Far East meets Wild West in Shanghai Noon, the latest offering from chopsockey superstar Jackie Chan (right), which opens next Friday. As the punning title implies, Chan's new movie brings oriental martial arts to the unsuspecting cowpokes of the USA, with Chan as a Chinese Imperial Guard sent to Carson City to rescue a kidnapped princess (Lucy Liu, of Ally McBeal fame).
Along the way, he teams up with happy-go-lucky outlaw Owen Wilson and the two embark on a series of harumscarum comic adventures. The gags are broad, the kicks are high and the puns painful But at least Chan knows how to orchestrate a good saloon bar brawl.