When a Chinese rebel murders Chon's estranged father and escapes to England, Chon and Roy make their way to London with revenge on their minds. Chon's sister, Lin, has the same idea, and uncovers a worldwide conspiracy to murder the royal family but almost no one will believe her. In the 1880's, Chon Wang's father and keeper of the Imperial Seal has been murdered by Parliament and royal family member Rathbone, (who steals the Imperial Seal) with Chon Wang's sister, Chon Lin, witnessing the murder. Chon Lin follows Rathbone to London to kill him, while sending Chon a letter telling him of the murder. Chon then travels to New York for Roy O'Bannon. Together they travel to England and meet up with Chon Lin to kill Rathbone and get the Imperial Seal back. Contains possible spoilers.<br/><br/>'Shanghai Knights' is a sequel to 'Shanghai Noon' and that was a movie I highly enjoyed. With this movie it is not different. One goofy and very funny moment after another is what we get. Jackie Chan and especially Owen Wilson have a certain quality perfect for a movie like this. Of course we also see some real Jackie Chan martial art scenes.<br/><br/>The story is not something very important in a movie like this. Just see this for some good old fun, a lot of it, and try not to think too much. There are some nice scenes involving character names and historic persons like Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Doyle, Charlie Chaplin and Jack the Ripper. Highly enjoyable. A big Jackie Chan fan. A fan of Owen Wilson. A huge Donnie Yen fan. I simply can't stomach this rubbish though.<br/><br/>I saw Shanghai Noon only once and enjoyed it, although I can remember very little of it. However, after just seeing the sequel, Shanghai Knights, I am going to have to go out on a limb and say it is a great deal worse than its predecessor.<br/><br/>First of all, I am aware that this is just a "fun action comedy". Most Chan films are. However, what most Chan films are not is insulting to just about every nation other than the Americans. In this film, not only do we have a stereotypical English bad guy (come on American's think of something NEW), we also have insults towards to Indians, basically Britain as a whole and even the Chinese. Frankly, why Donnie Yen required fake teeth I'll never know. To be honest, after the way Chan has been treated in the past in his movies I'd have expected more reluctance for such things to take place.<br/><br/>I'll let all the continuity errors and poor set design go due to the nature of the film, and Jackie's choreography is spot on as always. Of particular note is his Gene Kelly homage. Top stuff. Not as fast and funny as his previous films though. Is he getting too old for this? No! Never! But it is a shame we didn't get more out of Yen. His final fight scene showed some essence of pure class, but alas we're not given much before his typical bad guy death (oops, was that a spoiler? Come on, like you can't see it coming).<br/><br/>I won't touch the plot as its just stupid, but its not really necessary to the film. Owen Wilson is on top form though with his comedy timing absolutely spot on. Some lines could have been done without though - not a fault of Wilson's just bad writing. I simply don't buy that Chan's sister would fall in love and want to be the bearer of Wilson's children within the space of 10 minutes (I was left thinking I missed something). Oh, and while I'm here, they escaped London to crash into Stone Henge?! Uhhh…<br/><br/>Jackie Chan has had some luck with his pairings in the States so far. Both Chris Tucker and Owen Wilson have had good chemistry with him. However, although Wilson is the much better of the two, I really don't think Shanghai Knights compares to Rush Hour (either of them). Both of the same formula, but Rush Hour is by far less farcicle in its production. It showed that it is possible to make a "fun action comedy" without resorting to cheap racist jokes like Shanghai Knights does.<br/><br/>I can only recommend you steer clear and rent separate Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson films so that you can get the best of both. The adventure-book pace and topsy-turvy English setting evoke the feel of Stephen Sommers's "Mummy" films.
Mychiride replied
376 weeks ago