Hey folks, Harry here... Somewhere in Hollywood last night, there was a cockroach and a cocksman stuck in traffic screaming... Screaming in pain... Screaming because they were victims... Victims of a heinous traffic plot hatched by New Line (we're nearly sure of that) to ensure that John Robie and Gregor Samsa could not possibly make it to see RUSH HOUR 2. Now, right now there is a lot of animosity aimed at Brett Ratner for wanting to film RED DRAGON. Now, Ratner isn't all about comedies... He's a big big fan of seventies filmmaking. A massive lover of Lalo Schfrin music... At one point he was developing a remake of THE KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE... not necessarily a remake I need to see get made, but I can say that it tells a lot about someone that can even reference that film. Is Ratner merely a 'fluff' filmmaker... a guy that can make really fun lite entertainment and only that? RED DRAGON is actually a safe film for him and for us. Because we always will have MANHUNTER... And that's enough. So fine... Ratner makes RED DRAGON, at best we just rewatch MANHUNTER endlessly... at best, he grows as a filmmaker and we see him become something more than what he's been allowed to be thus far. Now prepare for a fairly spoiler filled duo of Tastee Spy coverage from 19 SLURPEES and FROSTY SKYWALKER... Read on....
Hey Harry -
Former UT guy here in LA, working in the biz and wanted to add a report on what I just saw tonight. I don't know if there are others who will be emailing you about the screening - but here's what I have to say:
Spoilers within**
Tonight there was a top-secret screening of New Line's upcoming blockbuster, Rush Hour 2, in Marina Del Ray. The NRG people didn't even know what the movie was until the man announced it before the lights went down. However, for those in the know, the names on some of the reserved seats read RATNER, SHAYE, etc., and therefore the movie was pretty easily identifiable.
The mostly young, urban crowd seemed to enjoy every minute of the sequel, which was more or less part one, reset in Hong Kong/Vegas. I personally enjoyed the fresh face of Crouching Tiger's Zhang Ziyi as the bad guy who kicks some serious ass. The movie starts with her exploding a section of the US Embassy in Hong Kong and then cuts to Lee and Carter (our two stars) in a car, grooving to the Beach Boys, trying to figure out the best way for Carter to take advantage of his vacation in China. Tucker says he wants some "Moo Shu - - not food..." Soon this odd couple gets involved in another lovely international money laundering scheme which is headed by a man who used to be Lee's father's police partner, but now moved on to the dark side. The females, Ziyi, looking amazing and dextrous as a Circue De Soliel (sp?) performer, along with Roselyn Sanchez who plays a hottie double agent, are the highlight in my opinion, as most of the other plot details are repetitive and overly familiar.
Lots of the same comedic situations prevail here, like the non-stop verbal abuse Carter and Lee throw upon one-another, the dancing (one scene takes place in a karaoke bar - which probably could have been a lot funnier), the fish-out-of-water scenerios (the one where Tucker tries to get a Chinese cab driver to follow the bad guys is pretty funny!), and the virtually non-stop fight scenes where Carter and Lee always seem to beat up 10 guys at a time. However, the choreography and stunt work is impressive and innovative.
The plot moves the story to Vegas where the counterfeit bills are being laundered through a new Chinese-themed casino called The Red Dragon. This was set on the end of the Strip and was just OK in its production design. There's a funny scene where Tucker needs to stall and disrupt the casino's security guards, so he does it by defending 'The Black Man' while he throws craps and makes a few thousand in the process. Another cool part has Ziyi sticking a sort of mini Chinese bomb in Chan's mouth, then taping it shut. She controls his life with a detonation stick she holds in her hand. So of course, when things get out of control a little later, this stick is kicked all over the casino while Chan pursues it a la Indy in Temple of Doom with the antidote.
Ratner definitely does a solid job with a well-conceived script and makes the most of the locations in Hong Kong, Vegas, and a bit in LA where they run into Don Cheadle in a scene-stealing moment whereby he plays an owner of the only Chinese restaurant on Crenshaw (a tough street right in the middle of South Central LA). The soundtrack wasn't impressive or noticeable, mostly because it was the first showing and I assume it wasn't completed.
