After an assassination attempt at the World Criminal Court in Los Angeles, Inspector Lee (Chan) chases the Triad gunman (Sanada), but hesitates when he sees his face. They clearly have a past. Now Lee is reunited with talkative cohort Detective Carter (Tucker), following the trail to Paris and a rendezvous with the mysterious Genevieve (Lenoir). Along the way they're chased by another ruthless killer (Kudoh) and a dorky French cop (Polanski), and get help from an action-loving cabbie (Attal) before ending up, of course, atop the Eiffel Tower.

Frankly, it's looking a bit tired after the six-year break. Ratner's direction borrows heavily from corny 1970s cop movies, cranking up only during two or three whizzy action sequences. Chan does very few of his flashy moves, and his impersonation of parkour is a bit embarrassing. Tucker's nonstop chatter has moved beyond annoying into the realm of bug-eyed hamminess. You don't expect a coherent plot from this kind of film, but it would be nice if the climactic twist wasn't obvious from the start.

Besides a number of extremely strange scenes (the most bizarre is when Von Sydow, as a French ambassador, suddenly turns up in Chan's hotel bathroom), the comedy simply isn't funny. A few offhanded comments spark a chuckle, but the rest feels forced and underwritten. Awkward slapstick and lame innuendo tries to generate laughs; insinuating music tries to stir suspense. And then there's the attempt at emotion when we learn about Lee's troubled childhood. Cue the soppy soundtrack song with the too-appropriate lyric: "It's sad, so sad ... and it's getting more and more absurd."

Yes, it's pretty agonising, from the misogynist display of female flesh to a truly horrific musical number to the no-longer-amusing closing credits outtakes. Although, to be fair, the final action fight on the Eiffel Tower is astonishingly well filmed, however cliched it may be.

themes, language, violence, innuendo

7.Aug.07