Rush Hour 2

Rush Hour 2
Directed by	Brett Ratner
Produced by	Roger Birnbaum Jonathan Glickman Arthur Sarkissian Jay Stern
Written by	Jeff Nathanson
Based on	Characters created  by Ross LaManna
Starring	Jackie Chan Chris Tucker John Lone Alan King Roselyn Sánchez Harris Yulin Zhang Ziyi
Music by	Lalo Schifrin
Cinematography	Matthew F. Leonetti
Editing by	Mark Helfrich Robert K. Lambert
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release dates	August 3, 2001 (2001-08-03)
Running time	92 minutes
Country	United States China
Language	English Cantonese Mandarin
Budget	$90 million
Box office	$347,325,802

Rush Hour 2 is a 2001 martial arts buddy action comedy film. This is the second installment in the Rush Hour series. A sequel to the 1998 film Rush Hour, the film stars Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker who respectively reprise their roles as Inspector Lee and Detective Carter. The film finds Lee and Carter embroiled in a counterfeit scam involving the Triads.^[1]

Rush Hour 2 was released August 3, 2001 to mixed reviews from critics, but it grossed $347,325,802 at the worldwide box office,^[2] becoming the eleventh highest-grossing film of 2001 worldwide. It is the highest-grossing live-action martial arts film of all time, and the second highest-grossing martial arts film of all time, behind Kung Fu Panda.^[3] The film was followed up with another sequel, Rush Hour 3, in 2007.

Plot

Los Angeles Police Department Detective James Carter (Chris Tucker) is on vacation in Hong Kong, visiting his friend, Hong Kong Police Force Chief Inspector Lee (Jackie Chan). The fun is put on hold when a bomb explodes at the United States Consulate General, killing two U.S. custom agents inside.^[4] Inspector Lee is assigned to the case, which becomes personal when it is discovered that it somehow involves Ricky Tan (John Lone), his late police officer father's former partner. Tan, who was suspected, but never proven, of having a role in Lee's father's death, is now a leader of the Triads.

The United States Secret Service, led by Agent Sterling (Harris Yulin), and the Hong Kong Police Force soon get into a fight over the jurisdiction of the case. Lee and Carter separately make their way to Tan's yacht where he is holding a dinner party. Tan scolds his underling, Hu Li (Zhang Ziyi), who then leaves as Lee and Carter confront Tan. Just as Ricky Tan asks for protection, Hu Li shoots him and makes her escape in the chaos. An angry Sterling holds Lee responsible for Tan's death, and orders him off the case. Carter is ordered to be flown back to Los Angeles for involving himself. However, Lee and Carter return to L.A. together.

On the plane, Carter tells Lee that in every large criminal operation, there is a rich white man behind it and that man is Steven Reign (Alan King), an L.A. hotel billionaire whom Carter saw acting suspiciously on Tan's boat. They set up camp outside the Reign Towers, spotting a sexy U.S. Secret Service agent named Isabella Molina (Roselyn Sánchez). After a few misunderstandings, Molina tells the two men that she is undercover, looking into Reign's money laundering of $100 million in superdollars (high grade counterfeit $100 bills).

Lee and Carter pay a visit to Kenny (Don Cheadle), an ex-con known to Carter who runs a gambling den in the back of his Chinese restaurant. He tells them that a usually broke customer recently came into his establishment with a suspicious amount of hundred-dollar bills. Carter confirms that they are Reign's counterfeits and they trace the money back to a bank. The Triads are waiting for them and knock the two cops unconscious, with Molina looking on. After arriving in Las Vegas, Lee and Carter wake up inside one of the Triads' trucks and escape. After finding out where they are, they realize that Reign is laundering the $100 million through the new Red Dragon Casino (filmed at the now demolished Desert Inn).

At the Red Dragon, Lee and Carter split up. Lee attempts to find the engraving plates which were used to make the counterfeit money, while Carter makes a distraction to help Lee sneak past the security. However, Hu Li captures Lee and takes him to a room where it is revealed that Ricky Tan faked his death. When Tan departs, Molina tries to arrest Hu Li unsuccessfully. Carter continues to fight Hu Li and knocks her out, while Lee heads to the penthouse to prevent Tan from escaping with the plates. In the penthouse, Reign opens the safe and takes the plates, running into Tan as he leaves. Reign tries to back out of the deal but Tan kills him with a knife. Lee and Carter arrive to have a tense standoff, where Tan admits that he killed Lee's father.

