Shanghai Knights

Riding high on Jackie Chan's chemistry with his adlib king sidekick Owen Wilson, Shanghai Knights is a hilariously tongue-in-cheek, surprisingly well-conceived sequel, packed with comical homages to everything from the Keystone Kops and Harry Houdini to the Beatles and Taxi Driver. Almost derailed by an overly serious prologue in which Jackie's father is murdered, the movie finds its footing when the kung-fu-kicking frontier sheriff (a job he got at the end of Shanghai Noon) and his wiseacre cowboy pal travel to London to track down the killer and stumble upon a conspiracy against English and Chinese royalty. Director David Dobkin (Clay Pigeons) leans heavily on the hilarious, spontaneous, lively banter between his stars, but the film also serves up a wild mix of intrigue, slapstick, fantastic fight scenes, and funny cameos by historical figures--and even though the movie takes annoyingly conspicuous liberties with its 1887 setting for the sake of telegraphing various gags (about 20th century notions of automobiles and Hollywood, for instance), viewers will be laughing too hard to care. Highly recommended. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentaries (one by director David Dobkin, the other by writers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar), a nine-minute “Fight Manual” featurette with Dobkin and costar Jackie Chan, an “Action Overload” “music video-style” two-minute montage, and 11 deleted scenes. Bottom line: aside from the notable absence of Wilson and Chan on the commentaries, this is a solid extras package for an entertaining film.] (R. Blackwelder)