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Jackie Chan thought 'Rush Hour' was terrible when he first saw it

It was terrible.

Y'all were kids and liked it, that's fine but if it came out today it would get 40% RT score and everybody would post how shit it is.

It's certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes!

Fresh starts at 60%. 59% or less and it's "rotten".
Rush Hour has exactly 60%.
 
Rush Hour 2 hate??? Y’all gotta go

Exactly.

Just some terrible opinions all over this thread.

They probably think the Medallion is his best Hollywood movie or some shit.

Or they actually seen the Forbidden Kingdom for the whole story rather than just the fight against Jet Li.
 
Rush Hour works because the two leads somehow have chemistry together without having chemistry together, if that makes sense. They're just yelling at each other and neither seems to understand what the other is doing, but the result is fucking hilarious.

Rush Hour 2 and 3 fail because they consciously tried to bottle something which was lucked into.
Rush Hour 2 *really* worked for me. The first scene where they’re in the car and they’re retreading the old jokes does feel like they were trying to force it, but by the time Chris Tucker is booing the man doing karaoke, I was in.

We can all agree part 3 was trash. :)
 

Ducarmel

Member
I cant find the video but i remember Jackie being very critical about the action scenes especially compared to his film. I remember watching a video of a guy breaking down Jackie Chans choreography in his hong kong films and how it is captured on film and why its a visually impacting scene compared to his American roles.

Ill try to find it.
 
It's a pretty meh movie
Like Donkey Kong country 1

Rush hour 2 is the 🐐
Like Donkey Kong country 2

But rush hour 3 was a huge struggle
Like DKC 3

🤔
 

-shadow-

Member
I should rewatch the trilogy again. Yeah I know the third one has some serious problems, still enjoyed a bunch in it though.

Loving The Tuxedo posts.

I cant find the video but i remember Jackie being very critical about the action scenes especially compared to his film. I remember watching a video of a guy breaking down Jackie Chans choreography in his hong kong films and how it is captured on film and why its a visually impacting scene compared to his American roles.

Ill try to find it.
I think I know which video you mean, I'll search if I can find it!

Edit: I think this is it!

https://youtu.be/Z1PCtIaM_GQ
 
Rush Hour 1 and 2 are fantastic. I watch them every couple years.

3 started off okay and took a nose dive straight to the trash heap. The taxi driver was meant to be a gag character but just comes off utterly disturbing.

Same thing with Chris Tucker and "Friday"

No way, that movie is gold.
 

wenis

Registered for GAF on September 11, 2001.
Hes not wrong. It’s not a good movie, but movie crowds don’t often have the greatest collective best taste.its a good movie by popular vote.
 
It’s still a HK film that just happens to be set in the US, right? They even dubbed over the Cantonese with English.
I view his movies that were shot in America to be his “Hollywood” movies, for me they don’t necessarily have to be directed and produced by an American to considered Hollywood.
 
I should rewatch the trilogy again. Yeah I know the third one has some serious problems, still enjoyed a bunch in it though.

Loving The Tuxedo posts.


I think I know which video you mean, I'll search if I can find it!

Edit: I think this is it!

https://youtu.be/Z1PCtIaM_GQ

After reading the OP, I wanted to post this video. Truly amazing and interesting how much work Chan invested in his Chinese movies and how he was forced to change his style in the Western movies.
 

NastyBook

Member
lmfao @ people coming in here to shit on two of Jackie's best films, and two EXCELLENT action/comedy films in general. Hope that trilogy comes down on BF, cuz it's getting bought.
 
lmfao @ people coming in here to shit on two of Jackie's best films, and two EXCELLENT action/comedy films in general. Hope that trilogy comes down on BF, cuz it's getting bought.

RH 1 and 2 are good fun movies, yet are not the same level as the classic movies he made in Hong-Kong/China.
 

shintoki

sparkle this bitch
Rush 1 > Shanghai Noon > Rush Hour 2 > Shanghai Knights

Rest aren't worth mentioning. But it's in the opposite order for a Chan film, since it seemed like he was given more room to work his martial arts in each one. With Knights probably being his best Hollywood action flick. but worst of the lot as an overall film.

Reason for this order is the character interactions are fresh, new, etc. In Rush Hour 1, a lot of the humor came from the fact Chan and Tucker really didn't seem to understand each other. While 2 is a bit better in a few eras, it hit that we've done it already.
 

L Thammy

Member
I feel like one thing that makes the movies special is that so many jokes are a running joke. Rush Hour 2 plays off a bunch of the jokes in 1, so if you walk them back to back (and you always do) it feels like you're watching one continuous movie.

Even in the same movie. Like the "you didn't know I could do that, did you?" and the "how's your... camel hump?" when he's at Juntao's restaurant.
 

norm9

Member
I feel like one thing that makes the movies special is that so many jokes are a running joke. Rush Hour 2 plays off a bunch of the jokes in 1, so if you walk them back to back (and you always do) it feels like you're watching one continuous movie.

I was worried the car singing would get tired as 2 starts with another song, and the first one had maybe three instances of them singing already. But then you get swerved later when Lee puts on Diddy's I'll Be Missing You and gets misty, I was dead.
 
