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Dom Robinson reviews
Rush Hour

The fastest hands in the East
versus the biggest mouth in the West.

Distributed by

Entertainment In Video

Cat.no: EDV 9014
Cert: 12
Running time: 94 minutes
Year: 1998
Pressing: 1999
Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)
Chapters: 37 plus extras
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Languages: English
Subtitles: English
Widescreen: 2.35:1
16:9-enhanced: Yes
Macrovision: No
Disc Format: DVD 9
Price: £19.99
Extras : Scene index, Cast and Crew info, Behind-the-scenes, Trailer, 2 Music Videos, Short Film ("Whatever happened to Mason Reese"), 17 TV spots.

Director:

Brett Ratner

Money Talks, Whatever Happened To Mason Reese?

Producers:

Roger Birnbaum, Arthur Sarkissian & Jonathan Clickman

Screenplay:

Jim Kouf & Ross LaManna

Music:

Lalo Schifrin

Bullet, Dirty Harry, Mission: Impossible

Cast:

Detective Inspector Lee: Jackie Chan

Armour of God, Operation Condor: Armour of God 2, Police Story 1-3, Rumble in Hong Kong, Rumble in the Bronx, Twin Dragons, Who Am I ?

Detective James Carter: Chris Tucker

Dead Presidents, The Fifth Element, Friday, Jackie Brown, Money Talks

Thomas Griffin/JunTao: Tom Wilkinson

The Full Monty, Priest Sense and Sensibility, TV: Martin Chuzzlewit, Prime Suspect

Clive: Chris Penn

Liar, Mobsters, Mulholland Falls, The Music of Chance, Pale Rider, Reservoir Dogs, Short Cuts, To Wong Foo

Tania Johnson: Elizabeth Pena

Blue Steel, A Fugitive Among Us, Jacob's Ladder, Lone Star

Capt. Diel: Philip Baker Hall

Boogie Nights, Hard Eight

Rush Hour has a simple premise in that the bodyguards of the Chinese consul are murdered at point-blank range in front of the consul's daughter and she is kidnapped. Enter the FBI who ask for renegade LAPD cop James Carter (Chris Tucker), a man on the verge of suspension, to join them for one particular reason - not to help them find the girl and solve the case, but to keep incoming Chinese cop Lee (Jackie Chan) from getting in the way, despite him having a personal interest in solving the case.

It doesn't take a genius to realise that this is yet another buddy-buddy flick with two opposing sides sparking off one another, but both having the same ultimate aim. Tucker acts like a young Eddie Murphy in 48 Hrs, wise-cracking and fast-talking, while Chan is Chan, pulling his usual stunts - all done by himself - and cool martial arts moves - which require the full widescreen ratio - while playing on his "stranger in town" status.

The usually-sexy Elizabeth Pena plays his partner, but with her cropped haircut here, it just doesn't work for her. Tom Wilkinson plays the bad guy acting to all and sundry as a good guy under a different persona.

There's little to be said about the picture because it's spot-on perfect. Anamorphic picture on a dual-layer disc, a high average bitrate of 8Mb/s and the film is presented in its original widescreen ratio of 2.35:1 (not "16:9" as quoted on the back cover, which seems to hint that their DVD releases are anamorphic rather than the actual ratio).

The sound quality is first rate. Fighting, gunshots, explosions - all in Dolby Digital 5.1. Why can't they ALL be encoded this way ?

Extras :

Chapters and Trailer :

37 chapters for the 94-minute film including the usual Jackie Chan out-takes over the closing credits, plus the theatrical trailer, mirroring the Region 1 release.

Languages & Subtitles :

Just one language, but the good news is that it is in English and in Dolby Digital 5.1. Subtitles are also included in English, but whenever Chinese language is spoken, you can forget about a translation.

Other extras :

Biographies & Filmographies: Info on Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, Tom Wilkinson, Elizabeth Pena, Julia Hsu (Soo-Yung, the young girl), Tzi Ma (Consul Han) and director Brett Ratner.
Deleted Scenes: 6 extra bits that didn't make it to the final cut, totalling three minutes.
Featurette: Behind-the-scenes of the film in 17 sections and lasting 40 minutes in total, although the way the back cover states this, you'll think that running time belongs to...
Whatever Happened to Mason Reese ?: A short film marking Ratner's directorial debut in 1990 as a student with a guest appearance from the Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me dwarf as a chef.
Audio commentary track: from director Brett Ratner.
Music videos: Heavy D: "Nuttin' But Love" and Dru Hill: "How Deep Is Your Love".

What's missing ? : Just one thing missing as far as I know.

An isolated music score with commentary from composer Lalo Schifrin.

Menu :

Another triumph. While some EiV DVD menus are silent and static, this one has animation and sound on every page, the latter either being Chinese music or explosions.

If you like buddy-buddy pictures with zero originality and nothing you haven't seen before then this one's right up your street and, aside from the isolated music score, this is one of the few EiV DVDs that can hold it's head up high. Fans of the two stars or this type of film will snap this up without a hitch, but for me the film doesn't quite gel together and there's not much chemistry between its leads.

FILM	 		: **
PICTURE QUALITY 	: *****
SOUND QUALITY		: *****
EXTRAS			: ****
-------------------------------
OVERALL			: ****

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1999.

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