This time around it's Chris Tucker's Detective Carter that's in a foreign country, with Jack Chan's Detective Lee playing host. Carter thinks he's in Hong Kong on vacation, but it turns out Lee is taking cases left and right. Lee ends up accepting a case where the U.S. embassy was bombed, and known Triad member Ricky Tan (John Lone) is suspected. Tan as it turns out has something to do with Lee's father's death years earlier, so this case is personal. Tan has a partner/bodyguard/hot babe at his side named Hu Li, played by star in the making Zhang Ziyi. And working with the Secret Service (or is she working with Tan?) is Roselyn Sanchez as Isabella. Carter and Lee follow the case from Hong Kong to Los Angeles to Las Vegas where the movie explodes with a great final action sequence.

The movie deals with money laundering and counterfeiting. A gangster in one country dealing with a crooked casino owner in another. Like I said earlier, the plot could have been about a kidnapping (as in the original), gun smuggling, the death of Barney the dinosaur, it really wouldn't have mattered. The real essence of the movie is the wise cracking humor of Chris Tucker, and the fast and furious hands and feet of Jackie Chan. And they accomplish their goals. The movie was pretty funny, and the action was pretty good. The action sequence towards the end of the movie that starts with an explosion and ends up with them in the middle of the road got an ovation in the theater I was at. The rest of the fight scenes were well done if not something we haven't seen in most Jackie Chan films.

Chris Tucker was at his usual high pitched best cracking jokes left and right no matter what the situation. What I liked about the first movie, and what I continued to like about this one, was that Tucker's character was always cracking jokes. There wasn't a time where he became really serious and stopped being funny. Most buddy cop films about half way through the 'comedic' cop ends up becoming really serious and the movie changes in tone, but with the two Rush Hour films that never happens, and I appreciate that.

Adding a little spice to the festivities are the lovely ladies Zhang Ziyi and newcomer Roselyn Sanchez. Both their roles were obviously background roles, but they took advantage of their screen time. I said it when I saw Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and I'll say it now, Ziyi has got an amazing future ahead of her. She's got the looks and the skills to make it as a big action star in America.

Overall I enjoyed Rush Hour 2. This was the one summer movie that lived up to expectations. Nothing serious, just a good buddy cop action comedy that hit all the right notes for a good day at the movies. And as in almost all Jackie Chan films, there is a great outtake reel that runs with the closing credits, so don't leave once the movie is over.

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