Carter Socks Lee In The Face example essay topic

"Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker: The 20th Century Duo" Laurel and Hardy. Abbot and Costello. Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker? Chan and Tucker in no way can be placed in a category of these comedy legend duos. However, the duos can be compared. Law enforcement to Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker is like moving a piano up a flight of stairs to Laurel and Hardy.

A given task can go wrong in so many ways and as a result leads to a laugh. As for the film industry of the 20th Century, Chan and Tucker are recognized as a famous duo. In this paper I will discuss a scene from the film Rush Hour 2 and explain how Chan and Tucker's performances bring a laugh to the audience. Crime fighting has never been so hazardous and funny. Chopsocky action star Jackie Chan (Lee) re-teams with motor-mouth Chris Tucker (Carter) in a Rush Hour sequel as the mismatched cop duo investigate several bombings in Hong Kong attributed to Chinese gang leader Ricky Tan (John Lone) and assassin Zhang Ziyi (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon). A fish out of water in exotic Hong Kong, Tucker talks his way into reams of trouble, saved time and again by Chan's frantic fighting.

Legs fly, torsos spin and heads are cracked as the boys take on the Chinese mob. In search for Ricky Tan, Lee and Carter go to a massage parlor called, "Heaven on Earth". The scene basically begins with Carter having the privilege to pick out girls of his choice out of many to give Lee and himself a massage. Carter is so excited and anxious at this point; drooling over all the beautiful women in front of him. Carter's eyes are protruding out of his sockets pointing at which ladies he wanted. Lee interrupts by saying, "Hurry up!" Carter responds, "What's wrong with you?

You don't just jump in front of a black man in a buffet line. Calm down". Then the two go off to the "quite room" to get themselves ready for their massage. While Lee and Carter receive their massage, Carter is still going on with his high pitched, motor-mouth personality boasting to the women about his night of fighting crime. As soon as Carter thanks Lee for bring him to a place to relax, Tan walks in with an extremely confident strut. Lee recognizes Tan and Lee's face expression turns quite serious and a bit frightened.

"That's Ricky Tan", Lee whispered to Carter. Carter cracks a joke by stating, "That's Ricky Tan? That's a midget in a bathrobe. He's like four feet tall, let's go over there and bust him right now". As Lee leaves the set after telling Carter that he was going to go get backup, Carter goes and tries to be the hero of the day. Carter still doesn't realize what a dangerous man Tan is.

Carter continues to command Tan to go with him to the police station. Then Tan says, "You Americans are so funny". Tan states this because Carter was so demanding and Tan had no decision of going anywhere. Carter responds to Tan's comment, "And you Asians don't hear well". Then Carter takes the laptop that was on Tan's lap and steps all over it, breaking the laptop into tiny pieces.

What's funny about this scene is that the audience know that Carter is in big trouble. Little does he know that Tan's gang members are right behind Tan. Lee enters the scene and has a short conversation with Tan in Chinese. Then Lee gives Carter a signal to leave by scrunching his face all to one direction but Carter thought that Lee meant to get Tan. As Carter had Tan in his two bare hands, the gang members now in Carter's sight stands up in defense for Tan.

Carter's foolish behavior once again gets the twosome into trouble. This simply leads to the fighting act in the parlor. The duo do their thing but during the brawl, Carter socks Lee in the face. Realizing that it was Lee, Carter says, "All you (Chinese) guys look alike".

Seconds after, the action packed fight scene continues. Most of this scene shows off Jackie Chan's fighting ability. Towards the end of the fighting scene, Carter and Lee do a fighting number together. It's like a dancing scene that was well choreographed. It's similar to Charlie Chaplin's boxing scene in "Citylights". The double-act fighting scene then completes with a cute child's form of the "paddy-cake" hand game.

Scenes like these in Rush Hour 2 are made to make people laugh because the humor involves popular culture and the hilarious chemistry between Chan and Tucker. Director Brett Rather and a new writer, Jeff Nathanson, have upped the ante in mock racial antagonism between the two stars. You have to have highly likable actors to get away with lines such as Tucker's "You (Chinese) all look alike" during the fight. Throughout the film, crude humor and racial epithets are shared but the audience laugh no matter what race they are. The rude but truthfully funny remarks that are made in the film are like the remarks that Buddy Love (Jerry Lewis) in Nutty Professor make. Facial expressions also have a lot to do with the humor that is in Rush Hour 2.

The facial expressions of the characters add to their personalities. Unlike Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, who had expressionless and mask like faces, Chan and Tucker are more like Lucille Ball in I Love Lucy. Using every muscle in their face to their advantage to get a laugh. Another reason the scene is humorous is because of the classic "slap-stick" effects. The pratfalls, double takes, and "slap-stick" performances by Chan and Tucker are hilarious. Very much like Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy performances.

Rough "slap-stick" comedy still brings a laugh to the audience. Personally, I see a resemblance between Chan and Tucker, and Laurel and Hardy. The character Carter resembles Laurel because Laurel is more of the follower. Character Lee resembles Hardy because Hardy is more of the leader type.

Chan and Tucker, similar to Laurel and Hardy, get into situation of trouble, has a relationship that is a great deal of the comedy, and the establishment and development of the characters have a great impact in their films. An additional form of physicality is emphasized by Chan's stunts. Chan continues doing his own death-defying stunts while paying reverence to the greatest physical comedians of all time, Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Keaton in The General, performed all of his outrageous stunts such as jumping across the train tops while the train was in motion. Steamboat Bill, Jr. was another one of Keaton's great performances as he fights and runs away from the strong winds of the tornado.

As for Chaplin, Citylights scenes like the boxing number referred to earlier. The classics have a great influence on today's modern comedy. The reason for Chan's phenomenal success is due to the combining action with slapstick, pathos with humor, and all of it with plenty of adolescent energy. Chan is an amazingly likable "everyman" caught in these over-the-top situations. Tucker also adds to this success as a notable comedian.

Tucker's irritating but funny character brightens up the mood of the film. The arrangement of these two actors was an intelligent and successful one.