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Another Funny Hour
I have just spent the weekend watching movies. Saw Planet of The Apes on Friday night. I didn't like it and I didn't hate it either. Tim Roth is unbelievable, Rick Baker's make-up is amazing and the direction was good. The rest doesn't even deserve to be mentioned. I had lunch with a fellow movie fan on Friday. So Saturday night, I decided to go see the movie he directed. Emile Gaudreault's La Nuit de Noces was a delight. The year's funniest film that unfortunately none of you will probably see. I hope Seville Films will release the movie in the rest of Canada and in the United States. This morning I had the extreme pleasure of catching Rush Hour 2. Written below is my take on the flick. Also watch out for my thoughts on Osmosis Jones in an upcoming column.
My Review of Rush Hour 2
It was about darn time! I have been waiting for a new Chris Tucker movie for 3 years. Finally this morning, I was treated to new material from the funniest loud mouth in North America. Was it worth the wait?
The story picks up exactly where we left off: Dt.
Lee (Jackie Chan) and Dt. James Carter (Chris Tucker) are in Hong
Kong. After a bombing at the American Embassy kills two people,
Lee is put on the case to Carter's great dissapointment. The idiot
is trying to have a good time during his vacation and everywhere
Lee takes him he gets them in trouble. The evil Triad crime-lord
Ricky Tan (John Lone) has a plot to make counterfeit US money. Throw
in a cheap connection that he was Lee's father's law enforcement
partner who turned on him. Add the beautiful henchwoman Hu Li (Zhang
Ziyi) and the mysterious Isabella Molina (Roselyn Sanchez) and you've
got yourself an action movie.
I love this movie. It was funnier then the original. It's basically the same storyline switched around. Chris Tucker plays the fish out of water character this time around. He did an amazing job, highlighted by his rendition of Michael Jackson's Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough. I hope he does his Mr. President movie soon. I don't want to wait another three years for Rush Hour 3. Jackie Chan was much more smooth this time around. He seems to have finally well adapted himself to the Hollywood stereotypical action lead role. Even better, they gave him a love interest in this one. While Tucker was only playing it for the laughs, Chan seemed to have tried acting for a change. Zhang Ziyi brings her beautiful deadly charm to the table, something that was lacking in the first installment. Watching her, reminded me of Jet Li's american debut in Lethal Weapon 4. Like him, she only says one full sentence in english but still scares the hell out of the good guys. I hope she'll get her own Romeo Must Die-like movie vehicle SOON. Two good cameos in the film. I won't spoil them but they were hilarious. Roselyn Sanchez is HOT! Why Can't I find myself a latina girl like that???
Good comeback to action for Brett Ratner after the wonderful The Family Man. It looks like his directing is more sharpened than before. Perhaps the budget was higher? The script by Jeff Nathanson isn't that great. Again, he remade an original film for the sequel. (That bastard also wrote Speed 2.) I'm curious to see how much improvisation Tucker put into the film. I don't think Nathanson wrote all those jokes.
One of the few movies this summer that did not dissapoint. Look out you damn dirty apes, cause someone is gonna kick your hairy ass out of first place next weekend.
Stay tuned...
That's all folks...
Jean-François Allaire (aka DeadPool)
Questions, comments, praise etc. Email me at deadpool@tnmc.org
Jean-François Allaire is TNMC's first columnist. At only 24 years old he has become a respected entertainment journalist, with his columns appearing in Corona's Coming Attractions and Scr(i)pt magazine. He also writes a monthly column in Screenwriters Monthly entitled 'The Last Word.' Hailing from Montreal this young writer is determined to dig up all the details on the movies before they hit your local theater. If you're part of a movie production then you really need to be talking to him.
