Entire Action Movie Trilogy Hits Netflix Top 10

By Jonathan Klotz
| Published 23 seconds ago

The Rush Hour trilogy has not only stood the test of time, it’s been able to age like a fine wine, and all three films appeared in the Netflix top 10 at the same time. It’s an impressive feat for a film series that started in 1998 and ended in 2007, though there was the short-lived series without either Chris Tucker or Jackie Chan. Then again, it’s the incredible chemistry between the two men that turned the formulaic buddy comedy into a worldwide blockbuster. 

Rush Hour

Rush Hour has ranked the highest on Netflix, breaking into the top three at times, and nearly 30 years later, it’s still the apex buddy comedy. Chan’s by the book Chief Inspector Lee and Tucker’s street-smart LAPD Detective Carter are brought together at first, to keep Lee busy and away from the investigation into his friend’s missing daughter. Of course, they end up bonding through shared trauma and off-key singing to begrudgingly save the day. 

Rush Hour 2

Given the film made over $275 million, a sequel was inevitable, but Rush Hour 2 defied expectations, becoming not only a Netflix streaming hit over two decades later but remaining one of the best sequels of all time. Moving the action from LA to Hong Kong, Carter is now the fish out of water on Lee’s home turf, and the result is a sequel that hits all the right beats. This time, they stop a counterfeiting ring, and the rich white man Carter knew was behind it all, with even more of the same charm of the first film.

Rush Hour 3

Rush Hour 3, the lowest ranked on Netflix, is the weakest of the franchise, but that still makes it an exceptional buddy comedy. Lee and Carter have accepted the strange friendship between them as they take on the Chinese mafia and not even Lee’s old childhood friend can get between them at this point. It says a lot about the strength of a franchise when the worst-performing film still earns $275 million worldwide. 

The Last Of The Buddy Comedies

A fourth Rush Hour has been in the works for years, with Chris Tucker talking about it in 2019 and Jackie Chan confirming it was in production as recently as 2022, but at this point, they might as well pull a Beverly Hills Cop and make it a Netflix original. Movies have changed since the pair first hit the screen together, and now, buddy cop action-comedies, once a staple of Hollywood, have fallen out of favor. Uncharted tried to bring them back with Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg, but we’re far removed from the days when Jimmy Fallon and Queen Latifah were able to start in a big-budget buddy comedy together. 

Thanks to the change in movie-going tastes, the Rush Hour trilogy on Netflix is a fun throwback to the type of movie Hollywood stopped making. Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan, as made clear in the DVD special features and their countless interviews together, also started out as work colleagues who didn’t really like each other but became friends who traveled the world together. If Rush Hour 4 is going to happen, it can’t be here soon enough.