Shanghai Knights

Rating:
Summary: So Funny
Review: The first time I saw this movie I didn't think much of it, but when I watched it again it was absolutely histerical! These two make such a good team.

Rating:
Summary: Doesn't live up to its prequel
Review: My wife and I are great fans of Jackie Chan and we both liked Shanghai Noon. That's why we rented Shanghai Knights. But this sequel was, frankly, very boring. Jackie has some nice fight sequences as usual. But the story was very weak (even for a martial arts movie!). It was also slow moving at parts, so much so that we were tempted to stop watching. And this is the first movie I've seen made by Jackie Chan where there's actually an adult scene not appropriate for kids (involves some yucky tongue-licking). It's a short scene, but still - I wonder if Jackie is trying to get away from the 'good and clean' image. Even without that scene, this movie is definitely not entertaining enough. I certainly wouldn't recommend buying it (rental maybe).

Rating:
Summary: A total travesty
Review: I recently rented this movie and turned it off after 15 minutes or so (after the first fight with some London thugs.) I enjoyed Shanghai Noon or I wouldn't have rented the sequel. I enjoy Jackie Chan movies in general as well. So what was wrong with this sequel? The music. Yes, it is strange to condemn a movie for the music but the pieces chosen to accompany the fight scenes threw me into the mindset of a carnival or Mary Poppins scene, not an action movie. Just awful. Such misplaced ambiance combined with some horribly cliched, randomly inserted one-liners by Owen Wilson forced me to pull the plug.

Rating:
Summary: STEP ONE: kick
Review: In Brief

When a Chinese rebel murders Wang's estranged father and escapes to England, Wang (Chan) and Roy (Wilson) make their way to London with revenge on their minds. Wang's sister Lin (Wong) has the same idea and together they uncover a worldwide conspiracy to murder the royal family, yet no one will believe them.

Review

Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson return in this competent, yet slightly lacking sequel to the hit film Shanghai Noon. Hollywood hits a concept, a team, in this case a duo, and runs with the ball till its pumping nothing but hot air. Luckily on this occasion there is slightly more than steam to drive our heroes through the predictable mix of fights, betrayal, seduction and success.

Unlike the ill fated Rush Hour 2, Owen Wilson works well the second time around as Chan's buddy. Whereas with Chris Tucker, Shanghai Knights sees more to their compatibility than mire novelty and the setting of the film in a period, albeit less than historically correct, does nothing to detract from their ability to successfully mix with their surroundings as more than just stars in a film but rather as their characters Roy and Wang.

Yes, this is a sequel and unfortunately the old chestnut rule of a adding either a child or animal to the mix has won through. On this occasion the child in question is Charlie (Johnson) an archetypical street urchin straight out of a Dickens' novel, who does nothing more than work with way through his lines with an arrogance that oozes drama school all over. That aside, the bad news is that Lucy Lui's character does not return but we do see a new love interest this time for Roy in the shape of the elegantly gorgeous Fann Wong. Playing Wang's sister, she is seen here in a Western release for the first time but in reality is a larger than life pop star in her native Singapore. Wong, along with Chan add to some of the best choreographed fight sequences in some time. Indeed in a recent interview Chan described the staging of fights akin to that of a dance to music and while watching Shanghai Knights its not hard to see what he means.

The Verdict

As a sequel it may not match its original, but Shanghai Knights is definitely worth your time and money. Besides, who can resist any Jackie Chan film, and with a third in the pipeline, his pairing with Owen Wilson looks set to last and delight many more audiences to come.

Rating:
Summary: tepid comedy
Review: **1/2 "Shanghai Knights" reunites Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson as Chon Wang and Roy O'Bannon, the wisecracking duo from the popular Old West comedy "Shanghai Noon." In this second installment in the series, Chon and Roy head over to Merrie Olde England to search for the men who killed Chon's father back in China.

"Shanghai Knights" is less about East Meets West than about 19th Century Meets 21st Century, since the majority of the humor is generated by Roy's indulging in serial anachronisms. He utters statements like "This country blows," "That sucks," and "This is kinda freaking me out" with alarming regularity, not a bad comic premise in itself, but it becomes a rather thin thread on which to hang an entire 114-minute movie. The production design is certainly handsome to look at and the Chan-driven stunt sequences are as impressive as ever. Both Chan and Wilson exude an affable charm that goes a long way towards smoothing over the weaknesses of the script. Wilson, in particular, has a way of making even the lamest joke appear better than it actually is. But lame the jokes are and no amount of peripheral puffery can hide that fact.

Thus, despite all the energy and likeability emanating from the two lead actors, "Shanghai Knights" runs out of steam pretty early on.

Rating:
Summary: Jackie in Victorian London Is Better Than "Tuxedo" But ...
Review: For numerous Jackie Chan fans in Japan including me, his best works always remain the same: those films made in his Hong-Kong era, namely "Drunken Master" and "Project A" (the former directed by Yuen Woo-ping). But among many Hollywood-made films, "Shanghai Knights" fares pretty well.

