Tony Keats
23-12-2001, 14:52
I recently rented the (feature-packed) R2 disc and although I enjoyed the film in a brainless way, I think its fair to say that this genre is almost completely spent.
These formulaic 'buddy' flicks have been with us for a long while now and the novelty has well and truly worn-off for me. The Rush Hour films have the privelege of Jackie Chan's presence, so they aren't half as hopeless as they otherwise would be. This time round though I was really struggling to get excited about the story and calling it contrived would be an understatement. Obviously I realise that the main aim of this sequel was to be entertaining, but just inverting ideas from the original and having Tucker improvise in countless scenes isn't really enough to make it a memorable experience.
The action scenes are pretty impressive (on the whole anyway) and are definitely the highlight of the film. They don't go on for as long as maybe they should do IMO though and the traditional Chan pacing isn't really evident in the finished product. He did contribute lots of ideas to the scenes of course, but Ratner boils them all down to the essentials (largely just retaining a few high-spots) using his more western ideals and tight editing.
It's worth seeing if you like this kind of thing, but I wouldn't recommend it as a long-term purchase. The disc itself is very appealing though and does have some satisfying extra features including numerous featurettes, a commentary and deleted scenes with optional commentary (a DTS-ES track is also available for those who have the required equipment).
Basically, this is a real "seen it all before" film. It has a plot about murders/counterfeiting which is unbelievably old-hat and failed to engage me at all. If Tucker was hilarious then I wouldn't mind so much, but he's no Eddie Murphy (although he often plays this part as though he were!). There are too many loose scenes where Tucker is just talking rubbish (probably improvised) and Chan isn't really participating at all.
Still, the explosions sound suitably beefy and the fight-scenes are certainly worth your time (one viewing is probably enough though). Also, Lalo Schifrin provides a fitting soundtrack which came as a real surprise to me (I thought he was dead!). Anyway, it's probably exactly the kind of movie you expect it to be, but for some reason I expected more.
EDIT- An "official" review was posted simultaneously!
These formulaic 'buddy' flicks have been with us for a long while now and the novelty has well and truly worn-off for me. The Rush Hour films have the privelege of Jackie Chan's presence, so they aren't half as hopeless as they otherwise would be. This time round though I was really struggling to get excited about the story and calling it contrived would be an understatement. Obviously I realise that the main aim of this sequel was to be entertaining, but just inverting ideas from the original and having Tucker improvise in countless scenes isn't really enough to make it a memorable experience.
The action scenes are pretty impressive (on the whole anyway) and are definitely the highlight of the film. They don't go on for as long as maybe they should do IMO though and the traditional Chan pacing isn't really evident in the finished product. He did contribute lots of ideas to the scenes of course, but Ratner boils them all down to the essentials (largely just retaining a few high-spots) using his more western ideals and tight editing.
It's worth seeing if you like this kind of thing, but I wouldn't recommend it as a long-term purchase. The disc itself is very appealing though and does have some satisfying extra features including numerous featurettes, a commentary and deleted scenes with optional commentary (a DTS-ES track is also available for those who have the required equipment).
Basically, this is a real "seen it all before" film. It has a plot about murders/counterfeiting which is unbelievably old-hat and failed to engage me at all. If Tucker was hilarious then I wouldn't mind so much, but he's no Eddie Murphy (although he often plays this part as though he were!). There are too many loose scenes where Tucker is just talking rubbish (probably improvised) and Chan isn't really participating at all.
Still, the explosions sound suitably beefy and the fight-scenes are certainly worth your time (one viewing is probably enough though). Also, Lalo Schifrin provides a fitting soundtrack which came as a real surprise to me (I thought he was dead!). Anyway, it's probably exactly the kind of movie you expect it to be, but for some reason I expected more.
EDIT- An "official" review was posted simultaneously!