This is a sequel to the popular 2001 SHANGHAI NOON, which was a rip off of the much lower budget but far more interesting ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA AND AMERICA [Click HERE to see Frost’s brutal review of that film]. Yes, SHANGHAI NOON (as well as KNIGHTS) has better editing and far greater production value than CHINA AND AMERICA. But where both NOON and KNIGHTS exude vacuity while counting on silly jokes and the star power of Chan and Wilson to sell the films to the American audience, CHINA AND AMERICA is more compelling, has many memorable fight scenes, and offers us a cartoon-like villain who is so over the top that he leaves you with a smile on your face.

SHANGHAI KNIGHTS has opulent sets (though a couple shots in London reminded me of Disneyland), but it’s two good fight scenes (Chan vs. Yen, and a wonderful sword battle at the very end) can’t save us from the Keystone Cops numbers that we’re subjected to over and over again. How does one take a movie seriously when it reduces itself to a series of gags? In fact, there are three constantly repeating themes in this film: Wilson as the bumbling womanizer, chase scenes that are devoted to showing off Chan’s acrobatic talents, and the two villains being, well, villainous.

As I said earlier, I loved the two main fight scenes, I thought the pillow fight was epic, and I even laughed at a few of the jokes. Unfortunately, that accounts for about ten minutes of film-time – the rest of the movie was nothing more than fluff and left me feeling ripped off by a writer who thought he was being clever but forgot to pen a story.

To see Frost’s review of this film, click HERE.