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Director: Brett Ratner
Script: Jeff Nathanson, Ross LaManna
Cast: Chris Tucker - Detective James Carter Jackie Chan -
chief inspector Lee Max von Sydow Varden Reynard Hiroyuki Sanada
- Kenji; Yvan Attal - George Youki Kudoh - Dragon Lady Noémie
Lenoir - Genevieve Jingchu Zhang - Soo Yung Tzi Ma - Ambassador
Han Henry O - Master Yu
Story: Well, there is hardly any story
worth the name. It pits the two detectives James Carter (Chris
Tucker) and Lee (Jackie Chan) against Triads. In the process,
the little girl in the original movie, who's now all grown up,
played by Chinese starlet Zhang Jingchu, returns to the series.
They rope in the help of an initially
unwilling and America-bashing taxi driver George (played
superbly by Yvan Attal). They get into car chases and some
exciting fight sequences before they fall in the trap of the
French Minister and are saved by George! They meet an exotic
French dancer who is actually a part of the Triad (unwilling
though) and a dragon lady, Youki Kudoh, who wields the knife
very, very dangerously. They survive all this and the climax is
all too predictable.
End of story.
Review: A movie without a story and
backbone can hold you for 90 minutes? Wrong? Right! It's an
extremely well-scripted comedy with bellyaches of laughter
throughout. Chris Tucker gets most of the funny lines though.
But the real scene-stealer is the taxi driver, Yvan Attal, who
plays George, the American-hating taxi driver. Later he gets
into the spirit of things and starts loving Americans.
The scene in which the two detectives use a
French nun to act as an interpreter while interrogating a French
assassin is the highlight of the movie. Absolutely riotous and
funny, I couldn't stop myself laughing loudly. Fortunately, most
of the audience did too and I was struggling to fight off the
tears of laughter. Similarly, the scenes in which George takes
on the Americans is brilliantly funny too and Attal shows his
talent at comedy superbly.
The movie, though, does little justice to the
human rubber-band Jackie Chan and he looks old and tired in this
movie. Chris Tucker revels as usual in his role and the scene in
which he arrests the two young girls for an accident (and gets a
date with them for the evening) while letting go the other
party, also a black man, is hilarious.
But the movie has not gone down well with the
reviewers in the US because of the political incorrectness and
the America-bashing by Attal. The audiences, though, are
enjoying it as shown by the 50 million dollars collection in the
US alone the first weekend. It's thoroughly enjoyable with
non-stop laughter. Leave your brain behind and simply enjoy the
movie. The laughs are as good as you will get. Yes, don't look
for a story, don't look for Oscar-winning acting or direction or
photogrophy or any of those categories. Just enjoy the movie.
Oh yeah, I was forgetting the titillating
scenes in which Noémie Lenoir appears as Genevieve. Leaves a lot
to the imagination.
Final score: Two out of four stars
Sam Walker
California |
