Anyone who has endured the first two Rush Hour movies will know exactly what to expect from this plodding third instalment. Once again, Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker are mismatched cop buddies on the trail of a half-baked international conspiracy - this time it's the Chinese triads. Chan provides stunts and cross cultural confusion, while Tucker provides... well, shrieking. Two hours of non-stop, ear-shattering, humourless shrieking. It's simply unbearable. You soon find yourself begging for him to die.

Does the world really need a third instalment of the Rush Hour franchise? Even director Brett Ratner seems unconvinced, shooting the action in a throwaway style that suggests he has more important things on his mind. Everything here is entirely predictable, from the shock twist that you'll guess during the opening credits to the saucy accordion music that kicks in when our deplorable duo arrive in Paris. There, they are accosted by a nasty French policeman (Roman Polanski in a mystifying cameo) and hook up with Genevieve (Noemi Lenoir), a vampish nightclub singer who carries a top secret list of Triad gang leaders tattooed on her bonce.

"A MISERABLE ENTERPRISE"

With the bad guys on their tail, Chan and Tucker hop, skip and jump from fight scene to car chase, forever pursued by the thunderous cacophony of jokes falling flat. The action-packed final sequence atop the Eiffel Tower restores a smidgeon of joie-de-vivre to an otherwise miserable enterprise, but it's too little too late, and as the lights come up you're left with one nagging question: what the hell is Max Von Sydow doing in this bilge?

Rush Hour 3 is out in the UK on 10th August 2007.