Tan is killed when he tries to break free and Lee kicks him out of the window. Hu Li enters with a time bomb forcing Lee and Carter to grab onto the decoration wires. The two escape on the makeshift zipline as Hu Li dies in her own explosion. Later, at the airport, Molina thanks Lee for his work on the case, and she kisses him for a short time, while Carter watches from afar. Having originally planned to go their separate ways, Lee and Carter change their mind and head to New York City.

Cast

• Jackie Chan as Chief Inspector Lee
• Chris Tucker as Detective James Carter
• John Lone as Ricky Tan
• Zhang Ziyi as Hu Li
• Roselyn Sánchez as U.S. Secret Service Agent Isabella Molina
• Alan King as Steven Reign
• Harris Yulin as U.S. Secret Service Agent Sterling
• Kenneth Tsang as Hong Kong Police Captain Chin
• Lisa LoCicero as Receptionist
• Mei Melançon as Girl in Car (as Meiling Melancon)
• Maggie Q as Girl in Car
• Don Cheadle as Kenny (uncredited)
• Audrey Quock as Kenny's Wife
• Ernie Reyes, Jr. as Zing
• Joel McKinnon Miller as Tex
• Cynthia Pinot High Roller Girl
• Jeremy Piven as Versace Salesman
• Brad Allan as Red Dragon Security Guard (uncredited)
• Philip Baker Hall as Captain William Diel (deleted scenes)
• Oscar Goodman as Himself (deleted scenes)

Release

Prior to its August 4 release, Rush Hour 2 was premiered to the public on Thursday, July 26, 2001 on-board United Airlines Flight 1 from Los Angeles to Hong Kong, which was renamed, "The Rush Hour Express".^[5] The Hong Kong Board of Tourism teamed up with United Airlines and New Line Cinemas in a campaign that offered both trailers for the film for passengers on all domestic United flights during July and August (reaching an expected 3 million people), as well as Hong Kong travel videos to inspire tourists to visit China where the film was set. The film received mixed reviews. It currently has a 52% "Rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Box office

Rush Hour 2 opened on August 3, 2001 in 3,118 North American theaters, and it grossed $67,408,222.87 ($21,619 per screen) in its opening weekend.^[6] It ended its run with $226,164,286.92, making it the fourth highest-grossing film of 2001 domestically, and the highest-grossing martial arts film at the time.^[3]

The film's total worldwide box office take was $347,325,802, making it the eleventh highest-grossing film of 2001 worldwide.^[2]

Rush Hour 2 out-grossed its predecessor, Rush Hour. This was due to the fact that it had a little more box office longevity and lasted consistently within the domestic box office top ten for roughly two weeks longer than Rush Hour.^[7] In addition, the hype surrounding Rush Hour 2 helped it maintain high numbers for a longer period of time. After fifty days since its domestic release, Rush Hour was only No. 10 on the box office charts while comparatively, Rush Hour 2 was still pulling in big audiences after fifty days in theaters and was the No. 2 grossing film domestically.^[8]

Accolades

Rush Hour 2 earned a total of 27 award nominations and 10 wins, including an MTV Movie Award for Best Fight, a Teen Choice Award for Film-Choice Actor, Comedy, and 3 Kids' Choice Awards for Favorite Male Butt Kicker (Chan), Favorite Movie Actor (Tucker), and Favorite Movie.^{[citation needed]}

Sequel

Because of development hell, Rush Hour 3 was not released until August 10, 2007—six years after Rush Hour 2.^[9][10] A fourth installment in the series is in negotiations, however, and reportedly may be set in Moscow.^[11]

Soundtrack

A soundtrack containing hip hop and R&B music was released on July 31, 2001 by Def Jam Recordings, Def Soul and Universal Music Group. It peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard 200 and No. 11 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.

Home media

VHS

DVD

UMD

Blu-ray

Rush Hour 2 is set to be released on Blu-ray in Germany 1 December 2013.^[18] A Blu-ray was originally set to be released in October 2007 in the U.S., and December 2007 in the U.K. to coincide with the releases of Rush Hour and Rush Hour 3 on the same format. For reasons unknown, both dates were pulled from the release schedule.^[19]

See also

• Jackie Chan filmography

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Rush Hour 2

• Official Site at the Wayback Machine (archived March 19, 2007)
• Rush Hour 2 at the Internet Movie Database
• Rush Hour 2 at Box Office Mojo
• Rush Hour 2 at allmovie
• Rush Hour 2 at Rotten Tomatoes
• Rush Hour 2 at Metacritic