Rush Hour [1998]

Rush Hour [1998]

Full Movie Story Summary :-

Movie Spoiler Warning!! [Can Ruin A Movie Ending]

On the last day of British rule in Hong Kong late 1997, Detective Inspector Lee (Jackie Chan) of the Hong Kong police leads a raid at a shipping bar wharf, hoping to arrest the mysterious crime lord Juntao. He finds only Sang (Ken Leung), Juntao's right hand man, who manages to escape. However, Lee successfully recovers numerous Chinese cultural treasures stolen by Juntao, which he presents as a farewell victory to his departing superiors: Chinese Consul Solon Han (Tzi Ma) and British Commander Thomas Griffin (Tom Wilkinson).

Shortly after Han arrives in the United States to take up his new diplomatic post in Los Angeles, his daughter, Soo Yung, is kidnapped while on her way to her first day of school. The leader of the kidnappers is none other than Sang. Shortly after this incident, the FBI inform Consul Han, who calls in Lee to assist in the case.

Meanwhile, in America, Detective James Carter (Chris Tucker) of the LAPD is doing undercover work at a doughnut shop to meet a man named Clive (Chris Penn) who is trying to sell Carter some C4 explosive out of his trunk. Two cops then pull into the doughnut shop and see the two suspicious men looking in Clive's truck. They then proceed to pull out their guns and tell them to freeze, not realizing Carter is undercover. Clive ends up shooting the cops and driving away, and while doing so, Carter is firing at Clive's car. Clive jumps out of the moving car just before it explodes. Carter then runs up to Clive and arrests him.

The FBI, afraid that the injury or death of Lee would result in negative attention, pawn him off on the LAPD Captain Diel, who gives the assignment to Detective James Carter. The captain picked Carter after being upset about him destroying a city block and losing evidence while in pursuit of Clive, as well as just being annoying and arrogant. However, the Captain acts as though he picked Carter especially for the case and tricks Carter into thinking the FBI truly wants him. Carter is ecstatic for he has had aspirations of joining the FBI. Carter, after discovering the real assignment, calls the Captain saying he wants off the case. Captain Diel then gives him a choice: keep Lee away from the investigation or face two months suspension without pay. Carter reluctantly agrees, secretly intending to solve the case himself.

Carter meets Lee at the Los Angeles International Airport and then proceeds to take him on a sightseeing tour of Los Angeles, simultaneously keeping Lee away from the embassy and contacting several of his underworld informants about the kidnapping. Lee finally escapes Carter and makes his way to the Chinese Consulate, where an anxious Han and a group of FBI agents are awaiting news about his daughter. While being reprimanded by Agent-in-charge Warren Russ (Mark Rolston), Carter manages to accidentally involve himself in a phone conversation with one of the kidnappers (Sang), where he poorly arranges a ransom drop of $50 million.

After their arrival at the agreed drop point, Lee tries to warn the FBI that something is amiss, but is ignored until a bomb inside the building is detonated, killing several agents. Spotting Sang nearby, Lee and Carter give chase, but Sang escapes, dropping a strange detonator in the process. After showing it to Carter's colleague, LAPD bomb expert Tania Johnson (Elizabeth Peña), they learn that the detonator could blow up C4, which takes us back to Clive. Carter and Lee go to take a visit to the county jail where Clive is hoping to gain some information. Clive refuses to tell the cocky Carter anything, and believes Carter wants to frame him. Lee then intervenes, stating all he cares about is the little girl, that she is only eleven years old, and is in grave danger. Clive tells the duo about Juntao and that they can find him at a restaurant in Chinatown.

At the restaurant, Carter is captured after going in alone, though he sees a surveillance video of Juntao carrying Soo-Yung into a van. Lee arrives and rescues Carter, and they are met outside by the FBI, led by Russ, who blames them for ruining the ransom exchange. Sang phones the consul, angrily telling him that the ransom has been increased from $50 million to $70 million, and threatens to kill Soo Yung if anything else goes wrong. Disgraced and guilt-ridden, Lee and Carter are ordered off the investigation, and Lee is informed that he will be sent back to Hong Kong. Carter refuses to drop the case and confronts Lee on his plane to enlist his help, and the two men decide to save Soo-Yung together.

The final confrontation comes at the opening of a Chinese art exhibition at the Los Angeles Convention Center, which Han and Griffin are overseeing, while the ransom is being delivered. Carter, Lee, and Johnson enter disguised as guests. After Carter recognizes Griffin from Chinatown, he creates a scene by alerting the spectators about a bomb threat in the building and tells them to evacuate. In the confusion, Lee sees Sang handing Griffin a detonator identical to the one he and Carter had previously recovered, deducing that Griffin and Juntao are one and the same person. Griffin/Juntao then threatens to detonate a bomb vest attached to Soo Yung if the delivery is interrupted. During the stand-off, however, Carter manages to sneak out and locate Soo Yung. Carter proceeds to take the vest off her, but Soo Yung confesses to him that she heard them say that the vest will go off if anyone tries to take it off incorrectly. Carter then drives the van into the building and brings the bomb vest within range to kill everyone inside the exhibition.

