In theaters

RUSH HOUR 2. Directed by Brett Ratner. Written by Jeff Nathanson. 90 minutes. Rated PG-13.

Brett Ratner’s “Rush Hour 2” doesn’t just play the race card – it slashes it into confetti and throws it in its audience’s face.

The film is one of the more racist to come out of Hollywood in recent memory, but that’s Hollywood for you – anything is acceptable so long as it turns a profit.

In this case, a profit is almost assured, especially since the film is the sequel to 1998’s surprise hit, “Rush Hour,” which earned $250 million worldwide while turning its stars – Jackie Chan in his first major U.S. film and a then almost unknown comedian, Chris Tucker, in his first starring role – into major box-office draws.

The first film dealt with race relations – its comedy sprang from the bickering differences between Chan, who’s Asian, and Tucker, who’s black – but part of the reason it worked, aside from Chan’s stunning stunt work, was because the jokes were funny, not cruel.

This time out, the tone has changed along with the size of everyone’s paychecks. Now, with the first part of the film set in Hong Kong before it eventually leaves for Las Vegas, the jokes are insulting. Indeed, with Tucker ruling the roost and shrieking in his high-pitched voice that all Asians “look alike” while also noting in one scene that they’re “Third World ugly,” the line between what’s funny – and what’s not funny – is crossed.

For years, it’s been culturally acceptable for blacks to mock whites in movies, music videos, books and on television; the white minstrel show has become a pop-culture staple, something about which little is written because few dare to criticize it due to our history and the continuing tension between blacks and whites.

But where I come from, racism is racism – it doesn’t matter who’s doing the bashing, what matters (and what’s wrong) is that somebody is doing the bashing. In “Rush Hour 2,” Tucker takes on Asians, Caucasians, Jews and homosexuals, and I have to ask – are people laughing? Not at my screening, which greeted Tucker’s tirades with an uncomfortable silence.

Ratner’s film, which features a ridiculously complex plot about the bombing of a U.S. embassy in Hong Kong, does come alive when Chan launches into his terrifically witty fight scenes and when the film features the obligatory outtakes found at the end. But with the exception of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’s” Zhang ZiYi, whose spitfire presence and stunt work prove the film’s most enjoyable addition, there isn’t enough here to balance the focus on Tucker’s mouth, which, at one point, is called a “7-Eleven” – it never closes.

Too bad that’s the case, because it nearly shuts down this movie.

Grade: D

On video and DVD

CHOCOLAT. Directed by Lasse Hallstrom. Written by Robert Nelson Jacobs. 121 minutes. Rated PG-13.

Lasse Hallstrom’s “Chocolat” stands as a testament to the amorous powers of the cocoa bean. It knows there’s a fine line between food, sex and love – and it has a great, mischievous time exploring just how fine that line is.

The film, a fable, also has other ideas in mind – namely, an all-out war between pagans and Christians. Set in the 1950s, it stars Juliette Binoche as Vianne, a gorgeous single woman with a young daughter (Victoire Thivisol) who moves into the uptight, pious French town of Lansquenet.

Draped in shimmering red cloaks, these two pagan Red Riding Hoods quickly find themselves surrounded by a town filled with Christian wolves. Indeed, the townspeople of Lansquenet may be repressed, but their bite can be ferocious and, in some cases, eager to do damage.

Undeterred, Vianne chooses Lent – of all times – to open a chocolate shop across from the town church. Within a matter of days, she’s filled her windows with confections so inviting and sinful, they’re bound to cause trouble – which they do.

Once the town’s impossibly abstemious mayor, Comte de Reynaud (Alfred Molina), decides this woman and her chocolate pies need to go, he starts rallying the troops – not to mention the local clergy – to rid her from Lansquenet.

But will Reynaud’s hatemongering and Bible thumping be enough to frighten a town eager to be liberated with Vianne’s special mix of chocolates and hot peppers, some of which have the power to give some men a lift in the bedroom – and others that give one woman (Lena Olin) the courage to leave an abusive marriage? The film answers with style, humor, strong supporting performances from Judi Dench, Johnny Depp and Carrie-Ann Moss, and a handful of genuine surprises.

Grade: A-

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays in Style, Thursdays in the scene, Tuesdays on “NEWS CENTER at 5” and Thursdays on “NEWS CENTER at 5:30” on WLBZ-2 and WCSH-6. He can be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.