After low points in their most recent films, Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson bounce back in the chaotic but enjoyable “Shanghai Knights,” a follow-up to their martial arts Western “Shanghai Noon.”
Leaving the Wild West behind and shifting to Victorian England, the film works as well or better than the original and sure to please fans of Chan’s acrobatic action sequences.
Chan as Chon Wang (sounds like John Wayne) and Wilson as Roy O’Bannon, his surfer-dude-talking sidekick, travel to England in order to retrieve the Chinese emperor’s seal. Lord Rathbone (Aidan Gillen), tenth in line for the English throne, killed Chon’s father in order to obtain the seal, sending Chon on his quest for vengeance.
The new part of Chon and Roy’s team is Chon’s sister, Chon Lin, played by a beautiful and talented Singapore actress named Fann Wong. Together, they must stop Rathbone from ascending the throne by killing Queen Victoria and allowing rival forces to usurp the Chinese throne.
If that sounds like a stretch of a plotline, it is. Throw in a romantic subplot and you have the gist of a rather threadbare storyline.
On their journey, every stereotypical British clichCB) in existence is encountered by the group, from girls with bad teeth to bad weather to strange food. Some of the setups are funny while others fall flat.
Most surprising is that the trio end up being helped along the way by a young Charlie Chaplin and a Scotland Yard Inspector named Artie Doyle, who likes Roy’s name for a fictional detective: Sherlock Holmes.
Chan’s movies are known for their great fight choreography and this one is no exception, with several excellent sequences and one of the best on-screen sword fighting scenes in a long time.
Filled with comical nods to the Keystone Cops, Harold Lloyd, Harry Houdini, “Singing in the Rain” and “A Hard Day’s Night” the action sequences are a tongue-in-cheek encyclopedia of pop culture references.
Hands down, the highlight this time around is a number in which the acrobatic Chan uses twirling umbrellas as weapons as he repeats Gene Kelly’s most famous scene from “Singing in the Rain.” You’ll never imagine how many ways an umbrella can be used!
Much like the first film, not every longtime Chan fan will come away endorsing the endless stream of anachronistic gags supplied by the ever-smirking Wilson. Wilson’s jokes only work every one out of four times and the movie lags when plot exposition replaces action.
Nevertheless, the beauty of watching a Jackie Chan film is in watching him work. Chan and Wilson play off one another well and the high-intensity energy Chan manages to project onto the screen can’t help but leave everyone in the audience with a smile.
One more thing, when the film ends, don’t leave your seat too quickly. The highlight of Jackie Chan movies is oftentimes the credit-reel outtakes and the ones selected here play like the film as a whole – chaotic fun.
>From action movie standards, “Shanghai Knights” delivers the goods. Just don’t expect much more than that.
“Shanghai Knights” is rated PG-13 for action violence and sexual content.
