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Jeff reviews:

Shanghai Knights

Feb. 8, 2003

2003, 1 hr 54 min., Rated PG-13 for action violence and sexual content. Dir: David Dobkin. Cast: Jackie Chan (Chon Wang), Owen Wilson (Roy O'Bannon), Fann Wong (Chon Lin), Aaron Johnson (Charlie Chaplin), Aidan Gillen (Rathbone), Kim Chan (Chon Wang's Father).

Back for more laughs and action, the sequel to 2000�s Shanghai Noon has more of the same, except that both Owen Wilson and Jackie Chan are fish-out-of-water in merry old England.

There�s plenty of both laughter and, as with all part twos, the action is kicked up a notch. Chan has several incredibly original and fun fighting sequences. There�s innovative use of a revolving door for a Keystone Kops fight, plus I very much enjoyed the "Singing in the Rain" homage, with Chan under an umbrella as the song plays underneath his dance-like brush with bad guys.

Wilson, the jiggolo-waiter and author, and Chan, the Carson City sheriff, are both sidekicks, but differently. Wilson supplies the swagger and humor, and Jackie Chan provides the action. Last time they pulled jokes from the Old West, this time in Victorian England, where it runs the gamut of British jokes.

Shanghai Knights takes swipes at English dentistry, Scotland Yard, even Queen Victoria herself, not to mention Jack the Ripper. We see the basis of creating Sherlock, and roam from Stonehenge to Big Ben. Old West meets new technology, as six-shooters give way to Gatling guns, horses give way to horseless carriages.

Thankfully, martial arts babe Fann Wong (playing Chan�s sister) is used more than Lucy Liu in the original, though the bad guy, Aidan Gillen as Rathbone, an evil member of Britain's Parliament and tenth in line to the throne, doesn�t have any depth. The audience usually appreciates a particularly charismatic bad guy, simultaneously rooting for and pulling against them, but Gillen is lacking this charm.

A few times the movie feels contrived, and you may check your watch to see how much longer there is left for the amount of visual candy on screen. Sometimes too much candy leaves you weary of more. Still, just around the corner there�s always some wit and action to pull through and keep you occupied.

In the end, what I recommended about Shanghai Noon still fits for Knights: �Enjoy the action, comedy, characters and locations that show how well East and West can meld.�

The verdict:

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