genius-15 Review of Rising Sun

Rising Sun (1993)

Attempts to racially balance a bestselling story clutter it instead

[13 January 2003]

Or were the producers merely following the formula of late 80s/early 90s action movies and television (Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, Walker Texas Ranger) by portraying the combination of a white cop and a black one as some sort of novelty? Besides watering down Crichton's criticism of Japanese business practices, the screenwriters seemed determined to step up their racial cautiousness by portraying John Connor's partner, Smith, as a black man. There's nothing really outrageous about that either, but a black cop who wears a beige suit accompanied by an orange shirt and uses his ties with the Los Angeles ghetto gangs to elude Yakuza-like thugs? I welcome that sort of entertainment in an Eddie Murphy or Chris Tucker movie, but it's totally out of place here.