Chow Yun-Fat, China’s equivalent to Tom Cruise or Mel Gibson, has been trying to make it big in America for some time. While he’s never become close to the sensation he is in China, Yun-Fat consistently makes entertaining films, and his new action comedy “Bulletproof Monk” is no exception.
Chow plays a nameless Tibetan-Buddhist monk who has served as the protector of a powerful scroll for the past 60 years. Anyone who reads the scroll’s text gains supreme poweror something like that. Following the monk step for step throughout his 60-year reign is a Nazi SS officer named Struker (Karel Roden), bent on using the scroll to rid the world of all inferior races.
At the end of the monk’s control of the scroll, he must find another to pass the legendary object onto, which he believes he found in New York pickpocket Kar (Seann William Scott), who learns martial arts from various kung-fu movies. In a race of time to keep the scroll from the decrepit ex-Nazi, the nameless monk must train Kar to become the next protector by teaching him the rules of the trade.
The script for “Bulletproof Monk” isn’t all too exciting, derived from a comic series that ran in the early 1990s, but the chemistry between Chow and Scott is at least entertaining. Unfortunately, I expected to be dazzled some impressive action sequences and special effects, but director Paul Hunter edits his action scenes so much that it’s really difficult to see anything spectacular, and the special effects aren’t anything to drool over.
While Chow Yun-Fat’s newest endeavor isn’t nearly as good as his past American and Chinese films, it’s definitely a popcorn flick worth checking out.
2.5 / 5 Stars
Starring: Chow Yun-Fat, Seann William Scott
Director: Paul Hunter
