Shanghai Surprise – Special Edition

 

Picture: C+     Sound: B-     Extras: C-     Film: C-

 

 

Despite being no longer with us for a few years, many only remember George Harrison for being a Beatle or solo artist, but he was also a movie producer with his Handmade Films production company that took risks that usually paid off.  One of the few that did not was Shanghai Surprise, which not only hired unknown director Jim Goddard, but made for a very unsuccessful pairing of Madonna and then-husband Sean Penn.

 

She’s a chaste missionary (ohhhhhh, kay) and he is a fortune hunter.  Faster than they can romance a stone, they are in a chase for treasure and plenty of ethnic stereotypes trying to be their friends or kill them.  The John Kohn/Robert Bentley script was an attempt to participate in the cycle began by Raiders Of The Lost Ark, which inspired more than a few turkey imitators.  Even with some good Asian and British character actor support, this is very inept, but it has enough unintentionally funny moments and once-hot couple pairing in bizarre action that this may be bad, but we have seen much worse since.  It is still a bad film, but a curio with a few moments just the same.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 has some fine color to it, but grain and some detail limits hurt the presentation.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 Stereo mixes come from the old Dolby A-type analog theatrical sound and both have good, if dated-sounding surrounds.  Producer George Harrison and Michael Kamen did the score, but you can be sure it sounds better than this, since the music here is not from the original master source.

 

Extras include a “Fans Unite” audio commentary (ala Showgirls, which had a single fan) joking about the film, Lights, Camera, Shanghai! featurette about the making of the film and two other pieces (Madonna: 1986 and I LOVE Shanghai Surprise) that we could have done without.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo