Reviews

Films

Shanghai Knights

Directed by David Dobkin, starring Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson

In this sequel to the infectiously fun Shanghai Noon, our dynamic duo go to London in search of a killer. They could have gone to any city - but the writers chose London - and I wonder if it was a case of writing to fit a new catchy title (ie: they couldn't have traveled to Bombay and still called it Shanghai Knights). In any case, after suffering a credibility blow with The Tuxedo, Jackie Chan bounces back here, thanks largely to the whimsical rapport he shares with that prince of stoner philosophers, Owen Wilson.

Kicking off again in China in the late 19th century, this time bad guys steal the Imperial Seal from the Forbidden City and also murder Chon Wang's (Chan) father. Still in Carson City, Chon travels to New York to find his old friend Roy O'Bannon (Wilson) who is in a financial tight spot, having squandered their savings. The pair then stowaway to London where they track down the killer, a British aristocrat who is tenth in line to the throne. It appears that Chon's sister is also in town for revenge and so the three then look to setting the record straight.

While it lacks some of the fizz of the original, this sequel nonetheless sees Chan and Wilson do what they do best. Chan's fight scenes are brilliant fun, owing more to Buster Keaton than Bruce Lee and Wilson's ability to pull a gag from even the most flat dialogue is again on show. Some of the scenes drag on a touch too long and despite her acrobatic ability, Fann Wong who plays Chon's sister, does not make a convincing romantic subject. But as long as Chan is kicking and Wilson is ranting, the film's flaws are easy to forgive.

Ben Davey

Aliens of the Deep

Directed by James Cameron and Steven Quale

Having fictitiously explored oceanic depths with The Abyss some time ago, director James Cameron and a crew of marine biologists do it in real life with Aliens of the Deep. An ambitious Disney documentary that also tries to double as family entertainment, this attempts to draw parallels between the far reaches of outer space, and the areas on our own planet which remained unexplored. For the most part, there's a lot of theorizing, which means that those who are hoping for glimpses of 50-foot-long aquatic monsters will be sorely disappointed. There's just as much computer animation of the solar system on show as there is actual dive footage.

Not that it isn't a unique exercise: comparing what's up there to what's down there. Certainly, it's the kind of thinking that would excite anyone who has ever taken an interest in minerals charts and such. Cameron is an obvious enthusiast of anything exploratory and no doubt his name and financial clout went a long way to green-lighting this documentary and the submarine mission itself. But surely he can't be as versed on the science behind all this as the experts he brings on board? In any event, Cameron winds up having an opinion on everything, from what unidentified species it is that we are looking at to whether or not intelligent life exists on other planets.

And this is even during conversations with some of NASA's finest - you know, the people who are actually in charge of blasting people into the unknown. However, in spite of Cameron's annoying habit of forcing his opinions on anyone within earshot, Aliens of the Deep does succeed in getting up close with underwater phenomena that have never seen the sun. And it is mind-boggling to think that analysis of our own uncharted territories may arm us with a guide to interplanetary travel. Still, it would have been cool if Cameron and co focused more on the strange creatures that live in earth's most extreme environments.

BD

(China Daily 12/07/2007 page20)