PREVIEW
BULLETPROOF MONK
Starring Chow Yun-Fat, Seann William Scott and Jaime King
Directed by Paul Hunter
Now showing
Check Listings
An order of Tibetan monks is charged with the protection of a sacred scroll so powerful that it can warp reality for whoever reads it.
Chow Yun-Fat is the last in a long line of these monks, who have renounced their names in protection of the scroll. This means he's been on the run from a persistent Nazi war criminal for 60 years, and anytime someone is looking for Yun-Fat’s character they have no choice but to scream "Monk!" at the top of their lungs.
Enter Seann William Scott as Kar, a street-wise pickpocket who has learned everything he knows about fighting from watching kung fu movies. He's young and brash, but even "Monk!" can see he's got potential.
Chow Yun-Fat adds a little humour to his stoic Zen master routine, but for some reason Seann William Scott plays it straight. If you are going to rip off The Karate Kid and The Matrix, the least you could do is give me some of that unbridled jaw-dropping shit-talking that Scott is so good at. "Monk!" and Kar are fun together but the story constantly veers away from them, giving audiences plenty of opportunity to probe for plot holes.
If this scroll is so dangerous, why spend an eternity protecting it from evil when you could just destroy it and live in safety? Well, obviously, you wouldn't have a movie, but even if you can get past this gaping logistical flaw , there are many others. The rest of the film is filled with Russian mob princesses, water-powered brain-sucking machines and a street thug named "Mister Funktastic."
Disjointed even for something based on a comic book, the hardest thing to believe about this movie is that the filmmakers would so sorely underestimate their audience. Even the fight scenes are lacklustre, proving that Bulletproof Monk is shooting blanks. |
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