Why is it that American film-makers insist on destroying Chow Yun-Fat's career. This guy is an amazing talent, yet most of his American films have been complete crap (see The Replacement Killers). Bulletproof Monk is yet another film that is unable to show Fat for the true talent he is, despite the use of a barrage of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon style effects. They can't even let the guy carry his own. Instead, they team him with Seann William Scott, presumably to create the sort of magic that developed between Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker in Rush Hour, and Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson in Shanghai Noon. Sadly, there is zero chemistry in this picture.
In the comic book inspired action film, Fat plays a magical monk whose life long mission is to protect an ancient scroll. While in the big city, he crosses paths with pick pocket Scott, an underachiever who works for a movie theater in his spare time. Not surprisingly, the two develop a bond while trying to fend off a plethora of bad guys who desperately want the scroll.
Firstly, I've never read the comic on which this movie is supposedly based. Secondly, this movie doesn't make me want to. If anything, I now fear the source material, for this film has no rhythm nor does it make much sense.
Fat and Scott appear clueless in this mess of a movie, lumbering along from one scene to the next. Fat has proven to be a commanding screen presence, but here, his docile monk is a complete bore. Scott is obviously trying to break out of comedy mode, and while he isn't much to watch here either, at least he has shed that wannabe Jim Carrey thing that has plagued him in movies like American Pie and Road Trip. He even goes for a little bit of drama in Bulletproof Monk, but the scene is so cheesy and horribly written, that it can't at all be taken seriously..
Quite frankly, it is the direction that dooms this production. The movie has no flow, even in it's self concieously "don't-these-visually-stylized-fight-scenes-kick-ass" martial arts sequences. Their completely boring, and quite obviously their supposed to be the big draw in this picture. Director Paul Hunter has no sense of rhythm. Bulletproof Monk is chalk full of scenes that don't make sense, and it's overflowing with characters and sequences that don't even need to be in the picture.
By the time Bulletproof Monk came to an end, I was angry. I wanted my money back. This is the first picture since last year's Rollerball that I have absolute contempt for. The big difference is that Rollerball was a press screening so I only paid with valued time. Bulletproof Monk not only cost my time, it also cost money.
There will, no doubt, be worse movies this year, but Bulletproof Monk will be tough to beat. When it comes out on video don't rent it.
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