HE'S one of the biggest movie stars in the world, but a couple of years ago Jackie Chan couldn't even pitch an idea in Hollywood, let alone have a film made.

However, all that changed for the Hong Kong star after the success of his 1998 movie Rush Hour. It took more than $100m at the box office and suddenly made him a force to be reckoned with in Tinseltown.

Not only can the martial arts expert finally high kick his way around Hollywood after years in the mainstream movie wilderness, it means he's at last achieved his life-long ambition - to play a cowboy.

His new movie Shanghai Noon, an East-meets-West cowboy flick, tells the story of a kidnapped Chinese princess, played by Ally McBeal star Lucy Liu, who is held to ransom in America's Wild West. Chan plays Chon Wang - pronounced John Wayne - a fierce Imperial Guard who goes to rescue her.

When the princess is kidnapped by traitorous Lo Fong (Roger Yuan), Chon joins the party despatched by the Emperor to deliver the ransom in gold to her captors.

En route, Chon runs into hapless train robber Roy O'Bannon (Owen Wilson) and his rag-tag entourage who attempt to steal the gold, but end up almost blowing themselves up.

Chon leaves Roy for dead, but meets up with him again in a saloon where the pair become embroiled in a brawl and end up in jail.

Once Roy learns about the trunk of gold coins meant for Pei Pei's ransom, he wants to be the Chinaman's best friend, and the pair orchestrate a daring prison break.

They head straight for Carson City, meet some of the meanest gunslingers in the West, and battle for justice and honour against Lo Fong and his followers.

Chan is the film's most impressive special effect - leaping, pirouetting, kicking and punching his way out of every tight spot - but the clash of cultures between Chan and Wilson is the human glue which holds the picture together.