Rush Hour 3 on Blu-ray

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.