Rush Hour 3

Rush Hour 3 opened in the US on 10 August 2007. Brett Ratner reunited Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker a third time and moved the action to Paris. Shooting began on 4 July 2006 in Paris and Los Angeles, with scenes at the Palais de Chaillot, the Trocadéro gardens, the Plaza Athénée and avenue Montaigne, and a finale at the Jules Verne restaurant on the Eiffel Tower.

A French cast

Yvan Attal plays a cab driver who hates Americans, alongside Julie Depardieu, Noémie Lenoir and an uncredited Roman Polanski. Max von Sydow plays Reynard. The main opponent is Kenji, Lee's adoptive brother, played by Hiroyuki Sanada, a martial arts and stunt-trained Japanese actor later seen in Shōgun.

A nod to Bruce Lee

The fight with the giant played by Sun Mingming, a 2.36 m Chinese basketball player, flips a famous scene from Game of Death, where Bruce Lee faced Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: here the shorter Tucker takes on the tall Chinese fighter. A photo of Huo Yuanjia hangs in the film's kung fu school. Even so, action matters less than in the first two films; Chan was 53 at release and comedy takes over.

A cold reception

Reviews were harsh (17% on Rotten Tomatoes, 44 on Metacritic), and Chan himself said in 2025 the film had too much money. On a budget of $125 million or more, it grossed about $258 million worldwide, less than Rush Hour 2. It was Lalo Schifrin's last film score.