Wolff rating: NOT BAD
Plot summary: The daughter of a Chinese official has been kidnapped in Los Angeles, and the unlikely pairing of a Chinese supercop and a local LAPD hooligan are set loose on the trail.
Biased, pithy comments: There seemed to be several different movies glued together to make this one. Briefly, we see a standard Jackie Chan vehicle, complete with wacky dialog like Chan asking a young girl, ``Have you been practicing your kicks and eye gouges?'' in Chinese. We also see what must be a Chris Tucker vehicle---a sort of sloppily-written straight-copy/funny-cop pairing, with Chan weirdly cast as the straight man. We also have some sort of Beverly Hills Cop moments with Chan (instead of the logical choice of Tucker) playing the outsider to the FBI. And then we also have Ransom, with the villains played so coldly (until the end) that we have cause to worry about the eye-gouging kid's future. The split between the two movies is so obvious that the seams show up from line to line---the worried Chinese official says something solemn in Chinese to Chan, who is then undercut by his swaggering LAPD partner jiving some one-liners. Alas, this means except for a few great moments (Chan singing to American music and a few fight scenes) we're left with a jarring melting pot of genres that will satsify no one completely. I recommend other Chan movies more than this one, though this one has a fun symbolic moment of Chan finally coming to Hollywood. May he make more movies in the U.S.!
How many times I have seen it: x1
Starring: Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, Ken Leung, Tom Wilkinson.
Directed by: Brett Ratner