Jackie Chan

The only thing that's up-to-date about Rush Hour 3 is the way that 53-year-old Jackie Chan shows his age. As Chief Inspector Lee, the sly Hong Kong counterpart to Chris Tucker's motor-mouthed, exhibitionist L.A. cop James Carter, Chan demonstrates how a martial artist can segue into pure entertainer with a little help from his friends. Chan still wrings laughs from outrageous derring-do, but he's more willing than ever to detonate a visual punch line by actually getting punched or by helping Tucker prove (or improve)

The new James Dean stamp is selling well, and a 40th-anniversary reissue of his last movie is set for theatrical release this fall.The 1971 film of Roald Dahl's children's book, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," is scheduled for a 25th-anniversary reissue.The box-office success of Jackie Chan's "Rumble in the Bronx" has inspired Miramax to arrange a wider release for one of his earlier Hong Kong classics.Everything old is new again, mostly because reissues are relatively cheap to mount and almost always profitable.

SUN SCORE ** Jackie Chan fans won't find much to cheer in his latest, The Tuxedo. The gruesome on-screen murder in the opening moments tells us this is not going to be your typical Jackie Chan film. Hong Kong's martial-arts comic, the Kung Fu Buster Keaton, is misused in this blundering and bloody debut by the former TV commercial director Kevin O'Donovan. If it weren't for a few genuine Chan novelties and the presence of the goofy Jennifer Love Hewitt, this much-delayed and re-edited mess would be a total loss.

Jackie Chan is an athletic marvel with a self-effacing charm. Chris Tucker is a very funny guy. And 1998's Rush Hour was an unforced little gem of a buddy film, an East-meets-West comedy evincing good chemistry between its stars and enough laughs to keep the customers satisfied. So what happened to Rush Hour 2? The chemistry between Chan and Tucker is pretty much a memory. The laughs are still there, but they come mostly in the form of shtick, performed by Tucker and often having little connection to the rest of the movie.

Jackie Chan has fast hands. Chris Tucker has a fast mouth. Together, they make fast work of "Rush Hour," an enjoyable enough take on the odd-couple-as-police-partners theme (think "48 HRS" or "Lethal Weapon").Chan is Inspector Lee, a police detective who opens the film hard at work beating the bejeebers out of the entire Hong Kong underworld (as always, Chan's a joy to behold when he lets his reflexes do the talking). He's successful, but not entirely: When a local crime lord takes his bag of tricks to Los Angeles and arranges for the kidnapping of the Chinese consul's 11-year-old daughter, Lee is summoned to help the FBI find her.But the FBI wants no part of his help, and that's where James Carter (Tucker)

A Gilman School junior and a sixth-grader from Southern Maryland have won top honors in the statewide "Letters About Literature" contest, sponsored by the Maryland Center for the Book at the Howard County Library. About 700 students entered the contest, which required writing a letter to the author -- living or dead -- of a book, poem or essay that changed their life. Gilman's Marcus Wang, who lives in Cockeysville, won for his letter to Hollywood martial arts master Jackie Chan, author of "I Am Jackie Chan."

WASHINGTON -- One film into his career, and Thai actor Tony Jaa is being compared to Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li. That's heady company for an actor looking to specialize in martial-arts films, but Jaa isn't quite ready to embrace the hype. "In terms of replacing Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan or Jet Li, I would never consider that," Jaa says through an interpreter. "They are my mentors, and my masters." But if Jaa isn't ready to proclaim himself the new martial arts superstar, plenty of other people are. Fan Web sites have been abuzz about his film, Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior, since it was released in Asia and Europe two years ago; at the 2003 Toronto Film Festival, audience members were so adrenalized by the movie, according to The New York Times, that they didn't want to leave the theater.

With the last remnants of winter finally dribbling through art theaters, let us now praise summer remakes, sequels and franchises. With trailers rampant and the movies themselves unseen, every question mark registers as a come-on. Around the World in 80 Days, with hip British actor Steve Coogan in the David Niven role of Phileas Fogg and Jackie Chan (Jackie Chan!) in the Cantinflas role of Passepartout? Count me in. The third Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, with a fresh director (Alfonso Cuaron, of A Little Princess)

"Rumble in the Bronx" may or may not make Jackie Chan as large a star in America as he is in Asia, but it certainly will appeal to a certain kind of person.That would be the person who a.) lives and b.) breathes.Chan is capable of making real movies, as his great Hong Kong drama "Police Story" demonstrated, but this one is hardly in that category. Consider it more a goof, a laugh, a platform for showing off the banty guy's awesome physical skills as martial artist and absolutely fearless stuntman.

Most American audiences know Jackie Chan through such recent Hollywood action flicks as this year's "Shanghai Noon" and the wildly funny 1998 "Rush Hour" with Chris Tucker, which reeled in $140 million. And now, having established Chan as a box-office draw in the U.S., producers are hoping audiences are interested enough in the actor to flock to an offshoot of one of his classics, "The Legend of Drunken Master." It was made in 1994 as the sequel to one of Asia's most popular kung fu classics of all time, "Drunken Master," and has been dubbed in English for re-release in America.