Jackie Chan Considers Rush Hour 3 the Weakest Link in the Trilogy

Published: May 29, 2025

Jackie Chan has shared his take on why the movie Rush Hour 3 wasn't well-liked by critics.

Too Much Money, Too Much Time

In a video interview with BuzzFeed, Chan was asked to rank his favorite films in the Rush Hour buddy cop trilogy, which he costars in with Chris Tucker. While Chan initially said he was not sure he could rank the films, he quickly offered a reason for why each entry performed the way it did.

"I don't know. You know what, the first one: little money, little time," Chan said of the original 1998 movie. "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."

Chan added that "too much money is no good" when it comes to making a movie.

The original Rush Hour follows Tucker as Los Angeles detective James Carter, who is forced to team up with a decorated Hong Kong-based detective named Lee (Chan) who flies to the U.S. to help find his friend's missing daughter. In Rush Hour 3, the pair travel to Paris to investigate organized crime in the city.

Chan's new movie Karate Kid: Legends is in theaters May 30.

Though it's been well over two decades since Chan and Tucker last worked together on a Rush Hour movie, Chan has said in recent years that a fourth film could one day make it to the big screen. Chan most recently said he was "talking about part 4" with the franchise's director during a December 2022 appearance at the Red Sea Film Festival in Saudi Arabia, though he never clarified who was slated to direct the film, as Deadline reported at the time.

Chan previously denied that he would be involved with Rush Hour 4 in April 2019, when his management released a statement on his official website calling rumors about the movie at the time "false information."

Karate Kid: Legends is in theaters May 30.