After a gunfight breaks out, Lee and Johnson climb into the back of the van and Johnson manages to get the vest off Soo Yung, but tells Lee that it still can be set off with the remote. Lee then takes the vest and pursues Griffin. Meanwhile Griffin goes up to the upstairs control room and shoots the agents up there, including Russ. A few moments later, Sang also goes into the control room and starts putting money into another briefcase. Then Russ, who was not killed by Griffin, groans, and Sang turns his gun on him. Just as he is about to shoot Russ, he is interrupted by Carter, who tells him that he is alone. Sang then challenges Carter to 'fight like a man'. Carter agrees, but as both men put their guns down, both bring out their alternative guns, and Carter shoots Sang dead in the process. Meanwhile, Griffin attempts to escape with the ransom money, and Lee pursues him up several sets of maintenance ladders. During the pursuit, both men fall over the rail with Lee holding onto a rafter and Griffin holding onto the bomb vest, which Lee is now wearing. The money falls out of the case that Griffin was holding. The bomb vest then rips apart, sending Griffin falling to his death into a fountain below, Lee then loses his grip and falls from the rafters, but Carter is able to rescue Lee by placing a large flag under him to catch him.

Han and Soo Yung are reunited, and Han sends Carter and Lee on vacation together to Hong Kong. Before Carter leaves, Agents Russ and Whitney offer him a position in the FBI, which he rudely refuses. The film ends with Lee and Carter enjoying their flight to Hong Kong. Carter shows off a couple of lines of Chinese to Lee (who is very impressed, as he had no idea Carter spoke Chinese), and then immediately requests a new seat as Lee breaks into a chorus of Edwin Starr's War.

Antz [1998]

Antz [1998] Movie Trailer:

Mubeez Rating: 7/10

Antz (1998)

Stars: Woody Allen, Dan Aykroyd, Anne Bancroft.

Rated PG for mild language and menacing action.

Full Story Summary :-

Movie Spoiler Warning!!

(Can Ruin A Movie Ending)

Loosely based on the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, the setting for the story is an ant colony in Central Park in New York City, under the chronological timespan of 4 days. The protagonist (Woody Allen) is an ant named Z-4195, or "Z" for short, a neurotic and individualistic ant living in a wholly conformist society who longs for the opportunity to truly express himself. His friends include fellow worker Azteca (Jennifer Lopez) and a soldier ant, Weaver (Sylvester Stallone). Z meets Princess Bala (Sharon Stone) at a bar where she goes to escape from her suffocating royal life and falls in love with her.

In order to see Bala again, Z exchanges places with Weaver and joins the army. He marches with the ranks, befriending Barbatus (Danny Glover), another soldier, in the process. He doesn't realize that the army's leader, the corrupt General Mandible (Gene Hackman), is secretly sending all the soldiers loyal to the Queen to die so he can begin to build a colony filled with powerful ants. At the base of a tree near nightfall, Z realizes he's actually marching into battle, and all of the soldiers except for Z are killed by the acid-shooting termites. Following the battle, all Z can find of Barbatus is his head. Before he dies, Barbatus tells Z to think for himself rather than follow orders all his life. Z returns home and is hailed as a war hero, congratulated personally by the secretly irate General Mandible, and is brought before the Queen. There he meets Princess Bala, who eventually recognizes him as a worker. When Z finds that he has been cornered in a lie, he panics and takes Princess Bala hostage. They escape the colony and hide, and Z decides to search for the legendary Insectopia. Bala reluctantly decides to go with him after she narrowly escapes from a hungry praying mantis.

Word of the incident quickly spreads through the colony, whereupon Z's act of individuality sparks a revolution in the workers. As a result, productivity grinds to a halt. Seeing an opportunity to gain control, General Mandible begins to publicly portray Z as a villain who cares only about himself. Mandible then promotes the glory of conformity and promises them a better life, which he claims to be the reward of completing a "Mega Tunnel" planned by himself. Mandible learns Z is looking for Insectopia after interrogating Weaver. Knowing full well of the place's existence, Mandible sends his aide, Colonel Cutter (Christopher Walken), to its location to retrieve the Princess and kill Z. Cutter, however, slowly begins to have second thoughts about Mandible's plans and agenda and develops sympathy for the worker ants.

Z and Bala, after a misdirection and a brief separation, finally find Insectopia, which consists of a human wastebin overfilled with decaying food (a treat for insects of all kinds). Here, Bala begins to reciprocate Z's feelings. However, during a break, Cutter arrives and takes Bala back to the colony. Z finds them gone and makes his way back to the colony to rescue Bala, aided by a wasp named Chip (Dan Aykroyd), whom he met earlier and has made himself drunk grieving over the loss of his swatted wife, Muffy (Jane Curtin). Z arrives at the colony, where he finds that Bala has been held captive in General Mandible's office. After rescuing her, he learns that General Mandible's "Mega Tunnel" leads straight to a body of water (the puddle next to Insectopia), which Mandible will use to drown the queen and the workers who have gathered at the opening ceremony. Bala goes to warn the workers and her mother at the ceremony, while Z goes to the tunnel exit to stop the workers from digging any further. He fails, however, and the water leaks in. Z and Bala unify the workers into a single working unit and build a towering ladder of ants towards the surface as the water continues to rise.

