Rush Hour 2 (US)
Starring: Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, John Lone, Zhang Ziyi, Roselyn Sanchez
Directed by: Brett Ratner
Running time: 105 minutes

Hollywood executives probably clutch each other in embrace and exchange high-fives when a surprise hit of the magnitude of Rush Hour hits the box office and proves wrong the pundits who believe they've seen it all.

As originality has seemingly lost the battle against commercially-tested formulas, it is little surprise that Rush Hour 2 resulted.

The original Rush Hour reaffirmed the potential of the movies that combine opposites. When the energetic swindler with an LAPD badge and a mouth that never closes (Chris Tucker) teamed up with a silent but brilliant martial arts expert (Jackie Chan) for 90 minutes' worth of outrageous yet effective stunts and verbal exchanges, the audiences reeled with fits of laughter and enthusiasm.

So is there anything wrong with delivering more of the same? For the studio execs the answer is a resounding No.

The audience could have shared this answer, had it not been for the outrageous verbal antics of Chris Tucker.

He obviously embraces the modern black-comedian postulate that insulting white and Asian people is very funny. It isn't.

What we have in a nutshell is a formulaic comic action flick that delivers the goods on the action level, but threatens dangerously to drop the ball when it comes to comedy because its chief comedian is terribly misguided.

The movie's attempt at ingenuity is in turning tables on the original.

This time round the story sends Tucker's Detective James Carter on a holiday in Hong Kong, which places him on top of a cask of embarrassment in a way, which reminds Chan's LA troubles in the original film.

Carter does his best to live up to the Bad-American-abroad standard as he relentlessly insults everybody in sight, but has to switch back to professional mode when a bomb goes off in the American embassy.

Soon enough, Carter and Chan's Detective Lee trace the bombings back to the local triad boss (John Lone) and his fierce and sexy lieutenant (Zhang Ziyi, of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon fame). The latter crosses paths with our protagonists often enough to set up a number of inspired action sequences showcasing Chan's and Ziyi talents.

It is no coincidence that Chris Tucker is silent during those.

In terms of action, Rush Hour 2 goes one better than the original film and the action is the film's best asset and selling point.

While the original used ingenuity to compensate for the limited budget and produced a number of inspired sequences, the sequel's budget allowed bigger and more frequent stunts.

It also allowed the hiring of brilliant up and coming star Ziyi who raises the intensity of every scene she appears in.

Jackie Chan, at 47, is at his usual imaginative and physical best and the fact this movie is becoming New Line's biggest film ever (until the coming of The Lord of the Rings at least) means that the wide audiences, if not the critics, have acknowledged his genius. He virtually glows and dances around the place delivering kicks and punches with the grace of a ballet performed in fast forward. He comes about with a style of entertainment that combines the best of Fred Astaire and Buster Keaton.

Regrettably, he is often pulled back to earth by the tasteless rantings of Tucker.

His stabs at reverse racism are both redundant and unpleasant. Not surprisingly, the only scene where his outbursts fit the context is when he enters an exchange with a white casino dealer (Saul Rubinek) and loses.