Where have you been Chris Tucker?
An action comedy film that blends the two genres into an
exciting story surprisingly enough I’d say.
The daughter of the Chinese ambassador in L.A. gets kidnapped and detective
Lee (Jackie Chan) is assigned to find her.
Flashy detective James Carter (Chris Tucker) gets thrown into the mix
and what you have is a wild crime case in desperate need of solving.
The
story’s villain is, Juntao, who is responsible for kidnapping the daughter, Soo
Yung. Juntao has good cause though hear
me out. He spent his life acquiring the
rarest of rare antiques in Chinese history for his personal collection until
detective Lee recovered them all from a boat in one fell swoop. Did he attain these antiques legally? Probably not but he has motivation to get his
money back by kidnapping his good buddies daughter. That’s right he is friends with the Chinese
ambassador under a different alias. It
sets up a decent plot to be able to plug in Lee and Carter though.
Chris
Tucker is quite hilarious in the film with all those quick screaming
lines. Jackie Chan does well as his
difficultly in speaking English at times plays to his comedic advantage. The movie does begin a bit “slow” as I like
to describe it but that is part of setting up the story to come. You have to exercise patience to watch the
beginning and allow yourself to embrace the characters. It could possibly be a result of the actors
themselves settling into their roles and growing as the movie went on.
As you
reach the middle you are already taken in.
It’s time to wait for that next funny line or nifty fight scene. My favorite funny moment, which in truth
there are many to choose from, is when Soo Yung is with Carter toward the end
daring Juntao to blow up the bomb. Soo
Yung is plain hilarious! “Push the
button!” “You heard the girl” The fight
scene I would pick is when Lee is fending off two men while protecting the
Chinese priceless pieces of artwork. The
stuntmen fighting Chan make the most realistic fight scene in the film. I would pick the bar scene, fight toward the
beginning to be a more “you know it’s planned” type of fight. It’s a bit silly honestly.
I’d
like to add what Jackie Chan brought to this film. I’m narrowing it down to the stunts and fight
choreography scenes. He has immense experience
in the field with which to lean onto.
You see it in this movie with no doubt and it really helps you
understand what he does to transition the story with the action sequences. I appreciate the work put in by him to make a
movie enjoyable to the audience. The
dialogue might be lacking on his part but the comedy shores it up very nicely. It’s impressive to me to see the success of
Jackie Chan through his years of hard work, from the fighting itself, the
stunts and the English he had to learn.
I get motivated by it and realize how precious life is. If you enjoy
certain things in life then it’s important that you should put the time into it
to try to be successful and accomplish yourself. It seems odd I drew this out of watching a
comedy action movie but we all see things in a different light. Perhaps the light I see can enlighten you as
well? I had to try to be philosophical
to see if it would work. Did it? Let’s just move on.
The
cast is tolerable overall and the ending wraps up comically as the two detectives
are on a plane to Hong Kong, China. My
favorite Chris Tucker line would be, “Wipe yourself man, you’re dead.” It’s a well executed line for the feeling of
the story at that moment. As for the
movie it’s great for a fun light hearted watch with some action sequences. You need to force reason to take a backseat as
you watch. Don’t get caught saying, “Why
doesn’t he just shoot him?” because it’s a movie to get caught in the moments
of excitement. The first of three is my
personal favorite. Jackie Chan and Chris
Tucker do make a hilarious match as buddy cops.
The labels just below can link you to similar posts about this one so check them out!
No comments:
Post a Comment