(Image Credit: New Line Cinema, Warner Bros.)
On the February 22 episode of The Undefeated’s (owned and operated by ESPN) “The Plug” podcast, comedian and actor Chris Tucker announced a sequel to the Rush Hour franchise, a series of buddy cop films dating back to the release of the original Rush Hour 1998. Tucker was quoted as saying,
“It’s happening. This is gonna be the rush of all rushes. Jackie is ready and we want to do this so that people don’t ever forget it.”
Although Tucker made his announcement in February, because I do in fact live under a rock, I did not find out about this information until very recently. Though I am certainly a fan of the franchise, having a certain nostalgia for Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, and comedy from the 1990s, upon learning about a potential fourth sequel, I was perturbed rather than excited. A sequel in the Rush Hour franchise released years after the last entry, featuring callbacks and in-jokes that only make sense if you watched earlier films? We had that already, it was Rush Hour 3. Do you remember Rush Hour 3? It was absolutely terrible! A lazily written, cynical cash grab damaging a fun (even if not necessarily perfect) film series.
Thus, in an effort to make sure a travesty like Rush Hour 3 doesn’t happen again, I have a basic outline of suggestions on how I would preemptively “fix” Rush Hour 4. Obviously, I’m not a professional screenwriter, but as a fan of a series I still believe has value and something to say in today’s sociocultural climate, I believe these suggestions would go a long way to create a satisfactory film.
Go Meta
Quick, off the top of your head, what is the most memorable buddy cop movie of the past decade? That would be 21 Jump Street, right? Some of you in my theoretical audience may have suggested The Other Guys. What do those movies have in common? They both deconstruct the buddy cop genre, poking fun at the predictable scenarios and character clichés. The sequel to 21 Jump Street, 22 Jump Street, goes further and makes fun of the “bigger and better” edicts of Hollywood sequels as well as the sheer ridiculousness of franchise building.
A new Rush Hour sequel should follow this model, using meta humor rather than simply pretending that the likely formulaic plot is fresh and new. Rather than simply, “here we go again,” make fun of the fact that Agent Lee (Chan) and Agent Carter (Tucker) are still running around having to deal with the same villains and threats as before. Moreover, make fun of the fact that these guys are back in a superfluous sequel, with the new curmudgeon police chief criticizing Lee and Carter as out of time in place, a la “it’s 2018, we don’t need you anymore.” Going in the meta direction would result in a thoughtful and complex film, with the two leads working to overcome the villain of the film while also making the audience care and root for both the actors and the movie to succeed in spite of the internal and external meta criticism of its own existence.
Allow the Leads to be Older
When the first Rush Hour premiered in 1998, Jackie Chan was a 44-year-old actor still performing his own stunts and imbuing martial arts action with comedic timing that separated him from his peers. Chris Tucker was 26 years old and a rising comedic movie star, gaining fame for his memorable roles in The Fifth Element and Friday along with Rush Hour. Chan has attempted to move on from strictly action roles to diversify his filmography, relying less on stunt work that he simply is not able to perform anymore. Tucker, by contrast, largely disappeared from stand-up comedy and Hollywood after becoming a born-again Christian, reprising his role in the Rush Hour sequels being is only major role in the 2000s. Simply put, both men are twenty years older and significantly different from the people they were in the 1990s.
Rush Hour 3 ignored the basic reality that its stars were older actors, hoping that audiences would forgive the six-year gap between film releases and be content with a repackaged plot and “remember this” in-jokes. Remember, Rush Hour 3 was a lazy cash grab that we’re trying to avoid in this thought exercise. Borrowing from the meta humor, a fourth Rush Hour sequel should draw attention to the fact that Lee and Carter are older. This does not mean make fun of Chan and Carter for being old, what some films think constitutes self-awareness. Instead, how have Lee and Carter’s worldview changed since the 1990s? How do these men respond to the fact that they’re getting older, their limitations, a changing social and political climate since the 1990s? Hell, give us a dramatic conversation between these two, supposedly good friends off-screen, where they can, gasp, show off some acting chops. A sequel with self-referential humor and some emotional weight to it, not taking itself too seriously but also having a truly serious moment or two, would be a memorable and thoughtful film, a hard feat to achieve in a franchise spanning decades.
End It
This is likely the hardest step to follow, for a Hollywood studio will always try to extend or revive a franchise as long as it is making money or has the potential to make money. But, additional Rush Hour sequels would just extend and dilute the brand more than it has been already. Lethal Weapon, Police Academy, Beverly Hills Cop (they are making a fourth one), and, as of now, Rush Hour, all overstayed their welcome specifically because they continued to rely on formulaic plots and stale jokes; the studios simply wanted to make money rather than making good movies. Ideally, the Rush Hour franchise would have ended after the second film, but since that’s not the world we live in and a fourth film seems to be a reality, it should be the final entry, a fitting conclusion to a franchise rather than recycled references and jokes stuck in the 1990s. Following the outline laid out would result in a thoughtful, introspective work, recognizing the superfluous nature of its existence while also having something to say about its characters, the world of today, and getting older. Just because it is the fourth film in a franchise does not necessarily mean Rush Hour 4 has to be terrible. A film made with care and consideration would elevate the franchise and the genre itself, offering insight in a genre that often lacks it.
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