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Rush Hour 2 |
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Rush Hour 2 picks up where
Rush Hour left off. That might seem an
obvious thing to say, but after summer sibling
Jurassic Park III
jumped from point A to point G to point
B, nothing can be taken for granted in the
sequel game. After cracking his first case on
U.S. soil, Inspector Lee returns to China, and
newfound cohort LAPD Detective James
Carter takes a vacation to visit him. Carter is
hoping for lots of down time interrupted only by
beautiful Asian women, but gets caught up in
one of Lee’s cases instead. The U.S.
Embassy has been bombed, and two
undercover customs officials killed. China’s
most dangerous gang, the Fu-Cang-Long
Triad is behind it. Racing against—or in
cooperation with—the U.S. Secret Service (no
one is sure which), Lee and Carter track Triad
boss Ricky Tan, who’s responsible for
laundering $100 million worth of counterfeit
U.S. $100 "superbills." By coincidence (there
are no coincidences in action films), Tan is
also the double-crossing former detective who
killed Lee’s father. In the mix for good
measure are hard-nosed henchwoman Hu Li
(Ziyi Zhang of Crouching Tiger
fame), a covert Spanish rose named
Isabella and intricately choreographed kung-fu
dizzying enough to give this critic a head
rush.
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positive content: Nobody watches a
Jackie Chan movie for its rich characterization.
There’s a reason for that. This time around,
writers try to add depth to Chan’s character by
tugging heartstrings with the story of Lee’s
deceased father. It doesn’t work. But the
theme they’re trying to convey is that Lee’s life
has been profoundly affected by the death of
his father, and that’s a noble message. Also,
as co-workers and friends, Carter and Lee
consistently respect and protect one
another.
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spiritual content: Hanging from a
bamboo pole hundreds of feet above the
street, Carter screams a half-serious prayer:
"Lord Jesus, I don’t wanna die. Please help
me live!"
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sexual content: Most of the film’s
women dress to impress or seduce. A few are
shown in lingerie. Carter in particular has no
qualms about ogling them. He and Lee visit a
massage parlor where no one is fully
clothed; Carter relishes a massage from four
beautiful women. When a fight breaks out in
the parlor, one man’s towel gets ripped off
and his nakedness is shown from the rear.
Carter and Lee are dumped from a gangster’s
car and left nude on a Hong Kong highway
(audiences see them from behind and from a
distance). A flamboyantly gay retailer’s banter
is played for laughs. Agent Isabella often uses
her seductive powers to get her way on the
job.
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violent content: As can be expected,
the story line of this film exists simply to string
together a series of full-scale martial arts
battles. Kicks, chops, flips and blocks abound.
Hu Li spends the whole movie trying to do in
Carter. She angers him so much that he tells
her, "I ain’t never hit a woman in my life, but
your a-- is pushing it." Several bombs go off,
destroying property and at least three lives.
(The deaths are not shown.) Tan is shot and
falls from his yacht. Later, he falls several
stories to his death. Isabella is shot, but not
fatally. A rich American hotel owner is stabbed
to death.
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crude or profane language: Rush
Hour 2 goes much lighter on the
profanity than its predecessor, most notably
cutting down uses of the s-word from 38 to six.
Still, there’s plenty of foul language to go
around. H--- gets a pretty good workout (22
times); a-- and d--n pop up almost as much.
God’s name is misused half a dozen times,
and there are a few uses of crude sexual
slang.
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drug and alcohol content: The agents’
work leads them into several clubs serving
alcohol.
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other negative elements: Tan’s
money laundering takes place in a Vegas
casino where Carter spends the better part of
an evening at the craps table. Carter and Lee
exchange numerous racial jokes. The jabs
come across as lighthearted, affectionate
banter between colleagues, but they may
offend some viewers. Several times, Carter
tries to get Lee’s mind off his work and onto
other things. Rather than serving as a
challenge to live a more balanced life, the
younger agent’s entreaties play more as an
advertisement for hedonism and instant
gratification.
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conclusion: Speaking last fall about
his television cartoon program Jackie
Chan Adventures, Chan stated, "We make
a point not to make it ugly or violent ... I don’t
start fights. I defend myself. You don’t see
blood. If it’s bad for kids, you don’t see it in this
show. I tell kids violence is no good. [Kids] can
have [excitement] without seeing blood or
people getting hurt or killed. In the series, I do
a lot of fancy stunts—leaping, jumping
chasing, fighting bad men—many at a time.
But you can do that in a way that’s fun and
entertaining, not bloody or scary." Though
Rush Hour 2 doesn’t pretend to be
geared toward kids, some semblance of this
philosophy shows up in the film. In contrast
with the slow-mo violence popularized by films
like The Matrix,
Chan-style fight scenes don’t invite viewers to
dwell on gore or injury. All of the good guys’
actions are indeed defensively rather than
offensively motivated. So it’s not that Rush
Hour 2’s violence is graphic or
over-the-top. It’s just that there’s so
much of it. That, a moderate dose of
immodesty and offensive language should
keep families from trying to beat the traffic to
see this film.
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