Rush Hour 2

Plot

Four days after the events of Rush Hour, LAPD detective James Carter is on vacation with his friend, HKPF Chief Inspector Lee, as he was asked to vacation along with Lee after helping save the Chinese Consul's Han daughter, Soo Yung, in Los Angeles. Their leisure is temporarily put on hold as soon as a bomb explodes at the United States Consulate General, murdering two undercover U.S. Customs agents inside of it. Inspector Lee is assigned to the case, which becomes personal when it is discovered that it somehow involves Ricky Tan, his late police officer father's former partner. Tan, who was suspected of having a role in elder Lee's death (although never proved), is now a leader of the Triads. This, however, causes Lee and Carter to get into a brawl between them and Tan's bodyguards, with Carter becoming shocked with Lee as they were busy with their vacation.

The U.S. Secret Service, led by Agent Sterling, and the HKPF soon get into a fight over the jurisdiction of the case. Suddenly, the nearby room that Carter was in is bombed, causing Lee to believe he's dead and grieve for him. Carter is revealed to be alive, leaving the room before it exploded. He and a relieved Lee cross paths at Tan's yacht where he is holding a dinner party. Tan scolds his underling, Hu Li, who then leaves as Lee and Carter confront her boss. Just as 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 back to Los Angeles for involving himself and Lee volunteers to take him to the airport. However, at the airport, Carter gets Lee to return to LA with him.

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, a billionaire Los Angeles hotelier whom Carter saw acting suspiciously on Tan's boat. They set up camp outside the Reign Towers, spotting a U.S. Secret Service agent named Isabella Molina, whom Carter met earlier in Hong Kong. After a few misunderstandings, Molina tells the two men that she is undercover, looking into Reign's money laundering of $100 million in superdollars.

Lee and Carter pay a visit to Kenny, 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 mobsters 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 mob's trucks and escape. After finding out where they are, they realize that Reign is laundering the $100 million through the new Red Dragon Casino.

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 but Hu Li easily over-powers her and Molina is shot. Carter continues to fight Hu Li in a comical manner 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 Ricky as he leaves. Reign tries to back out of the deal but Tan stabs him to death. Lee and Carter arrive and a scuffle between them and Tan ensues after Tan admits that he killed Lee's father and mocks him for only asking Tan to spare Lee's life before he died.

Tan falls to his death when 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 kills herself in the explosion. Later, at the airport, Molina thanks Lee for his work on the case, and she kisses him, while Carter watches from afar. Having originally planned to go their separate ways, Lee and Carter change their mind when Carter reveals he won a large amount of money at the casino and the pair decide to head to New York City to indulge themselves.

Cast

Release

Prior to its August 3 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". The Hong Kong Board of Tourism teamed up with United Airlines and New Line Cinema 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.

Box office

Rush Hour 2 was released in North America on August 3, 2001, playing on 4,500 screens at 3,118 theaters. It opened at #1 with an opening weekend gross of $67.4 million, for an average of $21,619 per theater ($14,980 per screen). The film remained in the box office top 10 for a total of ten weeks. It closed on December 20, 2001 with a domestic total of $226.2 million, making it the fourth highest-grossing film of 2001 domestically, and the highest-grossing martial arts film at the time.

The film's total worldwide box office take was $347.3 million, making it the eleventh highest-grossing film of 2001 worldwide.

Rush Hour 2 outgrossed 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. 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.

Critical reception

Rush Hour 2 received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 52% based on 127 reviews, with an average rating of 5.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Rush Hour 2 doesn't feel as fresh or funny as the first, and the stunts lack some of the intricacy normally seen in Chan's films." On Metacritic the film has a score of 48 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert gave the film 1.5 out of 4 stars criticizing Chris Tucker: "How can a movie allow [Tucker] to be so obnoxious and make no acknowledgment that his behavior is aberrant?"

Awards

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.

Sequel

Because of development hell, Rush Hour 3 ended up being released on August 10th, 2007 (6 years after this one was). In 2007, it was reported that a sequel to the third one, set in Moscow, was in negotiations.

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

Rush Hour 2 was released on DVD and VHS on December 18, 2001

The only film in the trilogy without a Blu-ray release in the US, a Blu-ray release was originally set to be released in October 2007 in the United States, and December 2007 in the United Kingdom. This was to coincide with the releases of Rush Hour & Rush Hour 3 on the same format. For unknown reasons, both dates were pulled from the release schedule. On Blu–ray.com, it was announced that a Blu–ray was due to be released in the United States on 12 August 2014. It is available for pre–order on amazon.com.

It was later announced that the Blu–ray release would be delayed until 6 January 2015. The Blu–ray had again been delayed, this time until 15 September 2015, but was then canceled without announcement. The US version was then re-scheduled for 16 February 2016. In the PAL regions, the Blu-ray is available to buy on amazon.de.