‘Rush Hour’ fans celebrate the franchise’s ‘healthy racism’
By Bryan Ke
Twitter users are commenting on jokes from the iconic “Rush Hour” film franchise after one user proclaimed that the sequels are “so racist.”
Over the weekend, Twitter user @Lexisriches wrote about the sequels, and what started as a single tweet opened up an alley down memory lane where many users pulled up some jokes from the buddy cop film franchise that have not aged well.
One of the scenes shared in @Lexisriches’ thread, which has over 26,000 likes, is the iconic Hong Kong spa fight scene where LAPD Detective Carter (Chris Tucker) accidentally punches Hong Kong Detective Lee (Jackie Chan) in the face during the scuffle and tells him, “All y’all look alike.”
“This is what I call healthy racism just mocking each other’s cultures and having fun with differences,” the user who shared the clip wrote.
In another scene shared by user @Itsdrew_5, Lee and Carter are tied up inside a moving truck. While the two bicker, Lee tells Carter, “I’ll b*tch-slap you back to Africa.”
Another user shared a clip from the first “Rush Hour” movie that shows Lee saying the N-word to a bartender twice.
In another scene from “Rush Hour,” Carter points his gun at crime lord Juntao’s right-hand man Sang (Ken Leung) and says, “I’ve been looking for your sweet and sour chicken a**.”
The scene in “Rush Hour 2” where Carter can be heard speaking a made-up language was also shared.
Although “Rush Hour” was a commercial success in the United States after it was first released in 1998 – making over $141 million domestically and garnering over $244 million worldwide – the franchise never took off as anticipated in the Asian market.
In a 2002 interview with Crosswalk, Chan, 68, admitted that “Rush Hour” was a flop, saying, “Nobody go to see it! Yeah! Only 12 million! My movie, I make a Hong Kong film and it make 50 million! You see the difference? If Rush Hour not starring Jackie Chan, I think it only make half million in Hong Kong – that’s all!”
Rumors about a fourth installment of the franchise started floating around in 2018 after Tucker, 50, seemingly confirmed the project. A year later, the iconic duo posted a picture together on Instagram to possibly tease “Rush Hour 4.”
Featured Image via Movieclips
Share this Article
Share this Article
