My initial deja vu about Shanghai Noon disappeared as the movie went on. Sure, I've seen this before but it works again because, while the story is the same, the surrounding details have been changed just enough to keep it from going stale. The kidnap victim this time is Princess Pei Pei (the suddenly ubiquitous Lucy Liu). She is taken to Carson City, Nevada, where a number of poor Chinese people have been brought for slave labor. Chan portrays an Imperial Guard named Chon Wang who essentially takes it upon himself to find Pei Pei. As he treks across America, Chon stumbles into a hapless robber named Roy (Owen Wilson). Initially they are adversaries, but before long they are cast together by fate. Roy agrees to help search for the princess, although he gets more than he bargained for, including a stay in jail.

Shanghai Noon is an amalgam of many movie genres. It's a comedy, an action picture, a western, and a martial arts movie all rolled into one. A lot of movies try to take on too many things at the same time; this one is actually able to juggle several balls at once. As audiences have certainly come to expect, the martial arts and stunt scenes are incredible. In one memorable sequence, Chan fights off a bunch of savages in the woods, using nearby trees as his weapons. (I love his trademark style of using whatever he can get his hands on.) Later, he takes on one of the villains in the bell tower of a church. The precision of grace of Chan's fight scenes has often been compared to ballet. The intricate choreography and swift movements are almost dance-like. Because of this, I never get tired of seeing him in action.

Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson bum rush the wild, wild West in Shanghai Noon

The action and fighting are certainly spectacular, but Shanghai Noon also works as a comedy. Wilson is very funny as the fast-talking cowboy. Although technically a robber, Roy has his own code of ethics that make for some offbeat laughs. Wilson plays this kind of part well; he's one of the cinema's great practitioners of sincere mischief. He plays well with Chan, too, creating some hilarious "buddy movie" moments (his reaction to Chan's jail escape is priceless, and might well become the catch phrase of the summer). The film also tweaks conventions of the western genre. For instance, the name Chon Wang sounds like "John Wayne" when Chan says it; later, Roy tells him that it's "a stupid name for a cowboy."

Not everything in the picture hits the bullseye. A running joke about some cowboys mistaking the Chinese for Jews seems forced, and the character of Pei Pei is so underdeveloped that it's impossible to really care if she's ever saved. There is additionally an attempt to include a socially conscious message about slave labor that doesn't work at all.

In the end, though, Shanghai Noon is really only trying to be a lightweight summer movie. I sank back into my seat, munched my popcorn, and had a good time. Chan and Wilson are as good an on-screen pair as Chan and Chris Tucker were in Rush Hour. Maybe all three actors should make a movie together, using the same general plot line that both individual films have employed. Chan and Tucker could play cops from different countries who travel back through time to find a princess who's been kidnapped by a cowboy.

See - if you put enough spin on the same old plot, you can make it fun all over again.

( out of four)

Shanghai Noon is rated PG-13 for action violence, some drug humor, language and sensuality. The running time is 1 hour and 50 minutes.