Product Description

Action comedy starring Jckie Chan and Owen Wilson.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6120 in DVD
• Model: D088807
• Released on: 2003-12-29
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, Hungarian
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 110 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Better than your average sequel, Shanghai Knights almost defies the law of diminishing returns. Lacking the freshness of Shanghai Noon, it compensates with a looser, disposable plot that plays to the strengths of costars Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson. It's 1887, and odd-couple heroes Chon Wang (Chan) and Roy O'Bannon (Wilson) are in London to retrieve the Imperial Seal of China, stolen by an English lord (Aidan Gillen) who killed Wang's father in his quest for the British throne. Wang's lithe and lovely sister (Fann Wong) joins the battle with high-kicking force, appealing to Roy's roguish charm and surfer-dude anachronisms.

While Chan continues his transition to safer stunts and good-natured homage to Buster Keaton, Gene Kelly and other Hollywood legends, Wilson indulges the party vibe to good effect, maintaining the anything-goes approach that allows silly encounters with Jack the Ripper, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and a Dickensian urchin named Charlie Chaplin (Chaplin wasn't born until 1889, but if the filmmakers didn't care, why should you?). --Jeff Shannon

DVD Description
The Old World meets the Wild West as Chon Wang (Jackie Chan) and Roy O’Bannon (Owen Wilson) jump back in the saddle for Shanghai Knights, the hilarious sequel to the outrageous hit comedy Shanghai Noon. Chon leaves his honourable life as sheriff of Carson City when his sister brings news of his estranged father’s murder. On a daring quest for honour and revenge. Chon reunites with Roy, his yarn-spinning sidekick. The trail leads to London, landing America’s favourite heroes in the middle of a plot to eliminate the royal family. Chon has his hands – and feet – full as he tries to avenge his father, give Victorian Britain a kick in the pants and keep love-struck Roy away from his sister! Who says you can’t teach the old world new tricks?

Special Features

• Fight Manual
  
• Action Overload
  
• Commentary by director David Dobkin
  
• Screen writer commentary
  
• Deleted scenes

DVD Technical Information:

• Audio/Languages: Dolby Digital 5.1 (English, Spanish), Dolby Surround 2.0 (Audio Described English, Hungarian)
  
• Subtitles: English, English for the Hearing Impaired, Spanish, Hungarian
  
• Colour
  
• PAL
  
• Running Time: 114 mins approx.
  
• Widescreen
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
  
• Disc Format: Dual Layer
  
• Region Code: 2

Customer Reviews

Mindless trash ... but it works!
In the opening sequence of SHANGHAI KNIGHTS, the aged keeper of China's Great Imperial Seal is knifed during the seal's theft. With his dying breath, the old man extracts from his daughter, Chon Lin (Fann Wong), the promise to recover the trinket.

The film next jumps to Carson City, Nevada, where Lin's brother Chon Wang (Jackie Chan) is town sheriff. He relinquishes his badge to travel to New York City to meet his old sidekick (from SHANGHAI NOON), Roy O'Bannon (Owen Wilson), a lothario waiter on the run from impoverishment and the irate father of two nubile and willing young ladies. Roy and Wang go on to 1880s London to rendezvouz with Lin and recover the seal. The Carson City and Big Apple sequences are unnecessary except to (re)introduce the audience to our two heroes, and provide a few gags and martial arts skirmishes. Once in London, the core of the storyline unfolds.

SHANGHAI KNIGHTS is mindless trash. (Come to think of it, so is this review.) However, it works because of the perfect chemistry between Chan and Wilson. The (relatively) straight-laced Wang is the perfect foil for Roy's lunatic shenanigans. (This is what makes Chan and Wilson a great comedy team in the tradition of Abbott and Costello.) And the exuberant energy of their skits is indicative of the fun they're obviously having with their roles. In addition, Jackie supplies the amazing martial arts choreography. In this film, Fann Wong as Li demonstrates that she can go kick for kick with Chan. And where has Ms. Wong been? She's exquisitely and delicately beautiful.

In a supporting role, Aaron Johnson as the larcenous guttersnipe Charlie is a pure joy. I wish he'd had much more screen time.

SHANGHAI KNIGHTS isn't a great film, or even one worth a second viewing. But it's the fun antidote for the low spirits perhaps brought on by more sobering fare.

One last thought. SHANGHAI KNIGHTS was filmed in London, Calgary, and a studio in the Czech Republic. The credits give little overt evidence that Hollywood was involved in the film's technical creation. Is Tinseltown becoming superfluous in the nuts and bolts of filmmaking?

Better than the first!
This film is brilliant with action, good stunts, witty humour and of course Jackie Chan! Shanghai Knights is much better than its predecessor Shanghai Noon. Owen Wilson seems funnier in this film and there are a lot better fight scenes.My favourite fight scene has to be the scene inside Big Ben and the funniest moment is joint between the Sheep part and when Jackie Chan saves Owen Wilson from drowning.There is only one word to sum it up - CLASS!

Shanghai Knit Wits.............
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Some of the things that made Shanghai Noon so good were the odd pairing and the unusual setting. The pairing novelty is gone, but they tried hard to find another unusual setting. An ex-bandit / western hero (self-proclaimed) and an ex-imperial guard / western sheriff in Victorian London certainly had some potential. Add the beautiful sister of Chon and you should have had a winner.
But it didn't quite gel.
The daft duo seem on pretty good form with their stilted banter and run of blunders. But the jokes about people's names were tired at the end of Shanghai Noon. They are drained of life now. There are a lot of jokes about the English. Fair enough up to a point. There are only four types of Englishman, as far as American cinema goers are concerned; fools, villains, cowards and James Bond (and so often, JB is not actually English).
The villainous Lord and the daft Inspector of Scotland Yard are more than stereotypes, they are positively quadraphonic. And they are so badly acted and not very funny.
There are plenty of historical inaccuracies - but who cares. I certainly liked the explanation as to why Jack The Ripper stopped his attacks - because Lin sorted him out! I like the naivety that moved Stonehenge so close to London.
But the "fight" scenes lacked the wow factor - being neither fight enough or slapstick enough. As Jackie Chan gets older he seems to be able to win less and less fights by Kung Fu. Most of his opponents now lose because they fall down somehoe or get hit by furniture or structural parts due to his Buster Keaton type shenanigans. That's OK, but I imagine some of the die hard martial arts fans get a bit fed up with the "fights" in this film.
The out-takes at the end are good fun.
This is a good bit of light entertainment but fails to reach the heights of the original.