From Hot Fuzz to Beverly Hills Cop, there are plenty of great movies like Rush Hour that strike the balance of action and comedy perfectly.
There are many great action-comedy movies like Rush Hour that find the perfect balance between laughs and thrills. Rush Hour stars Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker as a renowned Hong Kong inspector and a street-smart LAPD detective, respectively, who are reluctantly paired up to save the kidnapped daughter of a Chinese diplomat. It’s a rare example of an action-comedy that succeeds as both an action movie and a comedy. Casting Chan and Tucker in the lead roles made Rush Hour the best of both worlds: Chan provided unparalleled physicality in the fight scenes while Tucker provided spot-on joke deliveries. Together, they’re the perfect “buddy cop” duo.
Available To Stream On Netflix
With the visceral thrills and explosive spectacle of an action movie and the quippy banter and laugh-out-loud sight gags of a comedy, the potential entertainment value of action-comedies is endless. There are plenty of great movies like Rush Hour that strike that balance perfectly. From the undercover antics of Beverly Hills Cop to the self-aware satire of 21 Jump Street to the absurdist procedural plotting of The Other Guys, a bunch of different action-comedies have hit the same notes as Rush Hour.
10 Bad Boys (1995)
Michael Bay’s high-octane direction of Bad Boys instantly solidified his reputation as an action filmmaker to be reckoned with. The plot revolves around two Miami cops protecting a murder witness and searching for a case of stolen heroin. Bad Boys follows the Rush Hour formula of pairing a traditional action hero with a quick-witted comedian, as Will Smith plays Mike Lowrey, a charismatic bachelor and the outgoing comic personality, and Martin Lawrence plays Marcus Burnett, the deadpan voice of reason and mild-mannered family man, to hysterical effect.
- Available to stream on Netflix and FuboTV
9 The Other Guys (2010)
Anchorman’s Adam McKay put his own uniquely absurdist spin on the “buddy cop” genre with The Other Guys. McKay’s go-to leading man, Will Ferrell, plays Allen Gamble, a mild-mannered police accountant opposite Mark Wahlberg as Terry Hoitz, a hotshot cop who’s been stuck behind a desk since he accidentally shot Derek Jeter. The Other Guys has a nice mix of exciting action and hilarious gags, just like Rush Hour, but it also has some timely commentary about the recession with its villain’s diabolical Ponzi scheme.
- Available to stream on Freevee or rent on Apple TV
8 Shanghai Noon (2000)
Rush Hour isn’t the only buddy actioner that Chan has starred in. In between team-ups with Tucker, Chan paired up with a different comedian for a different action-comedy. In Shanghai Noon, Chan plays Chon Wang, a Chinese Imperial Guard who travels to the American West and pairs up with gunslinging outlaw Roy O'Bannon, played by Owen Wilson, to rescue a missing princess. Like Rush Hour, Shanghai Noon sees two mismatched partners working together to save a damsel in distress. It also has a well-balanced mix of action scenes and comedic bits.
- Available to stream on Prime Video
7 The Heat (2013)
After proving that women can have just as much fun as men in a Hangover-style raunchy comedy with Bridesmaids, director Paul Feig proved that women can kick just as much butt in an action movie with The Heat, a female-led take on the “buddy cop” genre. Sandra Bullock plays a straitlaced FBI agent as the “straight man” alongside Melissa McCarthy as a foul-mouthed, bad-tempered Boston cop. Like Rush Hour, The Heat is more interested in its characters’ dynamic than the external conflicts of the plot – but there’s still plenty of action.
- Available to stream on HBO Max and DirecTV
6 21 Jump Street (2012)
Phil Lord and Christopher Miller subverted the expectations of the 21 Jump Street reboot with an in-universe reboot of a decades-old police program that nobody cares about. Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum respectively star as Morton Schmidt and Greg Jenko, a couple of cops who are sent undercover to a high school to investigate a new drug that’s been circulating around the hallways. On top of all the sly self-aware satire, 21 Jump Street is also a touching story about friendship. Hill and Tatum’s magnetic chemistry brings their “buddy cop” dynamic to life.
- Available to stream on Netflix
5 Midnight Run (1988)
Midnight Run is one of the few “buddy cop” movies in which neither of the main characters is a cop. Robert De Niro stars as bounty hunter Jack Walsh opposite Charles Grodin as Jonathan Mardukas, a misunderstood mafia accountant and Walsh's latest bounty. As De Niro and Grodin are chased across the United States by feds, mobsters, and other bounty hunters, Midnight Run plays like an action movie version of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. With sharp writing, cinematography, and editing, Midnight Run is one of the most masterfully crafted movies like Rush Hour.
- Available to rent on Apple TV
4 The Nice Guys (2016)
The Nice Guys isn’t so much a “buddy cop” movie as a “buddy private eye” movie. Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe star as Holland March and Jackson Healy, a private detective and enforcer who reluctantly team up when they realize they’ve been separately hired for the same case. Much like Chan and Tucker in Rush Hour, Gosling and Crowe initially don’t want to work together, but end up being a perfect crimefighting duo. And, also like Chan and Tucker, Gosling and Crowe share impeccable on-screen chemistry as a couple of gun-toting frenemies.
- Available to stream on Netflix
3 Hot Fuzz (2007)
The second entry in Edgar Wright’s genre-bending Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy, Hot Fuzz, plants the conventions of the “buddy cop” genre in a sleepy English village with a suspiciously high accident rate. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost anchor the movie with their unmatched on-screen chemistry as Nicholas Angel, a hypercompetent big-city cop and Danny Butterman,his bumbling small-town partner. With its mismatched detectives taking on a murderous cult, Hot Fuzz plays like Rush Hour meets The Wicker Man. It has the nonstop excitement of an action thriller, the rapid-fire joke rate of a farce, and the blood-soaked brutality of a slasher.
- Available to rent on Apple TV
2 Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
Eddie Murphy rose to stardom with his lead role in Beverly Hills Cop as Axel Foley, a Detroit lawman who travels to California to track down his best friend’s killer and butts heads with the local police. Thanks to Murphy’s powerhouse performance, Beverly Hills Cop is one of the funniest movies like Rush Hour. The role of Axel Foley gave Murphy ample opportunities for comic genius. Whenever he needs to talk his way past a receptionist or a security guard, Axel slips into a hilarious character.
- Available to stream on Paramount+
1 Lethal Weapon (1987)
Mel Gibson and Danny Glover headline Lethal Weapon as Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh, a pair of recently partnered cops who have to put their differences aside in their pursuit of a gang of drug smugglers. One of the oldest “buddy cop” movies, Lethal Weapon established a lot of the tropes and trademarks of the genre, particularly the character dynamics: Martin Riggs is a rule-bending young maverick while Roger Murtaugh is a by-the-book veteran on the brink of retirement. Lethal Weapon inspired a wave of similar action-comedies, including Rush Hour.
- Available to stream on HBO Max
