Jackie
Chan does the Wild West in this hugely enjoyable action comedy.
Chan
plays Chon Wang, a Chinese imperial guard who is sent to America with three
other guards to rescue Princess Pei Pei (Lucy Liu) who has been kidnapped and is
being held for ransom.
Whilst
on their way to Carson City where the ransom is to be paid, the train which they
are traveling on is robbed by a gang of inept outlaws led by Roy O’Bannon
(Wilson). During the train robbery Wang is separated from his fellow imperial
guards and has to make his way alone to Carson City.
En
route to Carson City, Wang encounters Red Indians, providing some of Chan’s
best martial arts scenes yet in a US film and also the funniest scenes in the
film, thanks to subtitles.
Following
his encounter with the Indians, Wang invariably runs into O’Bannon again and
following a spell in prison together they team up to rescue the princess.
Although
the story for Shanghai Noon is not original, in fact it’s practically Rush
Hour but with a different setting, the film itself is far superior.
The
film is very funny, the dialogue especially for Owen Wilson is very good and the
action is a very good mix of Chan’s martial arts skills and slapstick humour.
Lucy
Liu is satisfactory as the Princess, however, there is not a great deal of scope
for her character in the film.
Owen
Wilson is fantastic and as I’ve stated above the dialogue which he has is
fantastic and the manner in which he delivers it is great.
Jackie
Chan, what more can you say, he is a fantastic showman and the fact that he does
most of his own stunts makes the action in his films more believable.
The
direction by Tom Dey is fine, I don’t know who he is or what he’s done
before but he certainly delivers the goods here.
This
is probably the funniest film that I’ve seen this year and it’s the funniest
Jackie Chan film that I’ve seen since the Cantonese version of ‘The Armour
Of God’, just don’t stop watching until the outtakes at the end have
finished.