Rush Hour 3

Rush Hour 3 is a 2007 American action comedy film directed by Brett Ratner, written by Jeff Nathanson, and starring Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, Max von Sydow, Hiroyuki Sanada, Noémie Lenoir, Yvan Attal and Youki Kudoh. It is the third installment in the Rush Hour series. Announced on May 7, 2006, filming began on July 4 on location in Paris and Los Angeles. Released on August 10, 2007, the film received mostly negative reviews from critics, but grossed $258 million worldwide against a $140 million budget.

After the commercial success of the first and second films in the franchise, Tucker received a salary of $25 million for his role in the film, as well as 20% of the films proceeds.

Plot
Three years after the events of Rush Hour 2, In Los Angeles, Chinese Ambassador Solon Han, with Hong Kong Police Force Chief Inspector Lee as his bodyguard, addresses the importance of fighting the Triads at the World Criminal Court, announcing that he may know the whereabouts of Shy Shen, a semi-mythical individual of great importance to the Chinese mob. Before announcing, an unknown assassin uses a sniper rifle on Han without being seen, disrupting the conference, and resulting in a large riot among everyone observing them. Lee chases the shooter and corners him, discovering that the assassin is his childhood Japanese foster brother Kenji. When Lee hesitates to shoot Kenji, he makes his escape when LAPD Detective James Carter (having learned about the shooting over the police radio) arrives to intervene.

Lee learns that Han will make a full recovery in the hospital, as the bullet hit his shoulder. Han's daughter, Soo-Yung now grown up as an adult arrives and makes Lee and Carter promise to capture the one behind the shooting. On Soo-Yung's insistence, Lee and Carter then go to the Kung Fu studio where Soo-Yung has placed an envelope entrusted to her by Han. After meeting the old studio master, who informs the duo that the Triads took Soo-Yung's belongings, Lee and Carter arrive in the hospital just in time to intercept a gang of French-speaking assassins who attempted to kill Soo-Yung and Han. Lee and Carter defeat the assassins and interrogate one of them with the help of a French-speaking nun, Sister Agnes. For her protection, they take Soo-Yung to the French Embassy and leave her under the care of Reynard, the French ambassador and the chairman of the World Criminal Court. When a car bomb nearly kills Reynard and Soo-Yung, the duo decides to go to Paris to investigate.

In Paris, after undergoing a painful cavity search from Parisian Commissioner Revi, Lee and Carter meet George, a taxi driver, who is staunchly critical of Americans. After Carter forces George to help, he drives them to a Triad hideout. Once there, Lee is tricked by a mob assassin named Jasmine, who claims to have information about Shy Shen, with Carter's intervention saving Lee when she attempts to kill him. Lee and Carter try to escape the Triads, having convinced a terrified George that they need his help, but are ultimately captured by Kenji's men. Kenji offers to let them live if the two leave Paris immediately, but Lee refuses and, in a short struggle, he and Carter escape their captivity. The duo recuperate at a hotel, where Lee reveals his relationship with Kenji to Carter, but decides that his help is not needed. Carter leaves the hotel, disillusioned, but composes himself when he spots and follows a woman he met at the Triad hideout, learning that she is a stage performer named Geneviève. Meanwhile, Reynard meets Lee in his hotel room and reveals that Shy Shen is not a person, but a list of the Triad leaders and that Geneviève is Han's informant who has access to the list.

After locating Geneviève and saving her from an assassination attempt, the two flee to their hotel room where Carter seduces Geneviève. They are attacked by Jasmine and are rescued by George, who decides to help them and has developed a great admiration for Americans. Lee and Carter then learn that Geneviève is the list. The names of the thirteen Triad leaders have been tattooed on the back of her head and, as per tradition, Geneviève explains that she will be beheaded and buried if the Triads capture her. When Lee and Carter bring Geneviève to Reynard, they find out that he has been working with the Triads all along. Kenji calls and informs Lee that he has captured Soo-Yung and that he would like to exchange her for Geneviève.

Lee arrives at the exchange point, the Jules Verne Restaurant in the Eiffel Tower, with Carter disguised as Geneviève. Kenji challenges Lee to a sword fight, during which the two fall off the tower and into a safety net. Kenji's sword cuts the safety net open and the two men are left hanging on what remains of the net. Lee wishes to save his foster brother, but Kenji says goodbye and lets go, falling to his death as Lee watches, horrified. Meanwhile, Carter saves Soo-Young and beats Jasmine, who is killed after getting stuck in one of the elevator wheels. After escaping the triads by using a French flag as a parachute, Carter and Lee are confronted by Reynard, holding Geneviève hostage and threatening to kill her and frame them. However, George, who followed Lee and Carter, shoots Reynard from behind, killing him. The police arrive, with Commissioner Revi gloating and trying to get undeserved credit. After both give the commissioner a simultaneous punch to the face, knocking him out, Lee and Carter leave the scene via victory dance.