It was cool to be in the theater with Ratner and all the top honchos of New Line. It was also interesting that next door in the Chinese restaurant Chin Chin was Viggo Mortensen of LOTR, another New Line tentpost, and I wonder whether or not that was coincidence. By the way, Viggo was wearing a black t-shirt with some New Zealand shit on it...
In conclusion, there's nothing but high hopes for this release for NL and I assume it will open huge ($50 mil at least) and go on to rival the first film's revenue. I heard something about the producer Sarkissian dating Ziyi. He's quite lucky I think. Anyway, at about an hour and 40 minutes, it will be interesting to see what they cut and why. Neither better or worse, it was overall enjoyable, well-made, and definitely entertaining.
Hook Em'
-19 Slurpees
And now... I bring you the spoiler filled thoughts of Frosty Skywalker (say it menacingly!)
Somtimes you get lucky, and sometimes you get what you are handed. I have gone to screenings before, I know what to expect, how they operate, and usually what they are going to show before I get there. Tonight was what the industry refers to as a "blind screening". That means on the flier they give out they just tell you it is a major summer movie, but you do not know which one. As we arrived at the theater, we all hoped for Planet of the Apes, or if the gods we on our side, A.I. But to my surprise we saw the first preview screening of Rush Hour 2.
There are I am sure plenty of people who would have loved to have been there, but at first I was not one of them. All I kept thinking about was Apes.....but a quick review would be I laughed a ton, there are so many little jokes that I do not want to spoil that really worked, and without hearing Chris Tucker say them in that high pitched voice, my writing the joke will just not cut it. The movie had some twists that I expected, and a character who you were not sure of until the end. Just to give you how I think, this years has been horrible for movies, the only great ones have been Memento, Shrek, and Moulan Rouge. I would definately recommend Rush Hour 2, great summer movie. I know there might be some spelling problems.....but onto the spoilers. I am not the best at remembering everything, but I will give as much basic detail as I can.
The film starts out like Lethal Weapon 2. They assume you know the characters and why backtrack, so we find Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan in Hong Kong, where Detective Carter " Chris Tucker" is on vacation, but Detective Lee "Jackie Chan" is constantly working on solving cases, which leads to some friction, all Chris Tucker wants to do is find women and party. The film then starts up with a bomb going off in the American Embassy with 2 customs agents getting killed. Detective Lee is then notified that they think the bomb was set up by Ricky Tan (who is played by John Lone). Detective Lee and Carter begin looking for Ricky Tan with some great action sequences and humor at a massage parlor and a chase sequence involving Chinese bamboo on the rooftop. I do not mind giving plot points, but the action needs to be seen. Lots of what you would expect from Jackie Chan, and Chris Tucker fit's right in. Also during the chase we are introduced to Hu Li (who is played by Zhang Ziyi, who I believe was in Crouching Tiger). She ends up beating them and leaving them naked on the freeway, when they arrive back at the police station they get in a fight so Chris Tucker leaves in search of getting back his passport that he left in the massage parlor, meanwhile Jackie Chan is informed that the investigation is now going to be run by the US secret service, because the agents that were killed were actually undercover, and there is a big plot involving the Triad ( a gang in Hong Kong) so the US wants to make sure everything runs smooth. On his way to tell Chris Tucker another bomb goes off in the headquarters, and Jackie thinks Chris is dead.
While Jackie is in shock, Chris is out wandering around and ends up finding Ricky Tan, so he follows him to a party on a boat. Jackie was already told about the party and they both end up there. On the boat we are introduced to Isabella (who is played by Roelyn Sanchez) and she ends up being Steve Reign's (Alan King) girlfriend. Steve Reign is a billionare hotel guy, and we just think she is the pretty girl. Later we find out she is actually an undercover secret service agent, and we are not sure what side she is on.
Jackie Chan talks to Ricky tan on the boat in private. Ricky Tan tells Jackie he wants to leave Hong Kong and he needs help, right after Hu Li comes out and shoots Ricky, he ends up in the water, and a fight ensues. Hu Li ends up escaping on a boat and when they get back to port The head guys tell Jackie he is off the case and Chris needs to go back to LA. Jackie takes Chris to the airport, who is upset at the way everything went down, his lack of vacation, how his whole trip has been work. So Jackie tells Chris that Ricky Tan used to be Jackie Chan's fathers partner and how he killed his dad. Chris realizes he needs to help so he tells Jackie they need to go to LA. Jackie wonders why and Chris tells him about how he saw Steve Reign (Alan King) on the boat, and how he was all calm about the fighting and guns on the boat, and how no white guy is ever calm with all that going on, so he has to be the guy to follow.
