Shanghai Noon Movie Review:


Shanghai Noon is an enjoyable and laid back action comedy. The film opens in China during 1881. The country’s princess (Liu) resents her fate and hates her chosen fiancée. Her English teacher offers to help her escape to the United States. The princess agrees and then she is kidnapped from her teacher and held for ransom in Nevada. The film then turns into a meeting between the Wild West and the Far East in a battle for honor, royalty and gold. The talented-fighting Imperial Guard Chon Wang (Chan) is sent to America to rescue the princess. In Nevada, Chon teams up with train robber Roy O’Bannon (Wilson), who is a partner that Chon doesn’t want. Without knowing anything about America and cowboys, Chon finds himself facing the meanest gunslingers in the West on his mission to save the princess.

Shanghai Noon is a fun movie to watch. The film has terrific physical comedy and the glorious martial art abilities of Jackie Chan.

Tom Dey does a simple job of directing the film. This film could have had a large budget with special effects. However, Dey made wise decisions in using special effects in necessary scenes. Dey let’s his actors roll the dice in this film, not his vision or special effects. Letting special effects run a movie is very risky and most of the time unfulfilling. Day does capture the dusty and grudging feel of the old West with accurate sets and nice transitions. Jackie Chan also served as producer of Shanghai Noon, which probably means that he worked very closely with Dey on the filming of the orchestrated fight scenes. The result is watching Chan’s ability to shine with quickness and slow motion camera angles.

Alfred Gough and Miles Millar wrote the script for Shanghai Noon. The script is very busy and full of many situations and aspects. However, all of the aspects are presented clearly and the film time is less than two hours. The script gets to the point and moves swiftly. The writers collaborated the action in the film around the story and characters. Unlike in the recent Mission: Impossible 2, where the story is written around the action in the film. Shanghai Noon is a comedy that does have some dumb moments and bad dialogue. But the script does present its story line, which is about trust, loyalty and friendship.

Jackie Chan has a gifted physical ability. His athleticism and martial arts fighting style have been eye opening for audiences around the world of the past twenty years. Chan broke into Hollywood about five years ago with the box office hit Rumble in the Bronx. I have noticed that over his past few films, that Chan is getting better with his English and most of all his physical comedy. He reminds me a lot of Charlie Chaplin, the way he devours his body and facial expressions into his comedic roles. Chan continues to entertain and sparkle as Chon Wang in Shanghai Noon. Owen Wilson is an actor that I have never really thought much of. He just seems to play the same cocky, wisecracking character in all of his roles. In Shanghai Noon, Wilson has more aspects to work with (mostly Jackie Chan’s presence). Wilson delivers an effective performance in this film. It seemed that he was having more fun and was more relaxed as Roy O'Bannon than in his previous roles. What surprised me the most about the acting in this film was the terrific chemistry that was created between Chan and Wilson. They are two opposite actors that blended well together in this Western film. The rest of the acting ensemble in Shanghai Noon is modest and purposeful, but Chan and Wilson overshadowed them.

Shanghai Noon does have some goofy and dumb moments, but overall the film is an entertaining summer movie. I found it as an upgraded reflection to last summer’s terrible Western movie attempt Wild Wild West. Also, Shanghai Noon is worth seeing just to admire the many talents of Jackie Chan.

Report Card Grade: B-

Joseph Tucker

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