Rush Hour VS Lethal Weapon

TALE OF THE TAPE

                 Title: Rush Hour                                                    Title: Lethal Weapon

                 Tomato Meter: 62%                                               Tomato Meter: 90%

                  IMDB Rating: 6.8                                                   IMDB Rating: 7.6

                 Starring: Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker                     Starring: Danny Glover, Mel Gibson

                 Director: Brett Ratner                                            Director: Richard Donner

                 Box Office: $141.1 million                                      Box Office: $65.2 million

                 Academy: N/A                                                        Academy: 1 nomination

                 Year: 1998                                                              Year: 1987

It's hard not to love a buddy-cop picture, especially when they follow this simple recipe. Place two dynamically different lead characters, force them to work together, and get them in over their heads. Lethal Weapon and Rush Hour follow this recipe to the letter, and both are able to serve up completely different flavors. With Lethal Weapon we're given an action film with just the right amount of comedy. Rush Hour is a comedy with just the right amount of action.

Lethal Weapon's characters are more grounded than over-the-top. They push the envelope only slightly, resulting in more believable, realistic characters with admirable qualities and flaws. Rodger is the senior detective, more seasoned and by the book. He has a home, a wife, and several kids. Riggs is younger, much more chaotic, and has suicidal tendencies. No children, he still mourns the loss of his wife, and struggles for a reason to go on. With nothing to live for, he takes high risk chances while on the job. These two are complete opposites, like night and day, black and wh..well, you get it.

Rush Hour's characters are completely over-the-top. Detective Carter is a loud, street smart detective from L.A.. Detective Lee works for the Chinese Law Enforcement. He's more the "straight man", but his physical actions blend martial arts with comedy. Circumstances force these two to work together. Chris Tucker's brand of verbal comedy meshes well with Jackie Chan's charm and physical comedy making these two a lovable duo.

Over the course of the films, both duo's form a friendship, and find respect for each other. Lethal Weapon's character's differences comes from social backgrounds, while Rush Hour's stem from cultural differences. One is meant to add drama, the other to add comedy. In the final analysis, Lethal Weapon saw much more personal growth and development in their characters. They also had issues like family to tend with, where Rush Hour stayed in the shallow end of their character's pools.

As time went on, future films in the Lethal Weapon series got better, as characters grew, developed, and matured. Rush Hour didn't explore their characters. Rather, they tried to recapture the magic generated by Tucker and Chan without any sense of character growth, resulting in gradually less interesting sequels.

Both movies looked to be in great shape at the start of the bell, but by round 3, Rush Hours legs were completely wobbly and could no longer support itself. A decisive Knock Out.



Winner: Lethal Weapon