Bulletproof Monk
Length: 1 hour, 33 minutes
Studio: MGM
Website: http://www.mgm.com/bulletproofmonk/
Release Date: 2003-04-16
Cast: Chow Yun-Fat, Seann William Scott, Jaime King, Chris Collins, Patrick Hagarty
Director: Paul Hunter
Screenwriter: Ethan Reiff, Cyrus Voris
WorkNameSort: Bulletproof Monk
Our Rating: 2.50
A hackneyed comic-book adaptation made bearable by the still sparkling charm of Chow Yun-Fat, director Paul Hunter’s “Bulletproof Monk” is a popcorn actioner burdened with too much plot. In 1943, a Tibetan monk with no name (Chow) becomes the protector of a scared Buddhist scroll with super-über-powers, when a nefarious Nazi (Karel Rodan) with world-domination aspirations–as if there were any other kind of Nazi–descends upon the monk’s hamlet, kills everybody, and sets the proverbial ball in motion. Sixty years later in New York, the Nazi is older and a lot more bitter, but the monk, kept young by the scroll, is as fresh-faced as a 47-year-old actor can be. And he has to find his scroll-guarding successor. Enter Kar (Seann William Scott), a thief with a bad attitude but a good heart, and mysterious gal Jade (Jamie King), who trade flirtatious punches while aiding and abetting the monk against the aged ex-Nazi and his band of hired goons. Unfortunately, “Monk” spends more time playing cutesy with Kar and Jade’s cheeky romance than on the flying people-fu, stalling a movie that takes forever to reach its inevitable heroic end.
This article appears in Apr 9-15, 2003.