Who isn’t a fan of Rush Hour? Better yet, who isn’t a fan of Jackie Chan? Everybody likes Jackie Chan! It’s like a prerequisite for being normal.

Rush Hour 3 is no let down. Being a instant fan of anything Jackie touches and the Rush Hour series on top of that, how could I be disappointed? I wasn’t.

Inspector Lee (Chan) and Detective Carter (Chris Tucker) appear in the third installment of Rush Hour. This time they must take on the Triads and uncover the identity of the gang’s leadership.

More directly, the story deals with the attempted assassination of Ambassador Han (Tzi Ma’s reprises his role from the first movie) by a mysterious figure who turns out to be Lee’s godbrother, Kenji (played by Japanese star Hiroyuki Sanada). As Han, his daughter Soo Yung (Zhang Jingchu), and the boys are tracked down by the Triads, the investigation has Lee and Carter headed off to Paris.

That’s as far as I’ll go with the story.

Overall, I really liked the movie. The Rush Hour series is really good and I prefer this installment to the second one actually. All the components that make the movies work so well are there: humor, great fight scenes, and more. The characters seem pretty well developed even though the three movies don’t have a consistent plotline.

While Rush Hour 3 employs some pretty tired movie clichés, they’re well done and don’t get in the way of the story. It seems that every one of Chan’s American team-up flicks (Shanghai Noon/Knights and Rush Hour) have to have some epic and ‘high’ stakes final battle scene that always involves high places and far falls. But hey, it’s exciting so I can’t complain; even if I know what’s going to happen. The movie is similar to the first two in many ways — some good, some bad.

It’s hard to believe that Rush Hour 1 came out nearly 10 years ago. Jackie Chan and Chirs Tucker still have the on-screen chemistry and Rush Hour 3 delivers the comical martial arts action goods.

My biased fanboy rating?: 4 1/2 STARS ★★★★1/2