Rush Hour 3 2007

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: For those who still enjoy the formula, Rush Hour 3 will suit fine; but here's a vote for letting Lee and Carter dance into the sunset, having sung their last chorus. Read more

Scott Schueller, Chicago Tribune: Instead of introducing a new protagonist (e.g. Chris Rock in Lethal Weapon IV) or a fresh plot to reconnect with the audience, Rush Hour 3 bludgeons us with the same old shtick. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Director Brett Ratner, who built a career on this buddy cop franchise, has cobbled together a lazy and formulaic action comedy that is neither thrilling nor particularly funny. Read more

Andrea Gronvall, Chicago Reader: Chan shows he still has the chops during a showdown at the Eiffel Tower, but you'd think the movie's reported budget of $140 million might have bought Tucker at least one side-splitting gag. Read more

Joanne Kaufman, Wall Street Journal: Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker have been through a lot together... Are they tired? Perhaps not, but their antics and action sequences certainly are. Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: Rush Hour 3 is an awfully spare title for such a big-money enterprise, but an appropriate subtitle like Auto Pilot or Once More For The Cash would have given the game away. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: This movie makes a fine replacement for the previous two installments. Read more

Kevin Crust, Los Angeles Times: Director Brett Ratner, screenwriter Jeff Nathanson and stars Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker appear to be trying to save the planet one gag at a time by recycling as much material as humanly possible. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Ratner, who has been accurately dubbed a 'fauxteur', does an OK job keeping the action swirling, especially in the finale atop the Eiffel Tower. But there's no particular reason to have kept this franchise going except for commercial expediency. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Rush Hour 3 is everything a sequel shouldn't be: wasteful, unwanted, crass, inept and just plain awful to watch. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: The eager yet lazy Rush Hour 3 often made me think of one of those mediocre Beverly Hills Cop sequels; it's that derivative and slapdash. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Brett Ratner, the great refusnik of all the A-list, big-budget action film directors, sticks steadfastly to formula. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: A whirring, soulless pop product for those who don't expect much more from a movie beyond cheap laughs and frantic diversion. Read more

Lisa Rose, Newark Star-Ledger: A pointless sequel in a franchise that's been underwhelming from the start. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: This may be the best-looking film in the series; certainly, the Paris setting, with a climactic battle among the girders of the Eiffel Tower, keeps the visuals interesting. Better you buy a postcard. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: After Max von Sydow played chess with Death in The Seventh Seal, he was condemned to hell: a prominent role in Rush Hour 3. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: It's a tedious, soulless, junky comedy whose outtakes reveal just how little effort aside from writing Tucker that big fat check and another for renting the Eiffel Tower was put into getting it on the screen. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: By no means is it a great movie, but it is great slapstick fun, one of summer's guilty pleasures. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: It's hard to think of a sadder commentary about Hollywood's sequel fetish than the existence of Rush Hour 3. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It seems fairly likely that this is a case of returning once more with a bucket before the well runs dry. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: There's no doubt that Rush Hour 3 is anything but a mess. And yet there were moments when I found myself laughing giddily at the inanity of it all, and other moments when the picture was so beautiful to look at that I almost forgot its faults. Read more

Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle: Although the formula seems a tad tired, it's still more entertaining than most sequels to a sequel. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Although it has been six years since Rush Hour 2 came out, almost everything about Rush Hour 3 has a familiar inevitability about it. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Rush Hour 3 is a blockbuster sequel filmed with the enthusiasm of jury duty and as barren of novelty as a burned-out souvenir stand. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: The division of labor is the same as in the first two films: Jackie kicks ass; Chris kicks sass. Ratner's challenge is giving the stars enough comedy byplay to keep audiences awake between the big action scenes, and RH 3 gets it done. Read more

Cliff Doerksen, Time Out: The cinematic equivalent of a third-generation photocopy of a doodle barely worth a glance in the first place. Read more

David Fear, Time Out: Nothing can justify the stale gags or Chris Tucker's shrieking minstrel show, and not even a Lalo Schifrin score can drown out the sound of money being counted. Feel free to call it commerce. Just don't mistake this for entertainment. Read more

Ben Walters, Time Out: Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: The final, and anti-climactic, 'threequel' of the summer has nothing new to say. A staleness pervades the film, despite all efforts to inject freshness and excitement into a tired story. Read more

Robert Koehler, Variety: Helmer Ratner knows the Rush Hour routine by heart, and production values, even with several new contributors to the franchise (including solid lenser J. Michael Muro), maintain the franchise's sharp, shiny look. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: At the risk of eternal damnation on the Internet, I admit to laughing at -- even feeling momentarily touched by -- Rush Hour 3. Read more