SHANGHAI KNIGHTS
Surprisingly delightful sequel.
Running time: 114 minutes. Rated PG-13 (moderate violence and sexual references). At the E-Walk, the Union Square, the Chelsea, others.
‘SHANGHAI Knights” reunites the inspired team of Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson for a rollicking follow-up to “Shanghai Noon” that’s even more fun than the 2000 original.
This time, the action spoof moves from the Old West to Victorian England, where Chan’s Chon Wang (still pronounced “John Wayne”) heads to avenge the murder of his father.
But first there’s a stop in New York, where Chon tries to retrieve a fortune in gold from his former partner, erstwhile train robber Roy O’Bannon (Wilson).
Having squandered the fortune publishing pulp novels about himself and his “loyal Chinese sidekick,” Roy is barely supporting himself as a waiter and gigolo at a swank hotel.
The two squabble and then head to England, where Roy becomes smitten with his buddy’s karate-chopping sister Lin (Fann Wong).
With the help of Artie (Thomas Fisher), an awkward but brilliant Scotland Yard inspector, and Charlie (Aaron Johnson), a Dickensian street urchin, they uncover and try to foil what Roy would describe as a dastardly plot.
Rathbone (Aidan Gillen of “Queer as Folk”), a distant heir to the throne, is planning to eliminate Queen Victoria and his other relatives – in partnership with Wu Chan (Donnie Yen of “The Iron Monkey”), who hopes to pull the same stunt on the ruling family back in China.
Mostly, this is an excuse – at times, a somewhat flimsy one – for spectacular action stunts by Chan, in his most inspired work in years, and verbal riffs by Wilson, who is developing into of the funniest performers in movies today.
Chan has choreographed several showstoppers, the most delightful being an elaborate fight involving fruit and umbrellas set to “Singin’ in the Rain.”
As an actor, Chan is most comfortable in period roles where he doesn’t have a whole lot of dialogue – unlike last year’s “The Tuxedo.”
And unlike the annoying Chris Tucker in the “Rush Hour” movies, Chan has a perfect partner in the motor-mouthed Wilson, who is much better here than in the inane “I Spy.”
Basically, Wilson is playing a goofy update on the kind of parts Bob Hope and Woody Allen did in their early movies – the cowardly braggart who fancies himself a ladies’ man (though he and Chon wind up in nothing racier than a pillow fight at a brothel).
That his dialogue is often deliberately anachronistic is part of the joke – and Wilson’s sly delivery is often funnier than the lines themselves.
Wilson, who is also an accomplished screenwriter (he collaborated on “The Royal Tenenbaums” and two earlier films with director Wes Anderson), has a gift for making his lines sound like he ad-libbed them, even if he probably didn’t.
Like its predecessor, “Shanghai Knights” is filled with deliberate anachronisms and in-jokes – Roy bets that zeppelins will be a better investment than the automobile.
David Dobkin (“Clay Pigeons”), who has replaced Tom Dey as director, has the good sense to sit back and let his leads do their thing.
“Shanghai Knights” sags a bit in the middle, and the bad guys aren’t terribly menacing until Rathbone picks up a sword toward the end.
But it’s worth hanging on for a spectacular climax where Chan beautifully pays tribute to two of the most famous stunt sequences in silent films, Harold Lloyd’s “Safety Last” and Douglas Fairbanks Sr.’s “The Black Pirate.”
“Shanghai Knights” ends with a promise of yet another sequel, this one set in early Hollywood. It seems uncharitable to note that, in 1888, movies hadn’t yet been invented.