In "Shanghai
Noon," you see Jackie Chan kick a few asses and do funny things. Also,
you see Owen Wilson act goofy and say funny things. There isn't really much
else in this movie to care about. Well, there's this cute thing involving
a Native American woman, but that's all wasted at the end. It may seem like
I'm trashing this movie, but really, I'm not. What Jackie Chan and Owen
Wilson do in "Shanghai Noon" is good enough to carry the movie,
as far as I'm concerned.
If you're not familiar with Jackie Chan's movies, you've missed out. His
Hong Kong films have been released theatrically in the U.S. over the last
few years, and though they're not masterpieces, they do a wonderful job
of displaying Jackie's amazing martial arts creativity. One of the most
unbelievable things about his movies is that he does all of his own stunts,
and they're pretty incredible. "Rumble in the Bronx," "Supercop,"
and many others are all available on video and DVD, and I advise you check
'em out.
Last year,
Jackie Chan starred in "Rush
Hour" with Chris Tucker. It was his first American-made movie in
years, as well as his first American-made hit, and it was a BIG hit. Unfortunately
for Jackie, though I liked the movie for what it was, it was more of a showcase
for Chris Tucker's comedy (and he's very funny) than for Jackie Chan's martial
arts. Because of that, the success of "Rush Hour" has been attributed
more to Chris Tucker than to Jackie Chan. Still, he had finally become a
well-known entertainer in the United States, something he'd been working
at for decades.
Owen Wilson is an actor I like a lot... if he's in the right movie. He was
great in "Bottle Rocket," even though I thought that the movie
was overrated. In "Armageddon,"
he was good, but misused. In "The
Haunting," he was totally the wrong person for the role. Finally,
he's in the perfect movie. He gets to play the quirky character he's so
good at playing, and he gets to work off of Jackie Chan. Practically everything
Owen Wilson says in the movie is funny.
Lucy Liu ("Ling" from the TV series "Ally McBeal") has
a prominent role in the movie, but that's not to say that she has a lotta
scenes. Xander Berkeley, a great character actor who has been everywhere
(most notably as foster father to "John Connor" in "Terminator
2") is also in that situation. Prominent character, but little screen
time.
"Shanghai Noon" was written by Miles Millar & Alfred Gough,
two guys who helped write "Lethal
Weapon 4" together. Their script was decent enough, but Jackie
Chan and Owen Wilson probably made it seem a lot better than it really was.
It was directed by Tom Dey, and this is his feature film debut. He did good,
and he made sure that the martial arts sequences were easy to follow. He
didn't resort to inappropriate quick cutting and extreme close-ups, a mistake
that a lotta directors of martial arts films seem to make.
I like this movie because of the performances of the two leads, but not
much else. As I said, there were a few cute scenes with a Native American
woman, but it shoulda been handled a lot better. Nevertheless, "Shanghai
Noon" made me smile a lot.