Jackie
Chan has become one of the most delightful actors of all time,
enjoyed by filmviewers around the world for his warm smile,
fantastic stunts, and boyish charm. That Rush Hour 2,
directed by Brett Ratner, even has a plot is beside the point
for most young cinema patrons, who can hardly wait for the
hilarious out-takes that roll as credits appear after the
end of the film. Again, Lee (played by Jackie Chan) is a Hongkong
detective. He is assigned to a difficult case, namely, a bombing
at the American Consulate. His LAPD crony James Carter (played
by Chris Tucker) arrives for vacation, which evidently means
having sex with beautiful China dolls. As Lee does not want
to disappoint Carter, he pretends that a visit to the nightclub
of notorious gangster Ricky Tan (played by John Lone) is the
location of a party. Soon, Lee meets Secret Service Agent
Clive (played by Chris Penn), who wants him off the case so
that American operatives can track down the gangster who has
perfect counterfeit plates of American currency and is ready
to flood the world with millions of dollars. (The Secret Service
guards the president of the United States, so the agent would
of course have been from the Treasury Department.) Nevertheless,
Lee and Carter get embroiled and try to solve the case in
a manner that is the bare plot of the film. The subtext, however,
is an effort of Jackie Chan to show the superiority of Chinese
culture with such lines as "Asians don’t panic,"
while making Chris Tucker play an African American fool who
competes with Chris Rock in Down
to Earth (2001) for the unflattering distinction
of being the Steppin Fetchit of the twenty-first century.
Carter is even ridiculed by Don Cheadle in an unbilled cameo.
Spike Lee’s Bamboozled
(2000), which makes the point that African Americans have
been demeaned in films for far too long, was indeed prophetic
of the racism in Rush Hour 2. Then, as if to up the ante on
What's the Worst That Can
Happen? (2001), there is a scene with a limp-wristed
gay tailor, yet another comedic insult. MH
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