 A "rousing, cheerful sequel to Shanghai Noon," is the way the New York Times' Elvis Mitchell describes the latest Jackie Chan movie, Shanghai Knights. Most other critics seem to agree, but give Chan credit for making it so, rather than the material. "Chan keeps earning our good will even when the material is beneath him," writes Michael Sragow in the Baltimore Sun. But Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times likes the material as well, writing that the movie "bounds from one gag to another like an eager puppy." Several critics remark that the best thing about the movie is the chemistry between Chan and Owen Wilson. Eleanor Ringel Gillespie in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution observes that the plot "is pretty lame," but she adds: "Did anyone ever go to a Hope and Crosby road movie for the plot? Same goes for Abbott and Costello and Martin and Lewis. You go because the stars are so much fun together. So it is with Chan and Wilson. Only, they're both sexy, and Chan can do stuff that Dean Martin and Bud Abbott never dreamed of." Similarly, Mike Clark observes in USA Today: "The star interplay and anachronisms recapture some of the surreal spirit of the Crosby-Hope Road movies." Glenn Whipp in the Los Angeles Daily News comments that the movie "plays to the strengths of its likable leads -- Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson -- and has the good sense to keep dispensable things (story, logic) from getting in their way. Few fans will complain." A few critics do, however. Peter Howell writes in the Toronto Star: "A movie comedy requires more than a straight man, a clown and the intent to commit hilarity." |
