Movie Notes: Bulletproof Monk

May 3rd, 2008

Movie Notes: Bulletproof Monk

star = 1 star

Starring Yun-Fat Chow, Seann William Scott, Jaime King
Directed by Paul Hunter

Synopsis

Sixty years ago, a martial-arts monk (Chow Yun-Fat) is appointed guardian of a mysterious scroll with life-prolonging powers. In the present day, the monk has chosen Kar (Seann William Scott) as a new guardian and apprentice. Meanwhile, evil people search for the scroll, seeking to possess its mystical powers.

The Good

  • Yun-Fat Chow is remarkably solid - a good sport despite all the stupidity going on around him.
  • A few cool fight scenes with crazy wire work.

The Bad

  • Seann William Scott, better known as Stilfer from American Pie, is awkwardly miscast as a martial arts student.
  • Feels like a lame hodgepodge of martial arts, buddy comedy, fantasy, and Indiana Jones wanna-be questing.
  • The tragically cheesy plot just gets more and more ridiculous, with an elderly Dick Cheney-esque German guy, meaningless pseudo-mystical advice, and the obligatory hot Russian mafia princess Jade (Jamie King) who pulls some tragically funny martial arts moves on a living room floor.

Conclusion

As with A Guy Thing: don’t waste your time. For martial arts comedy, may I whole-heartedly recommend The Karate Kid. I barely got through Bulletproof Monk and enjoyed the act of deleting the iTunes movie file more than the film itself.

IMDB: Bulletproof Monk
Wikipedia: Bulletproof Monk
Rotten Tomatoes: Bulletproof Monk

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