Resolutely farcical, Shanghai Knights may adhere to the literal definition of cartoonish, but this is a surprisingly likeable sequel to Shanghai Noon (2000). This time around, the father of Chon Wang (Jackie Chan) has been murdered by a callous British aristocrat (Aidan Gillen) in search of an ancient seal. With his sister Lin (Fann Wong) in hot pursuit of the killer, Wang abandons his western outpost and sets off to New York City to catch a boat to England. There he hooks up with his old sparring partner Roy O'Bannon (Owen Wilson) and together they set out to avenge Wang's father.
While the premise may appear to suggest otherwise, Shanghai Knights is an energetic, Victorian pop cultural mess of a movie, which is as eager as a puppy to entertain. And, notwithstanding the occasional whiff of desperation, it manages to do just that. Having abandoned the reliance on gizmos and special effects that made The Tuxedo a lumpy affair, Chan channels his energy in the more comical aspects of his martial artistry, with one of the best sequences of the movie an imaginative, light-hearted pastiche of Singin' in the Rain. Left unattended, Wilson takes this opportunity to nick the best lines from the screenplay and repackage them as his own, all delivered with the urgency of a man whose best friend is a bong. Still, don't be under any illusions, this is no classic by any stretch of the imagination, but you could do a lot worse than the bumbling tomfoolery of Shanghai Knights.
