Shanghai Knights

Late night Netflix movie, by myself.

There was a period when I wanted to see a Jackie Chan movie, but hadn't, yet.   Then, I caught the last five minutes of, I think, "Rush Hour."   Without context it seemed a bit over the top, but maybe fun.

Then I saw the outtakes during the closing credits.

I don't know how many people were injured in that movie and carted off in ambulances.   I think over a dozen.  From everything I've read, in today's professional stunts those types of injuries should be very rare.  That soured me to Jackie Chan for a long time, and I actively avoided his movies.

I think Christy rented "Shanghai Noon," and I broke down and watched it.   I think half because Lucy Liu was in it.  I enjoyed it well enough.  And, if I remember rightly, they didn't show any of the stuntmen getting seriously injured.   I don't know if that's because there were actually fewer injuries.  Or, if there was a backlash to the number of people he was hurting for each film.

Anyway, I was able to rationalize expending a little effort to see this movie.

It's cute.  There's lots of word play, which I had forgotten from the first movie.   "You be Benny Hanna.  I'll be Sherlock Holmes."  "I let the guy use my fake name in his stories.  But Sherlock Holmes is a lousy name."   Stuff like that.  They don't overdo it.  Prolly a half dozen at most the entire movie.

The girl is way cute/hot.  A lot.

Some of the fight scenes are really well done.  There's one where Chan uses an umbrella to essentially replicates the style of "Dancing in the Rain" as a fight scene.  Back and forth and up and down.  Balancing and sliding.  It really was impressive.  Most of the other fights are characteristically frentic.  And, as is part of his trademark, he makes really clever use of props.

A coupla plot elements kind of bugged me.  Like, leaving his sister alive, but killing the father.  And, a tiny nit, the gatling gun was motorized instead of hand-cranked.

On my brother's Total Movie Value Scale, Pay Per View.  It was pretty fun.  Lotsa clever word play.  Really cute girl.

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