Rush Hour 2 (2001)

Directed by Brett Ratner. Starring Chris Tucker, Jackie Chan, Roselyn Sánchez, John Lone, Zhang Ziyi, Harris Yulin, Alan King, Don Cheadle, Kenneth Tsang. [PG-13]

Picking up where the last Rush Hour left off, Tucker is visiting Chan’s hometown when a bombing kills a couple of US Customs agents and the duo stumbles upon a major counterfeiting ring involving the Triads. The original movie tilted emphasis toward Tucker’s fast-talking rants over Chan’s kinetic fighting and physical comedy skills, but rather than correct the balance, this sequel pushes things even further in Tucker’s favor, leaving Chan with precious few opportunities to show off and have fun. The filmmakers even miff on swapping the “fish out of water” angle this time (Tucker in Hong Kong instead of Chan in L.A.) by sending the buddy cops back to the States before the halfway point. Too much of Tucker is always a bad thing, and in addition to overstaying his welcome, he also gets plain mean-spirited at times (his craps table tirade and homophobic scene with a gay tailor are cringe-worthy). As a Secret Service agent on the case, Sánchez’s role is more or less defined by how good she looks in sexy black underwear; coming off her excellent work in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Zhang is even more underused as a routine baddie who coulda-shoulda been given an elaborate fight with Chan, but instead only gets to spar briefly at the end with an outmatched Tucker; did anyone involved in making this movie even try to deliver what audiences want? Jeremy Piven cameos as the aforementioned tailor; Cheadle went unbilled.

39/100