With expectations being very limited coming into this movie, it didn't take much to impress me, but somehow Shanghai Noon pulled off a coup and was able to keep me entertained throughout and I enjoyed the movie. Starring Jackie Chan as an Imperial guard sent to bring back Princess Pei Pei (the always amazing Lucy Liu) after she has been kidnapped and held hostage in America, Shanghai Noon injects Jackie's always impressive martial arts with a setting new to his antics. Owen Wilson co-stars with Jackie as an outlaw with ethics (imagine that) as he never steals from women and can barely shoot a gun. I never thought that the combination of Jackie and Owen would work, but much to my surprise it did, and the end result is a funny action/comedy with plenty of rousing situations and amusing settings.

While I did have fun, Shanghai Noon does have its problems. The script, overall, is lacking. There's quite a few times where nothing really is going on, and quite a few other times where the same things happens over and over. It's one thing to see Jackie and Owen kick some butt in a bar brawl or Owen not being able to shoot straight, it's another thing to see them over and over and over... There's not much about Shanghai noon that isn't just plain old low-brow humor. The sophomoric settings and most of the jokes are easy to see coming, but nonetheless, it's entertaining and fun to watch.

Wrapping it all up, Shanghai Noon is an entertaining movie with just a couple parts that lag. While Lucy Liu might not have been the best pick for the role of the princess, she pulls it off and while I had almost no hope for the combination of Owen Wilson and Jackie Chan, their dynamic pairing worked (especially the tub scene) and they were both funny and witty with Owen doing most of the talking while Jackie still works on his English. Once again, as in Rush Hour, the pairing of Jackie Chan with a comedic sidekick pays off and Shanghai Noon is one of the biggest pleasant surprises of the year so far.

Genres: Action, Comedy, Martial Arts
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 120? minutes
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