Home Entertainment Are you ready to get stuck in RUSH HOUR again?

Are you ready to get stuck in RUSH HOUR again?

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Rush Hour 1 and 2 were fun films. There’s just no other way to describe them. Technically, they may not have been masterpieces, but Jackie Chan’s feet and Chris Tucker’s mouth fed off each other and just created a roaring time at the cinemas.

Unfortunately, Rush Hour 3 sucked more than the vacuum created when Tucker closes his mouth. Feeling recycled, with setpieces as overwrought as the bloated script, and none of the cleverness and character that Chan normally brings, it seemed that the Rush Hour was gridlocked.

But not so, according to producer Arthur Sarkissian, there just needs to be a few changes first.

Speaking to CraveOnline, Sarkissian revealed that not only may there still be life in the franchise for one more movie, but that the wheels were already turning:

“I am working on Rush Hour 4 right now with Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan. I’m trying to do it closer to how I did Rush Hour 1, more down to earth, more gritty, introduce two new characters and make it real the way the first one was. I personally was not happy with the third one. I thought 1 and 2 were very good. I think 3 got out of hand a little bit. It’s not a matter of just bringing them back to do another segment of that or a sequel to it by putting them in another city and having them bicker. I don’t want that. I want something new.”

The “two new characters” part though doesn’t mean that all the young black and asian actors in Hollywood should suddenly start getting excited though. It could just mean shaking up the existing characters.

“…maybe Chris is now married, maybe Jackie is married to Octavia Spencer, I don’t know. Married to Chris’s cousin, they live in Shanghai, Chris goes out to visit them. I don’t know, I want something energetic.”

Seeing as how many people hold director Brett Ratner responsible for the decline of the series, with his constant need to go bigger and thus sucking out a lot of the charm of the characters, would he be making a return to the director’s seat for this fourth outing?

“If he wants to do it he’s more than welcome to do it, but he’s got to do it in the right way.”

I believe the appropriate technical term of response is “Burrrnnnn”.

As to what brought on this need for freshness from Sarkissian, well it’s just the opposite of a Rush Hour: The Fast and the Furious franchise:

 “One of the things that surprised me and actually excited me was how they did Fast Five. They kept the characters, they took them and they put them in a whole different world. They put them in the world of a heist movie and it worked. I think that was brilliant what they did because if you’re not careful, what happens is you just keep repeating yourself. There’s not much you can do. You’ve got to be very careful but that’s where creativity and energy and good thought and a little bit of hard work comes to, try and give them something that’s in that world but a little different.”

Sarkissian also indicated that right now, there’s no script or even a screenwriter in place yet. It’s currently just talks between him, Tucker and Chan.

So what do you guys think? Do you want to see another Rush Hour? Personally, as a huge Jackie Chan fan, I will never tire of seeing him find creative and funny ways to kick people in the face, but if it means coming out of his “Hollywood action movie” retirement, just for a third-rate effort, then it would be better if this just stayed at talks.

Last Updated: July 30, 2012

4 Comments

  1. hmmm somehow im not as excited about this news as i should be… 

    Reply

    • James Francis

      July 31, 2012 at 13:06

      I agree, but the two actors have great chemistry. Rush Hour 3 was a bit strained, but I think they can still get some traction out of this series. 

      Also, if it wasn’t for Rush Hour, my girlfriend would have no idea who Jackie Chan is. I have been educating her with the classics, but still – it gets the word out!

      Reply

      • Kervyn Cloete

        July 31, 2012 at 14:40

        Yeah, it was purely Chan and Tucker’s chemistry that saved RH3 from being a complete disaster.

        Also, your girlfriend had no idea who Jackie Chan was before Rush Hour?! I’m not sure I would even have been able to start a relationship with somebody like that! ;P

        Reply

        • James Francis

          July 31, 2012 at 15:27

          It’s nice, actually. She hardly watches movies at all, so I never get dragged to any godawful tear-jerkers. Also, she doesn’t feel obligated to watch the stuff I do. Sadly date night never involves the cinema.

          But, yeah, I was surprised to learn that she didn’t know who he was. Turns out a lot of people only know him because of his recent stuff.

          Reply

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