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In case you've been living under a rock, the story of these films is simple - take one fish out of water cop and pair 'em up with the streetwise native and the laughs and action ensure. It's "East meets West" (or this time, "West meets East") in this sequel cum remake, which reteams the same creative braintrust - stars Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker and director Brett Ratner. But rather than continue the story, the they simply invert it. This time, Tucker is on vacation in Hong Kong with Chan, but wouldn't ya know it, a bombing at The American Embassy brings the two together to stop yet another major crime ring. Short on plot, its girls, guns, chop socky and laughs galore, as our bickering twosome kick the bad guy's asses while making mincemeat of pretty Hong Kong locales.

I have to admit, the buddy cop formula has always felt oh-so-80s to me, but apparently audiences still lap this stuff up. But I won't be a spoilsport; this is innocuous fun, and it's all about the the inventiveness of the fights and gags, and the charm of Tucker and especially Chan. Ratner obviously has his groove down pat now, and knows what audiences want from a Rush Hour film. He wisely lets Chan and Tucker play off each other's strengths with nary a dull moment to slow down the action. Since a little bit of Tucker goes a long way for me, Chan is the real star of the show. While he is an actor of limited range, he's probably one of the most likable stars around and knows how to use his considerable screen charisma, and is thankfully never mean-spirited.

While I find the rather predictable comedy-action-dialogue scene formula a bit repetitive, Rush Hour 2 runs a scant 89 minutes and never overstays its welcome. Perhaps impervious to a review anyway, Rush Hour 2 is mindless fun and guaranteed to offend absolutely no one. Hey, you want great art, try Shakespeare.

Video: How Does The Disc Look?

Presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, this is another shiny, happy transfer from New Line. Since the film is still playing in theaters nationwide as I write this, the print is flawless - a sparkling presentation devoid of a single distracting blemish. Colors are perfectly saturated, smooth and vibrant and never waver, with spot-on fleshtones. Blacks are solid and contrast crisp, with excellent sharpness and little in the way of edge enhancement. Detail is also very good with strong shadow delineation and an eye-popping three-dimensional image. The only drawbacks to the presentation are some noticeable compression artifacts in solid backgrounds, most notably the opening shot.

Audio: How Does the Disc Sound?

Including both Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround EX and DTS 6.1 ES Discreet near-field mixes, this is a highly aggressive, state- of-the-art soundtrack. Since I'm more of a video guy than a sound guy, I usually find the differences between most Dolby Digital and DTS track slight, but here I was surprised at how much more I enjoyed the DTS track. Though recorded a bit louder than the Dolby Digital track, after I adjusted the volume of the DTS mix appropriately, I still found it to be more open, spacious and enveloping.

During the opening titles, I immediately noticed the tinkling of bells behind me - musical sounds from the score - and my expectations grew for a very aggressive application of the center surround. Ah, the dangers of first impressions. The EX mix for this film is actually rather subtle. While the score and some source music are mixed to all the surround channels to encircle the listener with instruments, that seems to be the dominant mode; other fully imaged surround effects are infrequent. I did find some sound effects like the crowd within the casino, reverberation, and the scattering of debris from explosions to be nicely spread among the six channels. During those sequences, the viewer is totally immersed in the sonic landscape, but overwhelmingly, surround effects are limited to the left and right surround channels.

The most exciting element of the mix is Lalo Schifrin's score, which fully occupies all five channels and is wonderfully alive and dynamic. Fidelity is top notch, with terrific deep bass and distinct, clear highs. Stereo separation among the fronts is excellent, with strong use of the surrounds throughout and excellent imaging, which is even better on the DTS mix. The .1 LFE has plenty of kick to it but is a bit tighter and stronger on the DTS track, and dialogue also sounds a bit fuller. While either mix is terrific an sure to please, I found the DTS to be the clear winner this time out.