Meanwhile, General Mandible and his soldiers are gathered at the surface, where he explains to them his vision of a new colony with none of the "worker filth". He is interrupted, however, when the workers successfully claw their way to the surface and break through. Mandible tries to kill Z but is stopped by Cutter, who finally rebels against Mandible and instead tries to help Z and the worker ants out of the hole "for the good of the colony." Mandible then snaps, yelling that he is the colony, and charges toward Cutter, who is, however, pushed away by Z at the last moment. Mandible inadvertently takes Z with him back down into the flooded colony, and gets killed when he lands upon a root while Z falls into the water. Cutter, taking charge, orders the other soldier ants to help the workers and the queen onto the surface while he himself rescue Z. Although it seems that Z has drowned, Bala successfully resuscitates him. Z is lauded for his heroism and marries Bala. Together they rebuild the colony with Cutter as their General, transforming the colony from a conformist military state into a community that values each and every one of its members.

Source-Wikipedia  

A Bug's Life [1998]

A Bug's Life [1998] Movie Trailer:

Mubeez Rating: 7/10

Stars: Kevin Spacey, Dave Foley and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Full Story Summary :-

Movie Spoiler Warning!!

(Can Ruin A Movie Ending)

Every season, a colony of ants are expected to gather food for a protection racket of grasshoppers. One ant, Flik, is a promising inventor who is not appreciated due to his inventions causing trouble. While trying out a mechanical harvester, he accidentally knocks the pile of food into a stream just before the grasshoppers arrive. The grasshopper leader, Hopper, gives the ants the rest of the season to gather more but orders double after Flik stands up to him in defense of the Queen's young daughter. As a result of his mistake, Flik is admonished by the colony's council. When Flik suggests that he try to recruit warrior bugs to fight the grasshoppers Princess Atta allows him to do so, but only as a fool's errand to get rid of him.

Flik reaches the insect city, which is actually garbage under a trailer from a human's point of view. He encounters a troupe of unemployed circus performers and mistakes them for the warriors he needs. At the same time, they believe him to be a talent scout who wants to book their act. (Flik does explain his intentions, but only to the two pill bugs who cannot understand English.) They return to the colony, to Atta's surprise, and are greeted as heroes who can fight the grasshoppers. After a well-meaning presentation by the ant children of the "heroic" events theoretically about to unfold, Flik and the troupe realize their misunderstandings with each other, raising Atta's suspicions. While about to leave the colony, the troupe reconsider when they manage to save Dot from being attacked by a bird.

Flik proposes to build a model bird to scare Hopper away. Whilst working together on the bird, the troupe members bond with the colony. Atta and Flik begin an awkward attraction for each other. At the grasshopper's hideout, a sombrero lying near a puddle, the grasshoppers live in luxury, waited on by mosquitoes. Hopper's brother, Molt, questions why they need to travel to Ant Island in order to collect food, when it is obvious they do not need it. When he suggests this to Hopper, Hopper sarcastically decrees they will stay, but then executes two grasshoppers in a demonstration of why the ants pose a true danger to the grasshoppers. The ants, in fact, immensely outnumber the grasshoppers, and the collection of food is solely to keep them subservient and afraid, to quell any uprising. After Hopper's speech, the grasshoppers begin the journey to Ant Island.

Eventually, the circus master, P. T. Flea, arrives looking for his missing performers and unknowingly exposes them. Angered by Flik's deception, Atta exiles him from the colony, while the other ants rush to collect whatever food they can for Hopper. When the grasshoppers arrive, the ants are unable to meet Hopper's demands, so Hopper and his cronies take over the colony and force them to bring them food. Dot overhears their plans to kill the Queen, catches up with Flik and the troupe, and persuades them to return and put their plan into action.

Flik, with help from Dot and her friends, fly the bird, which frightens the grasshoppers senseless, but P. T. Flea, thinking the bird to have injured one of the troupe members, sets it on fire. Realizing the bird is a fake, Hopper has his assistant Thumper injure Flik. Flik, however, is able to stand up and reveals that the ants are more powerful than they are led to believe, with grasshoppers being the weak, reliant ones. Realizing this, the ant colony and the circus gang swarms against the grasshopper gang and forces the gang, except Hopper, to leave. However, a rainstorm begins, causing panic in which Hopper grabs Flik and flies off. Atta rescues Flik, and they lure Hopper toward the bird's nest. When they reach the bird's nest, Hopper corners Flik, and then is confronted by the bird, whom he at first believes to be another fake, but eventually discovers it to be real. Hopper attempts to run away, but the bird picks him up in her beak, and lowers Hopper into its nest, where he is devoured by the bird's chicks, killing Hopper.

The next spring, the colony has adopted Flik's harvester to speed up grain collection, and Atta becomes the new queen, passing the princess crown to Dot. Atta, Flik, and Dot wave goodbye to the troupe, now joined by Hopper's younger brother Molt (who is now renamed, Tiny), who all stayed over winter as guests.

Source-Wikipedia