DVDfever.co.uk - Charts, News and Reviews of DVDs, Games, Hardware, Laserdiscs, Cinema Films & more

This Week's Highlights
War of the Worlds: Special Edition
The Zombies
The Cottage
Fiat Punto Song @
Domsez Youtube
New music charts
w/e 09.09.08
DVD comps closed
Doctor Who
at the Proms
@ DVDfever Youtube

Last updated
Aug 08 2008

Xbox Gamertag:
DVDfever co uk

Stargate Atlantis
Season 4
Just £28.98!

Alien/Predator:
Complete Collection
for just £44.98

Harry Potter
Complete Sp.Edn
for just £44.98


Why Donate?

News & Views
Discussion Forum
News Archive
Announcements
All About Us
Email Dom
Write 4 DVDfever
Competitions
Music Charts
Chart Archive
Cinema: Whats on
Cinema Reviews
Press Releases
TV Issues

DVD List
R1 DVD Reviews
R2 DVD Reviews
R3-6 DVD Reviews
CD Reviews
PS2 Reviews
PSP Reviews
Xbox Reviews
Xbox 360 Reviews
Gamecube Revs
GBA Reviews
PC Reviews
Hardware Revs
Concert Reviews
Video Reviews
Comedy Reviews
Book Reviews
Screenplay Reviews
Movie Downloads
Interviews
TV Shows
PSX Reviews
N64 Reviews
Dreamcast Revs
Laserdisc Revs
Short Stories
DVDs In Brief

Right To Reply
Why Widescreen?
DVD Links
Music Links
WS Video List
WS PAL LD List

Me and my
Aortic Valve!

Dom Robinson reviews

Rush Hour

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

Distributed by

Entertainment In Video

      Cover
    • 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.

[Up to the top of this page]

DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.

PC games reviewed by the editor are on:

  • Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
  • Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
  • Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
  • Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
  • Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP