September 17–24, 1998

movie shorts

Rush Hour

The trick to making a successful interracial buddy movie is grasping the genre's inherent paradox: its formula seems rigid and silly, but it is premised on self-parody, excess and precision. Rush Hour teams Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, both comedians whose forte is verbal and physical self-parody, excess and precision (this point is underlined by the end-credits outtakes—ritual for Chan's films—showing both actors screwing up dialogue and acrobatics). Director Brett Ratner, who previously made videos for PE, Wu Tang, Mary J. Blige and D'Angelo, made his movie debut directing Tucker in the mostly annoying buddy film Money Talks (with Charlie Sheen and Tucker). This time out he's got the formula down (and is unhampered by a white star in need of a popularity boost, as in most interracial buddy movies). While Tucker skirts Jimmie-Walker-like self-destruct-jive-clowning, here his cartoony outrageousness is balanced by the generous Chan. Together they endure a rudimentary plot—involving a Chinese child's kidnapping, a rich Brit angry about Hong Kong going non-colonial, LAPD vs. FBI turf battling—with martial arts slapstick and linguistic gymnastics, much of it quite funny. But the always arresting Elizabeth Peña is under-used as an explosives expert.

-Cindy Fuchs