Rush Hour 3

To paraphrase what I said about THE SIMPSONS MOVIE, if you liked the first two Rush Hour movies, then you ought to like RUSH HOUR 3. Odd-couple cops Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker once again find themselves working on the same case. This time they chase off to France to track down the mysterious mastermind behind an international criminal conspiracy. (By the way, chances are you’ll figure out who the mysterious mastermind is the first time the character makes an appearance on the screen.) Along the way you get a lot of rapid-fire comic dialogue, including a blatant swipe of an old Abbott & Costello routine that still, God help me, had me laughing helplessly for a couple of minutes. Plus an abundance of goofy, over-the-top action sequences set at various Paris landmarks, including the Eiffel Tower, of course. Jackie Chan, bless his aging heart, can still carry out some great stunts. RUSH HOUR 3 is even more of a live-action cartoon than the previous installments in the series, with not a frame of it meant to be taken seriously. Despite that -- or maybe because of that -- I enjoyed it quite a bit and don’t hesitate to recommend it for fans of the series.