Flying feet, a great soundtrack and a belly full of laughs … and that’s just in the first half hour.

“Rush Hour” has all of these movie elements and more. Notice, however, that a complex plot is missing from the list. This is not a mistake, but instead a warning to audiences.

Jackie Chan plays Detective Inspector Lee, a spy in Hong Kong who works for the Chinese ambassador, Counsul Han. Lee has broken up a ring of art smugglers, but they gain their revenge by kidnapping Han’s daughter and taking her with them to Los Angeles.

Although the FBI is working to find his daughter, Han sends the trustworthy Lee to help with the search. The agents are not willing to let an outsider risk their mission, so they agree to arrange for someone from the Los Angeles Police Department to meet Lee and keep him occupied with fake leads.

Detective James Carter, played by Chris Tucker, is tricked into keeping Lee busy when he is told the FBI has specifically requested him for an important mission.

When he finds out his real role in the search, Carter decides to look for the girl as well. So he and Lee team up to conduct their own investigation.

As is expected from Jackie Chan movies, Chan uses his martial art skills and sense of comedic timing to create some one-of-a-kind action sequences.

He uses pool cues as weapons, and in one scene, he holds a giant ancient vase sitting on a pedestal on his shoulders to free up his arms to fight two villains. Chan also shows his vulnerability by yelling out “Ow!” and waving his hands in pain when he is hit or kicked.

And as audiences expect from Tucker, who previously starred as the fast-talking celebrity in “The Fifth Element,” Tucker knows how to relay a joke.

Almost everything he says, including lines that probably weren’t meant to be funny, are difficult to take seriously with his wavering voice.

“Rush Hour” completely plays up the culture clash between the respectable Chinese martial artist and the “talks way too much” Los Angeles cop.

Much of the movie’s comedy, including the soundtrack, evolved from these differences. A charming Asian melody is followed by a thumping American pop tune to help Chan choreograph his Kung Fu fighting.

Despite the humor and cleverly scripted fights, “Rush Hour” unfortunately does have the most predictable plot in the movie world — good guy vs. bad guy.

The story goes something like this: Daughter of a prominent man is kidnapped. The FBI is on the case, yet these stiffs are too hung up on procedure to truly help.

A foreign spy comes to America to save the day. A wise-cracking Los Angeles cop, who until now has always preferred to work alone, teams up with the spy to save the day. Of course, a few explosions and bombs are thrown in just for good measure.

It’s time to face facts here. The movie is just a combination of other successful movies.

But what movie isn’t? Besides, the true strength of “Rush Hour” is the chemistry between Chan and Tucker. Movie audiences sometimes wait their whole lives to see such an unusual (and unpredictable) pairing.

3 1/2 stars out of five

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Teresa Halvorsen is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Northwood.