Running time: 110 minutes
Starring: Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson, Lucy Liu, Roger Yuan, Xander Berkeley, Brandon Merrill
Rating 7 out of 10
Jackie Chan is the perfect movie hero: a David amongst Goliaths who uses his brain rather than brawn to rescue damsels in distress and save the day. His only weapons are his martial arts skills and quick thinking - and anything the props department happens to leave lying around the set.
In Shanghai Noon, Chan plays 19th century Chinese Imperial Guard Chon Wang (pronounced John Wayne - ho ho!) who works as a servant to the beautiful Princess Pei Pei (Lucy Lui) in The Forbidden City.
When the princess is kidnapped by traitorous Lo Fong (Roger Yuan) and held hostage in America's Wild West, Chon Wang joins the party despatched by the Emperor to deliver the ransom in gold to her captors.
En route, Chon is separated from the other guards and runs into hapless train robber Roy O'Bannon (Owen Wilson) and his rag-tag entourage who attempt to steal the gold, but end up almost blowing themselves up. Chon leaves Roy for dead, but meets up with him again in a saloon where the pair become embroiled in a brawl and end up in jail.
Once Roy learns about the trunk of gold coins meant for Pei Pei's ransom, he wants to be the Chinaman's best friend, and the pair orchestrate a daring prison break.
They head straight for Carson City where face some of the meanest gunslingers in the West, including corrupt law man Van Cleef (Xander Berkeley), and battle for justice and honour against Lo Fong and his followers.
Chan is the film's most impressive special effect: leaping, pirouetting, kicking and punching his way out of every tight spot. His use of everyday objects as props in the bar-room brawls and stand-offs is as varied and inspired as ever: brandishing a stuffed moose head like a pitchfork, and transforming the flora and fauna in a forest clearing into a death-trap for the scouting party of Crow Indians.
The East-meets-West clash of cultures between Chan and Wilson is the human glue holding the picture together. Their partnership works because the characters complement each other so well: Chon Wang speaks with his feet and fists, Roy prefers to wound the opposition with a hail of verbal bullets.
Liu gives her damsel in distress a pleasantly plucky edge, momentarily flooring the villain of the piece with a nifty roundhouse kick, and Yuan and Berkeley look suitably menacing in black, testing our heroic double-act's mettle to the limit.
First time feature film director Tom Dey sticks to his acrobatic leading man, placing the camera in the thick of the action. Refreshingly, he doesn't feel the need to show off himself with snappy editing or self-consciously tricksy camerawork.
Infinitely more entertaining than the majority of this year's so-called blockbusters, Shanghai Noon marks another success for the Hong Kong dynamo in his new American home. Saddle up, hold on tight and prepare to move out with Chon Wang and the gang, and see how the West was Szechuan.
In Shanghai Noon, Chan plays 19th century Chinese Imperial Guard Chon Wang (pronounced John Wayne - ho ho!) who works as a servant to the beautiful Princess Pei Pei (Lucy Lui) in The Forbidden City.
When the princess is kidnapped by traitorous Lo Fong (Roger Yuan) and held hostage in America's Wild West, Chon Wang joins the party despatched by the Emperor to deliver the ransom in gold to her captors.
En route, Chon is separated from the other guards and runs into hapless train robber Roy O'Bannon (Owen Wilson) and his rag-tag entourage who attempt to steal the gold, but end up almost blowing themselves up. Chon leaves Roy for dead, but meets up with him again in a saloon where the pair become embroiled in a brawl and end up in jail.
Once Roy learns about the trunk of gold coins meant for Pei Pei's ransom, he wants to be the Chinaman's best friend, and the pair orchestrate a daring prison break.
They head straight for Carson City where face some of the meanest gunslingers in the West, including corrupt law man Van Cleef (Xander Berkeley), and battle for justice and honour against Lo Fong and his followers.
Chan is the film's most impressive special effect: leaping, pirouetting, kicking and punching his way out of every tight spot. His use of everyday objects as props in the bar-room brawls and stand-offs is as varied and inspired as ever: brandishing a stuffed moose head like a pitchfork, and transforming the flora and fauna in a forest clearing into a death-trap for the scouting party of Crow Indians.
The East-meets-West clash of cultures between Chan and Wilson is the human glue holding the picture together. Their partnership works because the characters complement each other so well: Chon Wang speaks with his feet and fists, Roy prefers to wound the opposition with a hail of verbal bullets.
Liu gives her damsel in distress a pleasantly plucky edge, momentarily flooring the villain of the piece with a nifty roundhouse kick, and Yuan and Berkeley look suitably menacing in black, testing our heroic double-act's mettle to the limit.
First time feature film director Tom Dey sticks to his acrobatic leading man, placing the camera in the thick of the action. Refreshingly, he doesn't feel the need to show off himself with snappy editing or self-consciously tricksy camerawork.
Infinitely more entertaining than the majority of this year's so-called blockbusters, Shanghai Noon marks another success for the Hong Kong dynamo in his new American home. Saddle up, hold on tight and prepare to move out with Chon Wang and the gang, and see how the West was Szechuan.
