Opens May 26, 2000

If you saw Rush Hour, then you already know the drill for Shanghai Noon because it's basically the same movie: Chinese kung-fu cop, or in this case, Chinese Imperial Guard Chon (Jackie Chan), goes to America -- here the Old West -- and teams up with wacky partner to save helpless Chinese kidnap victim. Here, the victim is plucky Princess Pei Pei (Lucy Liu) -- yes, the Yanks do mispronounce her name -- and the wacky sidekick is Roy, a heart-of-gold outlaw (Owen Wilson).

The very basic, central conflict in the film revolves around Chon and Roy eluding nasty law man Van Cleef (Xander Berkeley), while attempting to save Princess Pei Pei from the clutches of Chinese traitor Lo Fong (Roger Yuan). See, Pei Pei is a modern woman and she's trusted her British schoolteacher in China to bring her safely to America as a free woman. Big mistake. The school teacher may be played by Jason Connery, Sean's son, but he's no James Bond. Instead of saving her from a life of propriety, he hands her off to Lo Fong, who enslaves her at his Chinese rail road camp while waiting for a ransom of Imperial gold.

At the start of the film, Roy and Chon don't start on such good footing, thrown together rather unexpectedly. While robbing the train on which Chon is traveling with his uncle and three other Imperial Guard members, Roy's newest recruit Wallace (Walton Goggins) goes nuts and kills Chon's uncle. Bad idea. Chon may seem like a cut-up, but he's a family guy. Chon goes after Roy and his gang, giving us the requisite, but rather bland opening action sequence. The real action doesn't pick up until the second half of the film by which time a lot of it seems like filler, fun but purposeless.

Roy escapes Chon's clutches, only to run into him later while he continues his search for Pei Pei. As they say, it's the beginning of a beautiful -- well let's just say, a precarious --friendship. Our boys guys rough house in a local saloon, get tossed in jail and manage to break out with the help of Chon's recently and accidentally acquired Indian bride (Brandon Merril). Poor Merrill is a pretty sight, but she is ill used by the writers who plop her down in scenes where she's convenient and then promptly forget about her when she's not. This sort of sloppy plotting shows up on several occasions, especially when romantic issues come to bear. Just forgive and forget; it's flimsy fun.

Fun is key here. Starting with the inherent parody in the title, writers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, as well as first time feature director Tom Dey, made the most of their venue and their actors. Chan's character is named Chon Wang, which Roy immediately mis-pronounces as "John Wayne". "That's a terrible cowboy name," Roy wisely tells Chon, while trying to teach him how to be a criminal superstar. Of course, Roy himself is only an outlaw because he thinks it will get him chicks. Fact is that Roy can't even shoot a bottle off a fence from ten paces. He is a legend in his own mind and Owen Wilson's preening, surfer boy goofiness is perfectly suited to play this up.

As for the action, it's classic, thus predictable, movie Western stuff with a Jackie Chan edge of course. Early on, Chon gets into an inventive tomahawk battle with some Crow Indians; Roy spends his time acting Zen during gunfights. Instead of car chases, there are horse races. Luckily, Chan finds his way to insert as much fancy footwork as possible. One of the standouts is when he wreaks havoc using a weighted rope with a horseshoe tied to the end. Still, the action star's usual gasp-factor inventiveness is curtailed here, partly because of the confining venue and perhaps simply because the film isn't designed around his footwork alone.

Granted, Jackie Chan purists won't find as many of Chan's ever-surprising pyrotechincs here, but then this isn't really a Jackie Chan movie. This is buddy cop stuff all the way; it just happens to include Cowboys and Indians and all the inherent Western gimmicks. Instead of wowing us with Chan's chop-socky razzle dazzle, the filmmakers rely on the star's inherent charm and his energetic charisma with Wilson. The result is mild entertainment, perfect for a holiday weekend, with some solid laughs and lots of energy.