Even though it’s been 16 years since the last installment was released, Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker are still constantly talking about the potential for another Rush Hour movie, which just goes to show the buddy cop franchise’s longevity.
A quarter of a century has passed since the opening chapter turned Chan into a mainstream Hollywood superstar and proved Tucker’s signature comedic stylings had leading man potential, with the raucous romp through the Los Angeles criminal underworld earning $255 million at the box office and winning a legion of fans in an instant.
However, when viewed through a modern lens, a lot of newcomers to the madcap hijinks have been left less than impressed by what’s been deemed a regularly racially insensitive script that doesn’t hold up in 2023, while the sexual assault allegations that saw trilogy director Brett Ratner blacklisted by the industry is another aspect of an unwanted legacy.
On the other side of the coin, Rush Hour did serve as the catalyst behind the creation of Rotten Tomatoes, after Chan stan Senh Duong sought to collate as many reviews of the icon’s work as possible in the one place, so we’ve got the energetic adventure to thank for the aggregation site’s entire existence.
It’s a double-edged legacy to be sure, but seeing as FlixPatrol has named Rush Hour as the seventh most-watched feature among HBO Max subscribers in the United States, it’s clear that the buddy cop subgenre is as enduringly popular as ever, with Carter and Lee’s maiden outing ranking as one of the best the 1990s had to offer.