On August 10, the red carpets will roll out yet again for Jackie Chan and his indelibly grating friend, Chris Tucker. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent, even more will be earned and a little more of Hollywood's integrity will be lost.
"Rush Hour 3" will probably introduce some new, high-pitched Tucker-quote into the pop culture lexicon. Aside from that and stuffing a few more million dollar bills in some Hollywood pockets, the film won't contribute much to the American film market.
With the threat of internet downloads and the new, more commonly accepted realization that spending $20 at the movies is silly when you could wait a few months and watch it at home, the industry knows that the hay-day of the cinema is quickly ending.
So, naturally, the movies that are pushed the hardest into consumers' faces are the ones with big, pretty, explosions, edge-of-the-seat thrillers, movies that will look like nothing special on a TV. These are the films that make the money in theaters.
And as much fun as action movies can be, hundreds of thought-provoking, heart-wrenching and side-splittingly funny movies come out every year and barely see a profit.
It seems easy to come up with a sweeping solution to this dissolution of American cinema. Perhaps the film industry could limit the amount of sequels or spend more time funding and advertising indy, original films over big-budget, action-packed ones.
But it isn't that easy. What is considered a load-of-crap to some is art to another; what sounds like a strangled mouse speaking to one moviegoer - ahem, Chris Tucker - might sound like music to the person next to them.
It's not the film industry's responsibility to create masterpieces. It is their responsibility, as a thriving business, to make money. And their doing a helluva job at it.
Instead, the answer rests in the people. The consumers. The person who takes a chance on a movie that might make them think rather than one that just looks cool.
The movie industry is just giving the people what they want. Unfortunately, right now, it looks like we just want to see some more "Rush Hour."
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