By Iain Blair

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Rush Hour 3" debuts in U.S. movie theaters on Friday packing one of the most potent trios in a single movie of recent years.

And get this, they aren't even superheroes.

In an era of filmmaking defined by blockbuster movies based on comic book characters like "Spider-Man" and "Superman," actors Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker and director Brett Ratner have defied Hollywood's lust for comic books by staying human, offering a mix of martial arts, mayhem and mirth.

The first two "Rush Hour" movies, directed by Ratner, featured the two actors playing fish out-of-water cops paired to solve a crime. The films were a huge hit at box offices around the world, success they talked up to one basic element: personal chemistry.

"Brett, Chris, and I refer to one another as black, white, and Chinese brothers. It's Brett Chan Tucker, Chris Chan Ratner, and Jackie Ratner Tucker!," Chan told Reuters.

Comedian Tucker, an African American, and martial arts expert Chan, who hails from Hong Kong, first teamed up for 1998's "Rush Hour." Chan played a quiet-but-tough Chinese cop and Tucker was his loud-mouthed Los Angeles counterpart. They were hunting a kidnapper.

Three years later in "Rush Hour 2," Detective James Carter (Tucker) and Chief Inspector Lee (Chan) went to Hong Kong on vacation and found themselves on the trail of counterfeiters.

This third film features the same mix of comedy and martial arts as the first two, but the pair are now in Paris battling a Chinese gang that has set up operations in the City of Lights. Even the Eiffel Tower is co-opted into their hijinx.

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"More action, more fighting and I think more opportunity for us to be funny," said Tucker. "There's just a lot more everything, as we're both fish out-of-water in Paris."

The first two films raked in $244 million and $347 million, respectively. In the six years since, media have speculated that Tucker was holding up a third movie because he was seeking a $25 million paycheck. Not true, Tucker said.

"I never agree to doing a movie because of how much they're paying me. I'd do a movie for little or no money if I really loved it," he said. "It was all about making sure the script was good enough to do a third one."

Shooting in Paris had non-monetary benefits, too, Tucker said.

"Filming seems more relaxed there -- I mean, at lunchtime they gave us wine," he laughed. "That was a big treat! ... You never get that in America."

While actors and directors often become friends on a movie then part ways when shooting ends, Chan and Tucker said the opposite is true of them.

Tucker said he has visited Chan in Hong Kong a few times, and he has a great deal of respect for the martial arts hero who has leveraged his stardom in Hong Kong action movies into a full-fledged Hollywood career.

For his part, Chan called Tucker a one-time "shy boy" who has grown into a "confident and secure man."

"I consider him to be a true buddy ... He respects and trusts me when I ask him to do some action. Likewise, if I need some advice or changes to the dialogue, I respect and trust him," Chan said.

The good will between the three goes so far, Chan said, that "Brett, Chris, and I already have a verbal agreement to make "Rush Hour 4."