25 lines
3.3 KiB
Plaintext
25 lines
3.3 KiB
Plaintext
i guess it's a credit to jackie chan and the general likeability of the franchise that rush hour 2 could not be ruined even by the nauseating " comedy " of chris tucker .
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i'm a fan of jackie chan in just about any medium , and this movie lets him not only do his impressive-as-ever martial arts schtick , but show off his comic timing as well .
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it would have worked better if he was the only name above the title .
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the plot is your basic martial arts flick clothesline for stunts and special effects .
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this time around , the evil smugglers are led by ricky tan ( john lone ) , who makes his fortune by shipping counterfeit money into the united states ( i'm still not sure how you can make a fortune doing that : is there a place where one can exchange fake bills for real ones ? ) .
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the only way to tell the phony money from the genuine article is to set it on fire and see what color it burns .
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of course , it's up to hong kong detective lee ( chan ) and trash-talking lapd detective james carter ( tucker ) to take the bad guys out and the authorities , to the extent that they even exist , stay out of their way .
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rush hour 2 turns the tables on the first film in that here it's carter who gets the two of them into trouble and lee who winds up having to get them out .
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i guarantee that my rating would have been at least a half of a grade higher had anyone other than chris tucker been cast as the foil for jackie chan .
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he refuses to shut up .
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not only did his voice feel like a jackhammer on my head , but his jokes just aren't funny , a pathetic mixture of sub-par eddie murphy fasttalking blather and wannabe chris rock white-man-black-man jokes that wind up being more offensive than funny .
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i realize that in a movie like this some of the biggest laughs come from letting the actors ad lib beyond what the script dictates , but didn't anyone realize how irritating tucker's incessant ranting and raving was ?
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if this is all the comedian has to offer then i don't care to see any more of his films .
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fortunately , chan makes for a marvelous straight man , and he redeems the fledgling comedy completely .
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it's not often that one actor can so completely save a movie , but there is no other name for what he does ; whenever he's on screen , rush hour 2 comes to nearly breathtaking , often hilarious , life .
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much of it hinges on the dubious value of how cute it is to watch chan try to be a " player , " but who cares ?
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i can think of few high concepts that are funnier .
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the movie ends with outtakes that , as usual , show that chan isn't perfect , and that it does , indeed , take him a few tries to get some of his incredible stunts to look seamless .
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chris tucker botches some lines as well , and his mistakes are funnier than anything he says in the whole movie .
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a lot of people have pointed out rush hour 2 isn't very different from its predecessor in tone or style .
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but i liked the original , and i like the sequel , though a certain sidekick seems to have done his best to ruin it .
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director brett ratner ( the family man ) keeps it moving at an entertaining pace and manages to keep the laughs coming despite the fairly miserable hit to miss ratio of the jokes ( i guess sometimes the shotgun approach works ) .
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it's not great jackie chan , but it's jackie chan , and that's enough .
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up next : jay and silent bob strike back
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