Jackie Chan is looking back at his career, and when it comes to Rush Hour 3, he isn’t sugarcoating it.
The legendary martial arts star admitted that too much money played a big role in the film’s poor critical reception. While speaking with BuzzFeed as part of his promo run for Karate Kid: Legends-where he’s reprising his role from the 2010 Karate Kid remake-Jackie got candid about the highs and lows of the Rush Hour trilogy.
When asked to rank the three films he did with co-star Chris Tucker, Jackie hesitated, then offered a pretty honest breakdown. “I don’t know. You know what, the first one: little money, little time,” he said. “We shot it like, ‘Go, go, go, go!’ The second one: a lot of money, a lot of time. The third one: Too much money, too much time.” And then came the punchline: “Too much money is no good.”
It’s a surprising take but kind of refreshing. Jackie Chan blaming money for Rush Hour 3’s flop hits on something a lot of fans felt-the film just didn’t have the same energy. The original Rush Hour, released in 1998, was an instant classic. The dynamic between Jackie’s Hong Kong inspector and Chris Tucker’s fast-talking LA detective made it a massive hit. The action-comedy blend was fresh, the chemistry was gold, and it made Jackie Chan a household name in the U.S.
But then came the sequels. While Rush Hour 2 did decent numbers and still held onto a bit of the original charm, by the time Rush Hour 3 dropped in 2007, critics and fans were less impressed. The movie, which followed Lee and Carter to Paris to deal with organized crime, scored a rough 17 percent critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Reviews called it stale, tired, and lacking the fun spark that made the first one great.
Still, Jackie hasn’t shut the door on the franchise. Back in December 2022, during an appearance at the Red Sea Film Festival in Saudi Arabia, he said he was already in talks about making Rush Hour 4 with the series’ original director. That definitely stirred up the fan fanbase, even though there’s been no solid confirmation since. And in 2019, Jackie’s own team had to step in and shut down rumors that a fourth film was already in production, calling those claims “false information” on his official website.
At 71, Jackie Chan is still working hard and still keeping it real. His honesty about Rush Hour 3 is a reminder that bigger budgets don’t always mean better movies. Sometimes, a little pressure and limited resources bring out the best creativity. With fans still nostalgic for the original magic of Lee and Carter, maybe there’s hope for a real comeback-just as long as the studio doesn’t throw “too much money” at it again.
