SHANGHAI NOON

SHANGHAI NOON

Directed by Tom Dey. Starring Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson, Lucy Liu

IT HARDLY needs to be explained that Jackie Chan's latest offering is by some distance the worst film this fortnight in terms of dialogue and narrative sophistication – but as out-and-out mindless fun, it's up there with anything we've seen all summer.

The plot runs thus: Chon Wang (a pun on John Wayne), an imperial minion from the Forbidden City in 1880's China, is sent to rescue the Princess Pei-pei (Ally McBeal's Lucy Liu) who has been kidnapped. Chon, meanwhile, hooks up with Roy O'Bannon (Owen Wilson), a tragic excuse for a train-robber – and the pair set out to rescue the girl, have slapstick saloon brawls and, as genre tradition demands, overcome their initial antagonism towards one another to become best buds.

The movie's pure exuberance allows it to get away with stereotypes that would raise howls and grimaces in any other context.

Shanghai Noon has enough goofy charm to render it highly endearing. The best Western of the twenty-first century, anyone?