Cast

 * Jackie Chan as Chief Inspector Yan Naing Lee
 * Chris Tucker as Detective James Carter
 * Max von Sydow as Varden Reynard
 * Hiroyuki Sanada as Kenji
 * Yvan Attal as George
 * Youki Kudoh as Dragon Lady Jasmine
 * Noémie Lenoir as Geneviève / Shy Shen
 * Zhang Jingchu as Soo-Yung Han
 * Tzi Ma as Ambassador Solon Han
 * Roman Polanski as Commissaire Revi
 * Philip Baker Hall as Captain William Diel
 * Dana Ivey as Sister Agnes
 * Henry O as Master Yu
 * Mia Tyler as Marsha
 * Sarah Shahi as Zoe
 * David Niven, Jr. as British Foreign Minister
 * Sun Mingming as Kung-Fu Giant
 * Julie Depardieu as Paulette

Release
The film was not screened in Chinese theaters in 2007, to make way for a larger variety of foreign films for that year, according to a business representative. (The quota for imported films is 20 each year.)

Soundtrack
Lalo Schifrin composed the soundtrack, interspersed with hip hop and R&B music. Two soundtrack albums were released. An album of the hip hop and R&B music used was released on August 8, 2007, on CD and audio cassette from New Line Records and Columbia Records. Another, containing Schifrin's original compositions for the film was released on the Varèse Sarabande label.

Box office
Rush Hour 3 opened on August 10, 2007, and grossed $49.1 million in its opening weekend. Box Office Mojo noted:

Rush Hour 3 was marketed as just another Rush Hour picture, in part because the movie itself is a slight romp, and lacked the event-style build-up that Rush Hour 2 had. What's more, Chan hasn't been on American screens for three years, while Tucker's last movie was Rush Hour 2. A repetitious entry in a series without a major new hook doesn't quite cut it after a six-year wait if the intent is to build or retain an audience. That Rush Hour 3 had a sizable debut is a credit to the good will generated by the first two pictures.

The film grossed $258 million worldwide.

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 18% based on 157 reviews, with an average rating of 4.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Rush Hour 3 is a tired rehash of earlier films, and a change of scenery can't hide a lack of new ideas." Todd Gilchrist of IGN movies said, "A movie that not only depends on but demands you don't think in order to enjoy it." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 44 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.

Desson Thomson of The Washington Post, giving it three and a half stars out of five, said "at the risk of eternal damnation on the Internet, I admit to laughing at &mdash; even feeling momentarily touched by &mdash; Rush Hour 3." Christian Toto of The Washington Times said, "The Rush job should put the franchise down for good." Christopher Tookey of the Daily Mail said, "Infecting this third movie is an extra, deeply unpleasant level of racism that we haven't seen before in the series." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times was slightly more positive giving the film two stars and saying, "...once you realize it's only going to be so good, you settle back and enjoy that modest degree of goodness, which is at least not badness, and besides, if you're watching Rush Hour 3, you obviously didn't have anything better to do, anyway." James Berardinelli of ReelViews gave the film one-and-a-half stars out of four, and said the movie was dull, uninspired and redundant.

Home media
The film was released on December 26, 2007, on DVD and Blu-ray. As of March 30, 2008, it made $80.75 million in Home Video rentals, making it the top rental of 2007. As of 2018, the film has grossed US$45 million in American DVD sales.

Sequel
Because of the film's box office success, director Brett Ratner and writer Jeff Nathanson are considering the production of a fourth film in the Rush Hour series. In the DVD audio commentary for Rush Hour 3, Brett Ratner jokes that a Rush Hour 4 could be released in the future. Ratner and Nathanson are exploring many concepts, including the use of the motion capture technique for the possible sequel and various film projects with Chan and Tucker. It has been reported that the fourth film may be set in Moscow.

In May 2011, in an interview with Vulture, Ratner stated that the high cost of making a sequel is, "why another Rush Hour probably won’t get made, either: It'd be too much to pay me, Chris [Tucker], and Jackie [Chan] to come back." In an interview on May 12, 2012, with The Arizona Republic, Jackie Chan revealed that he was still planning on sequels to both Rush Hour and The Karate Kid.