Actually, the sequel to the hit movie "Shanghai Noon" is as entertaining as the original; Jackie Chan is still agile (remember, he is 49 years-old ... yet), and Owen Wilson is still likable Mr. Everyman. Plus, you get beautiful and charming (and high-kicking) Fann Wong whose presence is worth the money, and even Donnie Yen, Hong-Kong's new generation action hero.

And you see Jackie and Owen join forces again, and this time, in Victorian England, they attempt to stop Donnie Yen's and Aidan Gillen's megalomaniac plans of ruling two countries, England and China. You know how story will develop from miles away, and on the way you pick up some supporting characters, the best of them being newly introduced Chan's sister played by wonderful Fann Wong, famous actress in Singapore. And in case I forgot to say, I say again that she is very charming.

What really matters is Jackie's actions, which are far better than those in "Noon." Probably this time he is allowed for more risky and innovative stunts, and his skills are not going at all. In one scene, at his usual lightening speed, he handles many umbrellas to fend off bad guys, to the tune of "Singing in the Rain." If someone else should do it, the result might be awfully laughable, but with Jackies's carefully calculated timing, everything becomes delight and surprise. But his fans surely have known that fact for long.

Owen Wilson is given a comic turn, and the result is just so-so. Sometimes he is very funny; sometimes very irritating. But it is clear that he is also given freedom for ad-lib reactions before the camera. (Often his lines sound rather out of place, such as his comment on one famous restaurant, or one Beatle song's lyrics, like, Bella, Chuck, and Dave).

More unique is the soundtrack. You cannot expect those songs from the 60s in this film, but oldie songs like the Zombies are very interesting, but some might find it misjudged. However you may feel, the ending song of one Kinks hit cover version is very good.

But remember, this is a Hollywood-made film, in which Jackie's hands somehow look tied by Hollywood editing and much-expected battle between him and Donnie Yen ("Blade 2") is too short. This is not to say the actions as a whole are disappointing, but Donnie Yen's powerful performance seen in other films (such as Jet Li's "Hero") is unfairly restricted.

All in all "Shangahi Knights" is better than you expect, especially action sequences. I promise when actions start, everything begins to shine, but often you have to wait for that to happen during the lull.

Rating:
Summary: Great fights sequences
Review: Although I thought KNIGHTS was not as good of a story as NOON, nor was KNIGHTS on as grand a scale as NOON, the fight choreography is the best Jackie Chan has done in years. He may lack the speed and ferocity of his earlier Hong Kong movies, but in terms of creativity and use of his surroundings, some of the sequences are on par with stuff he did in Project A, Young Master, etc.

So if you watch Jackie Chan movies mainly for the action like I do, you will probably enjoy this movie. If you care about the story, you might be slightly disappointed, though I still thought Jackie and Owen's banter was pretty funny.

Rating:
Summary: Poor
Review: Substituting the wide open spaces of the old west for the dingy, dirty streets of London is not fun. Roy O'Bannon and Chon Wang do not look like they belong there (and that's not meant to be part of the fun). The plot is the weakest, most uninspired and half-baked codswallop you can imagine, probably churned out in a few days, with a stereotyped villain so mass-produced and static that you'd be right in assuming the makers found him in a cereal box.

Sometimes the writing is creative, such as the nods to Sherlock Holmes and Charlie Chaplin, but Britain is represented in the most cliched 'Hollywood' way that it bogs everything else down.

The escalating series of set-pieces may be imaginative but the sure do become very boring and repetitive. All they are really doing is filling the screen with movement, none of it being exciting or engaging (the same problem Matrix: Reloaded had) and when the movie is carried by these scenes alone, as the plot is not up to much, it almost completely fails.

The only saving grace is Owen Wilson who is far too talented and likeable to be wasting his time on this. He and Jackie made a sweet team in the first but this is not a good film for them.

The DVD is in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and Dolby 5.1 sound. It contains dozens of deleted scenes, 2 commentaries (I find it hard to believe that there are 2 commentaries worth of things to be said about this) and an 'Action Overload' featurette.

Rating:
Summary: Jackie can do better
Review: 2 stars is generous, but I have a place in my heart for Jackie Chan. We rented this recently, and it left us all cold. The only redeeming qualities to me were Jackie Chan (because I'm usually a fan) and his stunts. We only laughed a couple of times throughout the entire movie, and it was supposed to be a comedy. To me it wasn't even funny accidentally. It had a very predictable but not believeable plot. It had quite a bit more offensive language and innuendos than the first movie, Shanghai Noon, so I wouldn't consider it a family movie. There was absolutely nothing likeable or redeeming about Roy O'Bannon (Owen Wilson) in this sequel -- he was just irritating. We rented it because the first movie was so funny and fun, but my family hardly laughed at all at this one. I'm just so glad we didn't actually pay to all go see at the theater.

Rating:
Summary: It's definitely a sequel
Review: I love Shanghai Noon. So when I saw Shanghai Knights on DVD I just had to buy it. I should have rented.

Sure there are creative fight scenes and Owen delivers some great lines, but the whole story feels forced and comedic timing feels rushed. The previews look like a comic masterpiece, critics praise it, but my family all voted thumbs down.

Shanghai Knights now collects dust on our DVD shelf while Shanghai Noon garners the screen time. When it comes to the Shanghai series, be a cowboy, not a knight.