Chon Wang, a clumsy imperial guard, trails Princess Pei Pei when she's kidnapped from the Forbidden City and transported to America. Wang follows her captors to Nevada, where he teams up with an unlikely partner, outcast outlaw Roy O'Bannon, and tries to spring the princess from her imprisonment.
_**Entertaining action/comedy Western**_
Released in 2000, "Shanghai Noon" features Jackie Chan as Chon Wang (the Chinese spelling of John Wayne) who teams up with good bad-guy Roy O'Bannon (Owen Wilson). They're pursuing the Empress of China or a load of gold -- whatever -- and have many misadventures.
It didn't dawn on me until the end that the title "Shanghai Noon" is a comical take on "High Noon" (aduh). Anyway, this is a good flick to watch if you're in the mood for an Indiana Jones-type movie, like 1999's "The Mummy." It's not as good as "Raiders of the Lost Ark", but it's better than its sequels.
Chan and Wilson have great chemistry and the humor is amusing, like the Wyatt Earp line at the end. Of course, with Jackie Chan the action is great as well, but it goes a bit overboard towards the end, which is typical of Hollywood, as well as overlong.
The film runs 110 minutes and was shot in Alberta, Canada, and the Forbidden City, Beijing.
GRADE: B