Rush Hour 3

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

• across the way
• box office gross
• wave goodbye
• radar

• paired
• martial arts
• beat cop
• bodyguard

• impression
• organized crime

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

In a very American intersection of cultures, a loud, wild, young, black detective played by Chris Tucker was paired with master of martial arts cinema, Jackie Chan, in 1998’s Rush Hour.

Now, in the third installment of the series, Tucker’s character has become a beat cop and Chan’s a bodyguard for an ambassador. They meet up again and fight organized crime in Paris. But Mason and Beren aren’t too interested in the specifics of the movie.

Listen to Mason tell Beren about how he thinks Rush Hour 3 represents American cinema abroad rather poorly.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

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2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Mason

Beren

Mason:  I didn’t even see…Do you know what’s playing at the theater across the way?

Beren:  Um, I don’t know. I think…Definitely Rush Hour 3, which is supposed to be the biggest movie in America.

Mason:  Really?

Beren:  Like it has a huge box office gross.

Mason:  So you’re just going by box office? I mean, I believe that, I guess.

Beren:  It’s a good indicator of ticket sales, I mean box office gross. I mean, Rush Hour 1, huge movie, Rush Hour 2, huge movie…

Mason:  Huge movies. I mean, I saw the first and the second one. That was like a different time. I mean it’s been so long between the second one and now. It’s been what, like seven years?

Beren:  And what was Chris Tucker doing in between those years. He wasn’t in any other movies, was he?

Mason:  I think he was watching his career wave goodbye to him.

Beren:  Yeah but then he goes and makes like, you know, his movie opens, makes $200 million, like Rush Hour 2. He doesn’t have to worry about working. I mean, obviously he’s not wanting to be respectable.

Mason:  I guess. It’s one of those things that as an American, like, it makes me sad that that’s what…I mean, anyone looking in that looks at the box office goes…They’re like, “Oh yeah, Americans love Rush Hour 3 and, you know, whatever Christmas movie Hollywood made this year.” You know, instead of like the little films like uh…you know, what’s the one? The lawyer one that George Clooney’s in right now…Or The Darjeeling Limited.

Beren:  Michael Clayton.

Mason:  Yeah, it’s like those movies…they never hit anybody’s radar.

Beren:  That’s true, I mean…yeah…I gotta respect…

Mason:  “Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?!” That’s my awesome Chris Tucker impression.

Beren:  That was good. That was good.

Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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