Rotten Tomatoes exists because a Jackie Chan fan wanted reviews of Rush Hour — the film turns 28 this month
One of the 1990s’ most beloved action thrillers hasn’t lost its bite — and, by accident, it left a mark on the film industry you still feel today.
Jackie Chan is hardly an obscure name these days, but before he was the face of Rush Hour and a household name in Hollywood, he was already a staple in Hong Kong action cinema—earning the trust of big hitters like John Woo and Yuen Woo-ping. Still, it took him a bit to crack America properly. There were early attempts in the 80s, but it wasn’t until 1998 that Chan, alongside a then-rising Chris Tucker, finally broke through the mainstream with a bang (and a barrage of wisecracks) in director Brett Ratner’s buddy cop comedy.
The original Rush Hour exploded onto screens and, for all the flashy setpieces and fish-out-of-water hijinks, what really sold it was the double act: Chan’s acrobatic fight scenes and straight-man bewilderment squaring off against Tucker’s slick motormouth persona. No wonder it raked in the cash—enough, in fact, to spawn two sequels and mounting rumours of a fourth film that’s forever ‘in development’. I wouldn’t book your tickets yet. None of the follow-ups ever managed to match the first film’s spark, which is saying something given the competition for action comedies in the 90s.
Rush Hour premiered in 1998 and spawned two sequels, with a potential fourth still stuck in development limbo.
Peak 90s Buddy Cop Energy
The 1990s were completely stacked when it came to buddy cop flicks. You had Bad Boys, Men In Black, The Last Boy Scout—all big titles with their own spin on mismatched partners and big-budget chaos. Still, Rush Hour carved out a special niche. It’s not just a showcase for Chan’s stunts or Tucker’s snappy comebacks; the script is genuinely tight, the pacing never drags, and there’s actual chemistry between the leads. The bickering, buddy dynamics managed to feel authentic instead of just tacked on for the sake of a laugh or the odd chase sequence. If you ask me, that’s why it stuck around while similar fare from that decade faded out.
- Jackie Chan’s inventive fight choreography (yes, he did his own stunts)
- Chris Tucker’s trademark, fast-talking banter
- A script that moves at a clip with jokes that genuinely land
- Scenes and one-liners people still remember, almost three decades later
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The Rotten Tomatoes Connection
Here’s a strange little fact: we might not have Rotten Tomatoes as we know it if not for Rush Hour. Seng Duong, the man behind the now-ubiquitous review aggregator, was a huge Jackie Chan fan. He wanted to collect reviews of Chan’s films and, with the U.S. release of Rush Hour looming, used it as the push he needed to build and launch the site. All because he wanted to see what critics made of Jackie cracking jokes in English. Considering where Rotten Tomatoes sits in today’s film culture, that’s not a bad legacy for a furiously silly cop comedy.
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