Rush Hour 2 begins with Chief Inspector Lee of the Royal Hong Kong Police (JACKIE CHAN) and LAPD detective James Carter (CHRIS TUCKER) arriving in Hong Kong for a vacation. Armed with his Chinese-English dictionary, Carter is looking forward to a much-needed vacation and to sampling some of the city’s many exotic delights. But Lee, the ever-dedicated policeman, continues with his duties, frustrating Carter.
No sooner do they arrive, then they are confronted with the biggest case of their careers – a bomb has exploded in the American Embassy, killing two U.S. Customs agents who had been investigating a money smuggling ring that is producing and shipping millions in "superbills," high-grade counterfeit U.S. $100 bills.
The Hong Kong police suspect the chief architect behind the blast is Ricky Tan (JOHN LONE), the elegant and cunning head of the Fu-Cang-Long Triad, the deadliest gang in China. Inspector Lee is assigned to crack the case, much to the chagrin of Carter, who is caught up in the events against his will and feels his vacation plans slipping away. For Lee the case is personal – Ricky Tan was once his father’s partner on the Hong Kong police force and played a direct role in his father’s death.
With the Hong Kong and U.S. authorities fighting over jurisdiction of the case, Lee and a reluctant Carter set off on their own to track down Tan. But this time it’s Detective Carter who is the fish-out-of-water, and Lee now has the opportunity to teach him some lessons on his home turf (as Lee tells Carter in his not-so-perfect English, "in Hong Kong, I am Michael Jackson, you are Toto"). But in his own inimitable way, the fast-talking Carter has a few things to teach the locals as well!
As Lee and Carter lead a fast-paced pursuit of Ricky Tan and his gang, trying to locate the priceless plates used to print the counterfeit bills, they wreak havoc through a variety of Hong Kong locales, including a karaoke bar -- where Carter teaches the gangster clientele how to sing the definitive version of the classic "Don’t Stop ‘Till You Get Enough" -- the Heaven on Earth massage parlor and a party on Tan’s yacht cruising the waters of scenic Victoria harbor.
Along the way they must contend with Tan’s beautiful and deadly henchwoman Hu Li (ZHANG ZIYI, who captivated audiences with her role as Jen Yu in the Academy Award-winning epic, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), billionaire hotel owner and key Ricky Tan associate Steven Reign (legendary actor/comedian ALAN KING) and the alluring, mysterious and seemingly corrupt U.S. secret service agent Isabella Molina (ROSELYN SANCHEZ).
Last time they nearly destroyed L.A., now they're about to break China! Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker reprise their roles as mismatched detectives in this smash-hit follow-up that's even "faster and funnier than the first!" (Peter Travers, Rolling Stone)
Reunited in Hong Kong, the two cops look forward to a much-needed vacation. But their plans go up in smoke when a bomb explodes in the American Embassy. Suddenly, they're tracking a group of slippery suspects, including a beautiful assassin (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon's Zhang Ziyi) and a mysterious mobster (John Lone, The Last Emperor). With their irresistible mix of head spinning action and gut-busting comedy, Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan prove they're the team to beat in this can't-miss movie that delivers the entertainment rush of the year!
(20 votes)
3.
Rush Hour 2 retains the appeal of its popular predecessor, so fans will enjoy the antics of the returning stars, Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan. The action--and there's plenty of it--starts in Hong Kong, where Detective Lee (Chan) and his LA counterpart Detective Carter (Tucker) are attempting a vacation, only to get assigned to sleuth a counterfeiting scheme involving a Triad kingpin (John Lone), his lethal henchwoman (Zhang Ziyi, from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and an American billionaire (Alan King). Director Brett Ratner simply lets his stars strut their stuff, so it hardly matters that the plot is disposable, or that his direction is so bland he may well have directed the film from a phone in a Jacuzzi.
At its best, Rush Hour 2 compares favourably to Chan's glossiest Hong Kong hits, and when the action moves to Las Vegas (where Don Cheadle makes an unbilled cameo), the film goes into high-pitched hyper-drive, riding an easy wave of ambitious stunt-work and broad, derivative humour. However, echoes of Beverly Hills Cop are easy to see and stale ideas (including a comedic highlight for Jeremy Piven as a gay clothier) are made even more aggravating by dialogue that's almost Neanderthal in its embrace of retro-racial stereotypes. Of course, that's what makes Rush Hour 2 a palatable dish of mainstream comedy: it insults and comforts the viewer at the same time, and while some may find Tucker's relentless hamming unbearable, those who enjoyed Rush Hour are sure to appreciate another dose of Chan-Tucker lunacy. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
(19 votes)
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