They are then on there way to LA. On the plane Chris gets a Kosher meal, and he offers Jackie a bagel with cream cheese and lox and gifilta fish, which was hysterical to watch, and in the outtakes at the end was even funnier.
In LA they watch Steve Reign and Isabella in a hotel room from accross the way, after Steve leaves, a package shows up delievered by Hu Li. Chris and Jackie immediately think it is another bomb so they run over and discover Isabella is an agent, who is pretending to be corrupt, and the reason we find out is because of conterfit money. The package was actually just a ton of money. It seems back in 1959 the US gave Iran the only money making machine they ever let out of the country, and either Ricky tan or Steve Reign (I forget who) bought it on the black market. It also seems they have the plates to make perfect money, the only flaw is the fake money burns in a different color, but is immpossible to tell otherwise. She asks for there help in finding the plates.
From there they head to a restaurant in Crenshaw owned by this guy named Kenny (who is played by Don Cheadle). He runs gambling in the back, and after a few funny scenes he tells them the name of someone so they head out to this hotel/business. When they get there they end up at the back where Hu Li and a bunch of Triad gang members are packing up a 18 wheeler and they get caught. They both get knocked out and when they come to they are tied up inside the truck on there way somewhere. Obviously inside they escape and they knock down one of the 15 or so statues inside. They discover the statue is filled with money so Chris grabs some for evidence. The 18 wheeler is being led by 2 limo cars and they arrive at a warehouse where they escape after a brief fight and run through a sewer. They open the man hole to discover they are in Las Vegas and are in front of the Red Dragon, which happened to be the name of the boat from Hong Kong they were on earlier. Since they are in need of clothing before they can go in they buy some new outfits, and end up inside the grand opening of the hotel Red Dragon. Inside Jackie runs into Isabella and she says the plates must be in the counting room, so Chris causes a scene by the crapes table, where he is winning a ton of money and Jackie gets in. Once inside he is discovered and Hu Li put a bomb in his mouth with tape all around his head. The detenator is in her hand. Around this time we discover Ricky Tan is still alive and is partners with Steve Reign. When Hu Li is getting ready to kill Jackie, Isabella knocks the detenator away and a liarge amount of chaos ensues.
Jackie escapes with the bomb still inside his mouth, and everyone is running inside the casino due to the gunfire. Finaaly Jackie gets the bomb out with Chris's help, and while Jackie goes upstairs to find Ricky tan, Chris fights Hu Li. With pure luck Chris wins and he heads upstairs. Meanwhile Ricky Tan catches Steve Reign trying to leave with the plates so he kills him, and right after Jackie walks in and he ends up with Ricky against the wall with a gun to his head. Chris walks in and tells him to kill him, how he deserves to die and then Ricky Tan tells Jackie how when he killed his father his father only asked to spare his sons life. Chris tells him to kill him, but on the verge Ricky kicks free and in a quick moment Jackie kicks him through the window and Ricky plunges to his death on a car below. Chris tells him he had to, and Jackie explains how he did not mean to, and as they turn around Hu Li walks in with a huge bomb set to go off in 9 seconds. Jackie and Chris grab there coats and jump out using them as a way to drift down the power lines. The bomb explodes with them surviving and the audience
I was in cheering.
The final scene takes place in the Las Vegas airport. Jackie says goodbye to Isabella with a kiss, and when he walks away from the gate he and Chris meet up. Chris gives him ten thousand dollars from the money he won in the Red Dragon casino and Jackie does not want to accept the money, but Chris asks him to take it, he asks him if there was ever anything he ever wanted to do. Jackie explains he has always wanted to go to New York and Madison Square Garden, so they do a little dance and decide to go...fade out into outtakes from the movie. Without describing the outtakes, know they made me laugh out loud hard.
I tried to keep this desciption strickly to plot, what I did not describe was all the times I was laughing and all the great fight scenes. Rush Hour 2 was a great summer movie, definately worth full price.
my name is Frosty Skywalker.