Also included is an English 2.0 surround track and English Closed Captions, though unlike most other New Line titles, there are no English subtitles.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

Another in New Line's Infinifilm line of souped- up interactive DVDs, Rush Hour 2 boasts an impressive array of extras for any special edition, though may be the slimmest Infinifilm release thus far.

After navigating the rather cool if somewhat ungainly animated menus (love that spinning Rush Hour 2 rice box!) like all Infinifilm titles you'll find two separate sections of extras. First, let's go Beyond The Movie. Essentially one 24- minute featurette broken into 8 little pieces - "Jackie Chan's Hong Kong Introduction," "Culture Clash: West Meets East," "Language Barrier," "Attaining International Stardom," "Kung Fu Choreography," and "Lady Luck" - we get interviews shot onset in Hong Kong with director Brett Ratner, producer Jay Stern, actors Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, Ziyi Zhang and Roselyn Sanchez, Editor Mark Helfrich, and assorted crew members. This feels like an EPK, Hong Kong travel brochure and love letter to Jackie Chan all rolled into one, and only marginally informative. With the only real highlight being the 9- minute segment on the film's choreography, this is fun but slight and suffers from not really taking us "Beyond the Movie" at all, and just isn't on par with New Line's other Infinifilm featurettes and documentaries. And while I usually don't worry much about the quality of supplements, the compression here is weak and the constant artifacts distracting. (Like all New Line titles these days, all the video footage is presented in anamorphic widescreen.)

Moving on to the All Access Pass features, the highlights are probably the two included commentaries, one audio, one a subtitle track. Director Brett Ratner and screenwriter Jeff Nathanson offer a screen-specific audio commentary, which is rather rapid fire and pretty fun. Ratner is nothing if not enthusiastic, though forgive me if I say that his vocal style may not be for everyone and he's quite pretentious. The pair don't seem to doubt the success of the Rush Hour "franchise," and take this pretty seriously. Highlights are a discussion of Ratner's childhood Hong Kong influences, and working with a more confident cast including Chan, Tucker and Zhang. Also quite a bit of fun is the subtitle Fact Track, which are always a hoot. This time offers plenty of factoids on American and Hong Kong culture clash, Chan's career and production antecedents. Perfectly timed, , this is a kick to turn on with the commentary running simultaneously for some real information overload.

Next up are two featurettes. The Fashions Of Rush Hour 2 runs 4 minutes and is rather irreverent, offering a cheeky peek at the film's impressive costumes with a fey Jeremy Piven camping it up. Making Magic Out Of A Mire is your straightforward "how he make the magic on the set" promo take from the same interviews and production footage as the Beyond The Movie segments, and to be honest is rather self-congratulatory and annoying.

Next up are 9 deleted scenes and an outtake reel. With each segment running no more than a minute or so, these are all more scene extensions and sight gags. More fun is the 5-minute outtake reel, which, for once, is actually funny! Also pretty good is the Visual Effects Deconstruction of the opening explosion gag. After an introduction by effects supervisor Kevin Lilngenfelser, you can view the scene from four angles and toggle between at will - the "Backplate," the miniature with or without fixed perspective, or the final composite. The last video segment is Evolution Of A Scene, which actually breaks down three segments - "Chicken Chop," "The Bomb," and "Slide For Life" - and offers narration by Ratner with some solid production footage, sort of an extension of the choreography segment in the Beyond The Movie feature though a bit more dull. All three scenes run a total of 22 minutes combined.

Rounding out the extras are some basic filmographies, and the film's theatrical trailer in anamorphic widescreen and 5.1. .

DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC?

Last but not least, we have the DVD-ROM features, which is a bit better than most these days. We get a nice script-to-screen viewer allowing to print out the entire script or just a chapter, along with direct scene access, the film's original theatrical website, a link to New Line's "Hot Spot," and more content exclusive to the DVD that will launch on December 11. Extras here inlude some interviews with the cast and crew and more behind-the-scenes footage, but so far it is largely redundant after viewing the DVD-Video supplements, so unless more shows up, so far it is a nice site but largely lackluster.

Parting Thoughts