Okay, here's the deal. If someone just walked up to me on the street and asked me, point blank, if I had one actor that just automatically drew me into the theatre, just on name value alone, I'd have to answer "yes." It's not anyone that you might think though. It's not Harrison Ford, or Robert Duvall, or Tommy Lee Jones, even though those three are close. It's not Jack Nicholson, but he's even closer to the title. Travolta, Costner, Cage? Nah, too many misfires among the gold.
Believe it or not, it's not even anyone from the Golden Age. Bogart and Cagney both have some excellent films in their bios, but hey, who are we kiddin'? There are some real stinkers amongst those classics. William Holden, Cary Grant, Gary Cooper? Nope. Jimmy Stewart? Clark Gable? Henry Fonda? No, no, and no.
Hold onto your Jujubes, friends and neighbors. The name that will sell me a ticket every time, regardless, is Jackie Chan. Let me defend myself here. Jackie Chan's movies are always entertaining on some level, whether you're a fan of martial arts or not. I know, Bruce Lee was cooler, but nobody orchestrates and choreographs a fight scene like Jackie Chan. And the fights are very rarely little ones. They'll involve austere props, they'll have action moving in every direction, and, more often than not, they'll unfold at unfathomable speeds. Not to mention that Jackie does every stunt himself. He's broken virtually every bone in his body, and he still has managed to put more films out than any two other actors still working.
I'm not gushing, people. I'm merely saying that Jackie Chan impresses me. On the plot front, Jackie's films don't hold much water; I grant you that. But, even if you can't allow your "suspension of disbelief" to take over, the action and the stunts generally can make his films worth a watch. And nobody else out there can have the same said. I usually go into a Jackie movie with the attitude of "Well, let's see amazing stuff he throws at us this time."
I had that attitude when I went to see Shanghai Noon. The premise was nice, and the addition of Lucy Liu was going to be a treat. So, let's see what Jackie had up his sleeves. Little did I know that he had done the unthinkable. It may be a happy accident, but Shanghai Noon tripped up and turned out to be one of the best things to hit this summer so far.
Princess Pei Pei (Liu) is slated to be the new wife of the emperor of China. But the emperor himself is a fat little 11-year old boy with the manners of a slop hog. Pei Pei is a highly educated woman, and deserves more out of life than this fate. So, her tutor Andrews (Jason Connery) helps her sneak out of the palace to go to America. One of the Imperial Guards, Chon Wang (Jackie), witnesses her escape and does nothing to stop her. Little does Pei Pei know that Andrews is working for a renegade Guard named Lo Fong (Roger Yuan), who's now in America providing Chinese slave labor for the railroad. Lo Fong sends a huge ransom demand for the princess, to be delivered by the Royal Priest and four guards. Chon Wang volunteers to be one of the guards, and, since he's the nephew of the Royal Priest, he is allowed to go.
En route to the drop point in Carson City, Nevada, the train the ransom is on is robbed by the gang of Roy O'Bannon (Owen Wilson). One of Roy's new men, Wallace (Walt Goggins) is a bit wild, and he shoots the Royal Priest. Chon Wang goes off in pursuit of Roy and his gang. Roy's gang turns on him and leaves him for dead, where Chon finds him and demands the directions to Carson City. Roy tells him, but sends Chon off into Indian Territory. Chon finds himself captured by the Indians, later accepted by them, and, after a night of tokin' on the peace pipe, married to the Chief's daughter. Chon and Roy find each other again, and, after a nice fight scene, they become partners. Roy's hoping Chon leads him to the ransom of 100, 000 pieces of gold. Chon is hoping Roy will help him find the Princess again. The two find themselves being tracked by bounty hunters as outlaws, with Chon dubbed The Shanghai Kid. Roy teaches Chon how to be an outlaw, and the two, aided by Chon's "wife," set out to rescue the Princess.
The summary above may belie the fact, but this is one funny movie. Wall to wall jokes, and, people, these jokes are what make this movie ten times better than anything Jackie has done since he started making films in America. For once, Jackie's working with a very tight script, one that uses dialogue to tell the story. Before, Jackie's scripts revolved around the stunts. Here, the fight scenes are only exponents of the bigger picture.
And, while there has always been a humor element in Chan's movies, it has always been Jackie himself that was the focus, the clown. Suddenly, and from the most unexpected of places, Jackie has a partner. Owen Wilson, who's usually seen as the dull-witted goof in his films, suddenly shows his comic talent in full bloom. Wilson is perfect here, and his California Surfer voice fits his character perfect as well. Roy O'Bannon is a New-Age outlaw, one who talks of meditation and "inner strength," all the while trying to achieve the status of "legendary gunfighter." He and Chan work so well together that -- if this thing makes a dime or two -- it wouldn't surprise me to see a sequel someday.
The script's writers, Miles Millar and Alfred Gough, tooled this thing to move right along, and its pace is quick from the get-go. Credit Tom Dey, the director, too, for knowing his trade and delivering a fun ride. And the combinination of the two genres, western and martial arts, blends smoothly too. Again, a kudo to Millar and Gough, because it would've been easy to let this script go heavy in one direction or the other. Instead, they have an obvious love of the traditional Western and its cliches, and aren't afraid to use them to advantage. They don't spoof, thankfully, because a retelling of Blazing Saddles would fail here. Rather, they gently poke fun where it's needed, and let the theme stay true. If you need an obvious example of this tongue-in-cheek style, look again at Chan's character's name, Chon Wang. If it doesn't hit you immediately, say it fast five times....
Lucy Liu is a perfect Princess; regal when she needs to be, and she can throw a punch too. And, yes, her beauty plays well to her credit. There's no denying she's an attractive woman, but, in her recent roles, here, and in Payback, she has set a tone that won't let her be taken for granted. She, along with Michelle Yeoh (Tomorrow Never Dies), are leading the way among female action stars, rising above the damsel-in-distress roles most actresses are relegated to in action films. I'd be willing to bet that Liu is going to be the breakout star of the new Charlie's Angels movie, despite working alongside Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore.
Look, folks, I'm not going to sell you a bill of goods and run for the hills. There will be bigger, more explosive, more expensive movies this summer that will gather money like an eight-handed banker, but, for the time being, Shanghai Noon is a sleeper that most folks dismissed. But the script, the concept, the chemistry between Chan and Wilson, Lucy Liu, and the overall fun that the movie brings is more than we've had offered to us so far.
Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, people. Go see Shanghai Noon, and get ready to buy it when it comes out on videotape. This will be one of those you'll want handy for some dreary afternoon to pick up your spirit, give you a few laughs, and leave you slackjawed over the action. Shanghai Noon is a jewel buried in the dust of a summer strewn with tumbleweeds.
Image copyright Touchstone Pictures.
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