s belongings. Lee and Carter return to the hospital and intercept a gang of French-speaking Chinese assassins before they can kill Han. After defeating them, they interrogate one of them with the help of Sister Agnes, a French-speaking nun.

For her protection, they take Soo Yung to the French Embassy, leaving her with French ambassador and chairman of the World Criminal Court, Varden Reynard. When Reynard and Soo Yung are nearly killed by a car bomb, Lee and Carter head to Paris to investigate further. After a painful encounter with Parisian Commissaire Revi, Lee and Carter meet anti-American taxi driver, George, and force him to drive them to a Triad hideout. While there, Carter meets stage performer Geneviève while Lee is tricked by mob assassin Jasmine, who claims to have information about Shy Shen, and Carter saves him from being killed. The pair try to escape, but are ultimately captured by Kenji’s men. Kenji says he’ll let them live if they leave Paris, but Lee refuses. Following a short struggle, he and Carter successfully escape.

Rush Hour 2 (2001) Biography, Plot, Filming, Box office, Reception, Awards, Fight.

They recover at a hotel, where Lee reveals his relationship with Kenji and decides to continue alone. A disillusioned Carter leaves, but recomposes himself when he spots and follows Geneviève. Meanwhile, Reynard meets Lee and explains Shy Shen is not a person, but a list of Triad leaders and that Geneviève is Han’s informant with access to the list. After locating Geneviève and saving her from being killed, the two flee to their hotel. They are attacked by Jasmine, but George rescues them out of a newfound admiration for Americans. Geneviève reveals to Lee and Carter that the Triad leaders’ names were tattooed on the back of her head and that she will be beheaded when the Triads capture her. Lee and Carter bring her to Reynard and discover he was working with the Triads the entire time. Kenji calls to inform Lee that he has captured Soo Yung and demands he turn over Geneviève.

Production.

After the commercial success of the first and second films in the franchise, Tucker received a salary of $25 million, Chan received $15 million, and Ratner $7.5 million. In addition, Chan received 15% of the box office revenue as well as distribution rights in China and Hong Kong, bringing his total earnings to at least $53,700,000 (equivalent to $70,200,000 in 2021). The scene where Chan and Tucker fight the Kung-Fu Giant, played by Chinese basketball player Sun Mingming, is a parody of Bruce Lee’s Game of Death, where Lee fights a taller black man played by NBA basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The film subverts it by having a shorter African-American man, Tucker, fight a taller Chinese man played by a basketball player, Sun.

Release, Box office.

The film was not screened in Chinese theaters in 2007, to make way for a larger variety of foreign films for that year, according to a business representative. (The quota for imported films is 20 each year.) Rush Hour 3 opened on August 10, 2007, and grossed $49.1 million in its opening weekend. Brandon Gray of Box Office Mojo noted: Rush Hour 3 was marketed as just another Rush Hour picture, in part because the movie itself is a slight romp, and lacked the event-style build-up that Rush Hour 2 had. What’s more, Chan hasn’t been on American screens for three years, while Tucker’s last movie was Rush Hour 2. A repetitious entry in a series without a major new hook doesn’t quite cut it after a six-year wait if the intent is to build or retain an audience. That Rush Hour 3 had a sizable debut is a credit to the good will generated by the first two pictures. The film grossed $258 million worldwide.

Critical response.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 17% based on 157 reviews, with an average rating of 4.2/10. The site’s critical consensus reads, “Rush Hour 3 is a tired rehash of the earlier films, and a change of scenery can’t hide a lack of new ideas.” Todd Gilchrist of IGN movies said, “A movie that not only depends on but demands you don’t think in order to enjoy it.” On Metacritic, the film has a score of 44 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating “mixed or average reviews”. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of “A-” on an A+ to F scale.

Home media.

The film was released on December 26, 2007, on DVD and Blu-ray. As of March 30, 2008, it made $80.75 million in Home Video rentals, making it the top rental of 2007. As of 2018, the film has grossed $45 million in American DVD sales.

20 Years Later, Rush Hour Is Still a Buddy-Cop Gem

Possible sequel.

Because of the film’s box office success, director Brett Ratner and writer Jeff Nathanson are considering the production of a fourth film in the Rush Hour series. In the DVD audio commentary for Rush Hour 3, Brett Ratner jokes that a Rush Hour 4 could be released in the future. Ratner and Nathanson are exploring many concepts, including the use of the motion capture technique for the possible sequel and various film projects with Chan and Tucker. It has been reported that the fourth film may be set in Moscow. In May 2011, in an interview with Vulture, Ratner stated that the high cost of making a sequel is, “why another Rush Hour probably won’t get made, either: It’d be too much to pay me, Chris [Tucker], and Jackie [Chan] to come back.” In an interview on May 12, 2012, with The Arizona Republic, Jackie Chan revealed that he was still planning on sequels to both Rush Hour and The Karate Kid.

Cast:

Jackie Chan as Chief Inspector Lee of the HKPF
Chris Tucker as Detective James Carter of the LAPD.
Hiroyuki Sanada as Kenji Brother, Lee’s “brother”
Max Von Sydow as Varden Reynard
Yvan Attal as George Cabbie
Youki Kudoh as Dragon Lady Jasmine
Noémie Lenoir as Geneviève
Zhang Jingchu as Soo-Yung Han
Tzi Ma as Ambassador Solon Han
Roman Polanski as Commissaire Revi
Philip Baker Hall as Captain Bill Diel
Dana Ivey as Sister Agnes
Henry O as Master Yu
Mia Tyler as Marsha
Sarah Shahi as Zoe
David Niven Jr. as British Foreign Minister
Sun Mingming as Kung-Fu Giant
Julie Depardieu as Paulette

Rush Hour 3 (2007) Biography, Plot, Box office, Home Media, Possible sequel, Fight.