Chinese restaurant who do not only speaks fluent Cantonese, but is also trained with the brother of Lees kung-fu master.Īnd, unlike Replacement Killers, Anna and the King, Romeo Must Die, and Kiss of the Dragon, here the Asian leading man gets the girl. In an uncredited cameo, Don Cheadle shows up as the owner of a South-Central L.A.
Such statements might seem ironic coming from the mouth of a culturally insensitive clod, but Rush Hour 2 does manage to dash the occasional stereotype. "This ones for Nelson Mandela!" he screams, before shooting craps. Far funnier are Carters Stateside antics, particularly a prolonged anti-racism tirade he gives at a craps table to distract the casinos security from Lee. This leads to numerous semi-amusing situations where he loudly reads phrases like "Please shave my butt with a Samurai sword" from his Cantonese phrasebook, which is perhaps the most poorly-written language aid since the Monty Phython Hungarian-English dictionary. Tuckers Carter, however, cares about none of this hes just trying to get some "moo shoo" (read: sex) from all the fly, fly Asian girls he meets. Apparently the photogenic pair is mixed up in an elaborate counterfeiting scheme with Los Angeles real estate magnate Steven Reign (Borscht-belt veteran Alan King), whose alluring lady friend Isabella (ex-soap star Roselyn Sanchez) may or may not be a Secret Service agent. The story flits between these locales, beginning in the Chinese port city with Lee hot on the trail of corrupt ex-cop Ricky Tan (the perfectly preserved John Lone) and his gorgeous henchwoman Hu Li ( Crouching Tigers Zhang Ziyi). But when it comes to brawling, Chan remains an expert of hand-to-hand combat, battering opponents with a wastebasket in a Hong Kong massage parlor and displaying an inventive exit method through the gate of a Vegas casino cash-counting room. Okay, there are two of those, but neither comes close to Chans former glory, since both use blue-screen effect and fake backgrounds. (This isnt such a strange comparison, given that hack-scribe Jeff Nathanson wrote the scripts for both.) The 47-year-old action star is beginning to show his age dont expect any Police Story-scale car chases or Project A-style falls from multistory buildings. Luckily, Chan picks up the slack, rescuing Rush Hour 2 from becoming a Speed 2-like boatwreck. But here, he seems content to slum it, doing a lame re-hash of his usual high-pitched stick, which, four years later, doesnt nearly seem as fresh (although its a welcome respite from Martin Lawrences inchoate ramblings). Considering he received a whopping $20 million to reprise his chatterbox cop, youd think the talented comic would at least try to earn his eight-figure-paycheck. There was, however, one crucial difference those jokes were funny. Granted, Tucker delivered similar less-than-diplomatic quips in 1998s Rush Hour. He even mistakenly hits Lee in a brawl, complaining, "All yall look alike." Carter, arrives in Hong Kong to visit his friend Detective Inspector Lee (Jackie Chan), hes a font of offensive observations, telling the Chinese Lee that hell "bitch-slap his ass back to Bangkok " and asking him how long its been since he "hid the rainbow roll" a Japanese sushi dish.
From the minute his character, LAPD detective James L.
Granted, he doesnt use the kind of slurs that recently got The Conan O∫rien Show into trouble, but Tucker definitely takes the term "ugly American" to a whole new level. Jack Nicholsons performance may have been phenomenal, but the fact that were supposed to laugh when he calls his housekeeper a "wetback" made more than a few bottoms squirm in their seats.Ĭhris Tuckers nonstop crass commentary about all things Asian in Rush Hour 2 falls largely in the latter category. When its done poorly, as in As Good As It Gets, its played for cute. When its done well, as in Blazing Saddles, it offends everybody. Gleaning humor from bigotry is always a risky proposition. An enjoyable alternative to a summer of disappointments