Much of the best dialogue, you suspect, was improvised by Tucker and Chan, who seem truly taken with each other and make a delightful, ordinary-extraordinary pair.
Hollywood calculation can't match the primitive eager-to-please quality that made those Hong Kong films refreshing; they were appealing because they were so free of irony.
Chan...can make something out of nothing, while Ratner's chief skills seem to be talking himself into the director's chair and hiring the right people. [Blu-ray]
The contrast between Tucker's motormouth and Chan's man of few words should be funnier, but the plot -- which is cliched without quite becoming self-reflexive -- and the uneven pace dampen most of their moments.
