I hope my sub title didn't chase you off from the review already, though I
suppose it sums up a bit of what this particular movie is like. Wait, I am
getting ahead of myself, and I really don't mean to.
About the movie...
Let me start by saying that the movie isn't too bad, but it really does
stretch the Rush Hour movie series about as far as it
can go. The same basic plot, the same basic formula, everything that we
saw in the first two Rush Hour movies is dredged up to be repeated for a third
time so that Hollywood can try to suck another few dollars out of our
pockets.
Rush Hour 3 isn't a bad movie, but it's not a good movie either. Middle
of the road entertainment. Enough to watch til the end of the 90 minutes
(give or take) that it runs, but not enough to be unforgettable or even
memorable really. Fans of the Rush Hour series will probably enjoy this
movie just fine, and certainly fans of Jackie Chan's action movies will also
enjoy it, but for the most part this is just more of the same action and plot
that was in the first two Rush Hour movies.
This movie is all too predictable and really all too easy to figure out
who the bad guys are long before the movie really gets going.
Again, like the earlier movies in the Rush Hour series, the fun for this movie
is in watching Jackie Chan's stunts and excellent action sequences and in
occassionally snickering at Chris Tucker's attempts to copy those stunts or
toss in a funny line here and there.
Enough about the movie, what about the Blu-ray contents for this one?
Fans of the Blu-ray format have championed their cause and their favorite
format for a while now by saying Blu-ray is better because the discs can hold
much more content than HD DVD discs can. I've heard/read this so many
times that I'm tired of hearing it. With that in mind I have to question
the decision by the studio to release this movie as a two disc Blu-ray
set. I suppose it was just a choice by the studio, but knowing that
Blu-ray discs can easily hold much more content than just the movie, or just the
movie and a commentary track and original theatrical trailer, I'm left
to ask the studio if they really felt it was necessary to waste a second
disc on this?
I shouldn't say waste when I refer to the second disc as there are a
good many extras available with this release. It's just that those
extras aren't on the disc with the movie. In some ways that might be
a good thing as you could be tempted to watch the movie again instead of simply
putting the extras disc in the player. It just seems a bit weird that the
extras come on another disc rather than having a single disc with everything on
it.
To continue the same rant, further confusion comes from the fact that
the movie itself only runs about 90 minutes. (In many ways that can be
considered a good thing about this movie). At that fairly short
length, you would expect there was plenty of space left over on the main
disc, so it could have and should have included a lot of the content that
went on the second disc. I suppose it is possible that the trade off
would have been the loss of a bunch of content from that second disc might have
been left out entirely in the name of making things fit only on one disc.
If that was the case, then better to make it a two disc set.
The Bottom Line
Should you purchase this set? Well, if you are a Jackie Chan (or
perhaps a Chris Tucker) fan sure, or if you can find the set discounted go
for it. It's probably worth watching, but I'd personally call it a rental
and not a purchase if possible.