Review of Shanghai Knights (2003) by Christopher S — 28 Aug 2009

How can a sequel possibly fail if the first film was just a formulaic martial arts comedy, and the second one is nearly exactly the same? A fellow critic writes, "I kind of liked Shanghai Noon, but the sequel doesn't live up to it", because of course "Shanghai Noon" (2000) was a masterpiece...

Switching locations to London as every commercial sequel does (Agent Cody Banks 2, Garfield 2 etc...), Shanghai Knights is a playful Jackie Chan vehicle. The plot is as thin as male pattern baldness, just there to showcase Jackie Chan's awesome martial arts extravaganza's. One long fight between dozens of armed Cockney sparra's and Chan was far more entertaining than the typical showdown between two kung-fu Gods. Roy O'Bannon (Owen Wilson) and Chon Wang (Jackie Chan) see their fare share of action over the course of the picture, meeting famous period characters like Jack the Ripper, Charlie Chaplin and Arthur Conon Doyle (Note: Wikipedia says that the film is set in 1887, Charlie Chaplin was born in 1889, two years later?) and the whole film follows the duo unintentionally on their way to solve a murder plot against Queen Victoria.

Two styles of critic are a) to criticize an entertaining film as "mindless" or to b) enjoy it.