The buddy-cop genre has been long dead to film – and the nail? The mane that was Mel Gibson’s volumized hair wore out its “”Lethal Weapon”” welcome, especially next to Danny Glover’s tired grandpa-ness.

So leave it to Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker to kick up that buddy-cop standard with another dose of cross-cultural, globe-trotting foolery. The end of the “”Rush Hour”” franchise’s three-piece sees Lee and Carter in New York City (where we last left them), Los Angeles (where they reunite) and France (where the duo scuffles with gangsters).

Six years removed from the second and almost a decade from the first, the third installment revisits characters Consul Han (Tzi Ma) and his daughter. Chan/Tucker devotees can only hope that the comedy is just as punchy – and the action as kung-fooey – as the original film.

It’s not like “”Rush Hour 2″” should be overlooked. The middle entry gloated the best of the series’ queer, sociological mashups: Don Cheadle doing the “”Twisting Tiger,”” Jeremy Piven as a flaming fashionista and Chan clumsily grooving to Diddy-cover “”Every Breath You Take.”” Then there was the first “”Rush Hour,”” with Chan learning the hip dip to Edwin Starr’s “”War”” and that fat-cheeked Chinese girl wailing Mariah Carey’s “”Fantasy.””

So with Roman Polanski handling a rare filmic stint in “”Rush Hour 3,”” who wouldn’t die to see the filmmaking Frenchman belt out some Michael Jackson karaoke, side-by-side with Tucker’s wiry squawk? Personally, I want a rendition of “”P.Y.T.”” Aug. 10.