Outsider’s Insights

I just saw “Shanghai Knights” on DVD. We have a very nice Store with a great choice of movies. They even got “Underworld” (American import or suchalike), John Woo’s “The Killer” (one of Chow Yun Fat’s best movies) and loads of other good movies - old and new alike.
Back to Jackie Chan:
[Spoilers] I was a bit disappointed by the last movies like The Medaillon or Shanghai Noon. Too many special effects in the first, too little Jackie-Chan-like action in the latter. They were okay, but not what his movies used to be. I thought he might have run out of good ideas or just has gotten too old. But “Shanghai Knights” was so funny! Great fights. Nice references to Chan’s idols Chaplin and Keaton and… And once again, he amazed me by using his complete environment for his movements and fights. E.g. oranges and little books. Especially his fights against a gang in London was incredible. He even did a little “I’m singing in the rain” improvisation during the fight. In the special features you can see a part of it in black-and-white without sounds. It surely is Charlie-Chaplin-style.
And the villains were tough and excellent fighters. It may have been the expectation game again, of course. Mine were quite low when I rented the movie. So it was easy to be pleasantly surprised. But still: one of the best Jackie Chan movies I’ve seen. In the Top three list, I guess. [/Spoilers]
If you want to skip the details: it’s worth watching.