Just when it was time for the clichéd couple of West (streetwise dude) meets East (mystic martial arts maestro) to hand in the nunchuks, along comes a yarn to restore faith.

Chow is the gravity-defying Tibetan monk handed a scroll that holds the key to unlimited power, just as the Nazis arrive at his mountain temple.

Moments after a brief tangle with the power-crazy Huns, the wounded keeper of the ancient word has toppled off a precipice and into oblivion. Maybe.

Nothing new there, fans of Indiana Jones may think, while Crouching Tiger devotees will be getting a severe case of déjà vu.

However, fast-forward 60 years and Chow is striding the canyons of New York in search of the scroll's next guardian - thief-with-the-cheeky-grin Kar (Scott).

Unfortunately, hot on his tail is ageing Nazi nemesis Strucker (Karl Roden), aided and abetted by his glamorously evil grand-daughter, Nina (Smurfit).

If things all seem too familiar, then bear with it because there is sharp comedy in spades here, as well as low-budget Matrix-style cavorting.

Chow is an intelligible Jackie Chan-with-charm while Scott has landed his best role yet after coming up through the frat boy school of American Pie.

The big attraction is that the movie never takes itself seriously- have a gander at the marvellous ruck between Kar and the Monk... as he eats a bowl of Coco Pops.

There's also a wry dig at the Eastern mysticism that afflicts the genre - Monk explains that Kar's thieving isn't a problem. "Water when it is too pure has no fish."

But for British audiences the highlight must be the Cockney king of the subway tunnels Mr Funktastic (Marcus Jean Pirae), whose strangled rhyming slang wouldn't have got him an audition for Lock, Stock.

Raw, playful and self-mocking, its lack of polish floors the likes of Rush Hour or Shanghai Knights. Which, after all, is what you want in a martial arts movie.

Tim Evans