This will never work, im not 6'1"
The guy is Chinese and barely speaks English. Why would he know what 6'1" is? And if he did knew it was feet and inches he wouldn't know how much is in cm.

I'm sorry but as a non American that joke I never got since back when I was 13 I didn't fucking know what he meant by "I'm not 6'1"" either. The more, un, credible joke would've been him saying "this will never work... I'm not 61 years old" o "this will never work... wait what does 6'1" means? Or something like that.
 
Rush Hour works because the two leads somehow have chemistry together without having chemistry together, if that makes sense. They're just yelling at each other and neither seems to understand what the other is doing, but the result is fucking hilarious.

Rush Hour 2 and 3 fail because they consciously tried to bottle something which was lucked into.

I don't think it's chemistry as much as it was Chris Tucker.

The best Chris Tucker movies are ones that were specifically scripted to Chris's strengths, his delivery and stage presence were the spotlight while the partner character - Ice Cube, Charlie Sheen, or in this case Jackie - were towed along by Chris's dialogue and played reactionists to it and all its absurdities.
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
All of his reasons are what make it so great. You could tell beyond the script that Jackie was a fish out of water on some stuff so to speak.
 

PSqueak

Banned
I don't agree with Chan, but i totally understand where he is coming from, Jackie Chan action is different from American cinema action and the jokes are very american, it's not exactly a global friendly humor.

That said, as a mexican with high exposure to american culture, i found the movie pretty funny.

The guy is Chinese and barely speaks English. Why would he know what 6'1" is? And if he did knew it was feet and inches he wouldn't know how much is in cm.

I'm sorry but as a non American that joke I never got since back when I was 13 I didn't fucking know what he meant by "I'm not 6'1"" either. The more, un, credible joke would've been him saying "this will never work... I'm not 61 years old" o "this will never work... wait what does 6'1" means? Or something like that.

The joke is to have him say anything other than "Im not black", because that's the expectation, that he'd say "this would never work, im not black" after they show a close up of the ID showing Tucker with an afro.
 
The joke is to have him say anything other than "Im not black", because that's the expectation, that he'd say "this would never work, im not black" after they show a close up of the ID showing Tucker with an afro.
That's why they should've gone with something else than 6'1" for that joke since he wouldn't know what that means. He should've one with "I wasn't born in California" or "I'm not LAPD". Basically anything other than a weight or height joke.

I know I'm nitpicking but as a non American it rocks me off when you have foreigners in a Hollywood movie, ,especially when they're not even in the United States, talking in pounds, feet, inches, miles and gallons. That's stupid.
 

PSqueak

Banned
That's why they should've gone with something else than 6'1" for that joke since he wouldn't know what that means. He should've one with "I wasn't born in California" or "I'm not LAPD". Basically anything other than a weight or height joke.

You have to take in account that the joke has to be immediately identifiable with the audience, so they had to use the imperial wacky made up measuring units so the joke lands for the american audience.

your suggestions don't work as much, he knows he's not LAPD, tucker's character is literally asking him to pretend, and "i wasn't born in california" doesn't work because asian-american people are a sizable enough demographic for it to not raise any flags, so going for the height was the funniest option they had.

Well at least that's how i see it in terms of how the joke is constructed.

I know I'm nitpicking but as a non American it rocks me off when you have foreigners in a Hollywood movie, ,especially when they're not even in the United States, talking in pounds, feet, inches, miles and gallons. That's stupid.

Reminds of that bit on that "The beach" Leo Dicrapio movie when they're wondering how far the beach could be from their starting point and they do say something like that, don't remember if it's dicaprio or the french characters but basically someone goes like "yeah, that's not my unit of measure"
 
That's why they should've gone with something else than 6'1" for that joke since he wouldn't know what that means. He should've one with "I wasn't born in California" or "I'm not LAPD". Basically anything other than a weight or height joke.

I know I'm nitpicking but as a non American it rocks me off when you have foreigners in a Hollywood movie, ,especially when they're not even in the United States, talking in pounds, feet, inches, miles and gallons. That's stupid.

Do they not subtitle your movies?
 
Rush Hour is kind of standard. Rush Hour 2 is a classic, it took several rewatches until I couldn't laugh at it anymore.

I can see how Jackie might not like it from a creator's perspective... Like Miyamoto dissing Zelda 2.
 
Do they not subtitle your movies?
I don't understand your point. If I happened to watch it with Spanish subtitles (which I didn't) yes the joke would've been translated to centimeters but that still doesn't excuse the inconsistency in the writing.

Like I said. It's a nitpick. It's more of a general complaint towards Hollywood in general.
 
I don't understand your point. If I happened to watch it with Spanish subtitles (which I didn't) yes the joke would've been translated to centimeters but that still doesn't excuse the inconsistency in the writing.

Like I said. It's a nitpick. It's more of a general complaint towards Hollywood in general.

My point is they filmed it in english for American audiences first. If they dubbed/subbed it using proper metric systems for each country, then I don't see the issue. It's the least amount of suspension of disbelief I've had to exercise in the countless movies I've watched. Carter's license says 6'1" so Lee reads it as 6'1" to Carter.
 
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