Bulletproof Monk (2003)
A mysterious and immortal Tibetan kung fu master, who has spent the last 60 years traveling around the world protecting the ancient Scroll of the Ultimate, mentors a selfish street kid in the ancient intricacies of kung fu.
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As a veteran movie-goer, I have seen movie that are suitable for a diverse group of audiences, many of which aim towards the general public only to seek approval to a specific group. "Bulletproof Monk" fits in that category with perfection. When first being watched, you get the impression that this movie will attract the young audience (16 and under)with its quick-paced martial arts action, fight scenes that pays homage to "The Matrix" series, a hot chick a la James Bond, and a subplot with evil Nazis and a quest to find a lost artifact like you'd see in an Indiana Jones movie.Even though the Indiana Jones can attract the younger viewers in spite of the graphic nature in its content, "Bulletproof Monk" is strictly designed for the younger group. By saying that as long as your kid or kids are enjoying your themselves, every parent might be happy, however, the parents themselves might not be that into it. The story is way too simple for the adults to enjoy. It's a standard fare story of a lost ancient artifact that the heroes must retrieve before it falls in the wrong hands. Pretty ho-hum, eh? Sure all the Indy instalments and National Treasure stories fall into the same plot, but in "Bulletproof Monk", is that in the Indiana Jones and National Treasure stories, the loot is more interesting and has a certain level of appeal and sparks the curious minds of our viewers as to what the fuss is behind the loot and what it provides. Just going through all the fuss to search for a scroll is utterly pointless and doesn't have that magnetic appeal as the Holy Grail or the Crystal Skull. Chow Yun-Fat as the Monk has his job cut out for him as the guardian of this sacred scroll. And keeping it from caricatured bad guys who'd love to rub their greedy little hands on that piece of paper. But his job isn't all that trite. He is immune to bullets (hence the title) and can never get old as the scroll's keeper. Now he's searching for a trustworthy person to protect the scroll. A pickpocket named Kar (Sean William Scott) a modernized urban version of Robin Hood is the Monk's choice as his successor, while prevent an evil Nazi (Karel Roden) from getting it. The sad thing about "Bulletproof Monk" is in the hands of director Paul Hunter. Hunter's direction is choppy as random things happen too soon or just thrown in there making every scene look pedestrian. The cuts are quite obvious, the edits spell out the letters M-T-V but most of all, the martial arts scenes were sloppy and the editing was awkward. Sean William Scott was badly miscast as Kar. His talents from his other outings aren't there and that Chow Yun-Fat seems more like the comic foil than Scott, which would've been more effective if reversed. Jamie King's purpose to the film is confusing. Is she there as the token female character to seek the female audience with inspiration or to give the the male audience somebody to drool over? In all respects her martial arts is a welcomed addition to the movie, so my guess to inspire the female audience.But Chow is still the best character of the bunch. He's witty, appealing and has a great sense of humour that's quite a shocker to me. It's quite amazing Chow seems to play lighter roles on North American soil in contrast to the bloodfests he's famous for in Hong Kong. Why would this movie attract youth over adult you ask yourselves? Well, all the action, and fights are so light in content has been patted down to a more family-friendly audience. There's no bloody macabre violence, very little weaponry, Jamie King keeps her close on (sorry guys) and the special effects are minimal at best.
With an opening that clearly influenced BATMAN BEGINS, BULLETPROOF MONK is about a Tibetan monk (Fat) entrusted with a precious scroll. He "enlists" the aid of a street punk (Williams) to keep the scroll out of the hands of a Nazi (Roden), who is right out of an Indiana Jones movie. Lots of fighting and gags, and Fat and Williams work well together. The contents of the scroll, which bounces back and forth between the good guys and bad guys, provides something of a surprise near the end. Roden makes the perfect villain, and the climactic fight between Roden and Williams is eye-popping. Wire fu abounds, but this is a fantasy flick, after all, and not to be taken seriously. The very attractive Jamie King plays the mandatory love interest.
Tibetan Buddhism is a pure betrayal of Buddhism, of Buddha himself. It dares go beyond Buddha's teaching and reinvent a divinity of some kind where Buddha had taught there could not be any God anywhere. The great force that leads the universe in the eternal cycle from birth to rebirth via decay and death is transmuted into some kind of prophecy about some kind of truth to keep against human greed in order to save the world, and that truth is entrusted to one person who remains beyond aging, will not decay in other words, for as long as he will carry this trust and responsibility. When the time has come he will have to transmit his responsibility to the newly elected person who fulfills the three prophecies and the guardian will finally age and take a vacation leaving the burden to the new warden. Buddha would be ashamed of such primitive beliefs if he could witness such naive sagas. And the film goes slightly beyond by deciding that the new warden will be double and will be a man and a woman, a heterosexual couple in one word, Hollywood trying to save Tibetan Buddhism from the righteous accusation of being deeply and profoundly and exclusively sexist, that is to say anti-women, or at least closed to women. It also takes advantage of the film to move Tibet to New York, to add a little bit of Nazism in all that, and to entrust the serious mission to two Caucasian non-Tibetan "goyim" instead of one good old Asian, Tibetan if possible, Buddhist monk. But that is only a film. True. But what a laughable fable. Luckily there are the spectacular fights and contortions and acrobatics to save the whole fairy tale from too much shallowness.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines
I don't think I was in the audience this movie was intended for. In the early scenes they are somewhere underground in Manhattan and a bunch of delinquent punk thugs are picking on one of our soon to be heroes, a super-pickpocket.Mr. Pickpocket is a martial arts expert. Where did he learn? Running a movie projector at a run down Asian movie theater in NYC.He bumps into the monk, literally, and steals the scroll, briefly. Next thing you know, the self-taught martial arts pickpocket is the monk's sidekick.Now IMDb says this movie is based on a comic book. So was Barbarella. I really like Barbarella. This movie doesn't have the same staying power, but it provides a couple hours of distraction.It is moderately interesting to watch the martial arts moves and try to guess how much the actors actually know. But when they go floating up into the air, defying gravity, and rotating around, I say who cares? Why do movies these days always include such reality-busting nonsense? On the other hand, my cat was glued to the set; she's actually pretty good at jumping up into the air and spinning like a top, so I guess she was interested in the technique.The only reason I decided to watch it on cable was Yun-Fat Chow. He is such a first-rate actor that it is interesting to watch him even in this fluff.This is really an Asian-American Raiders of the Lost Ark type movie. Yun-Fat Chow is really a fine actor and should get more solid roles in Hollywood. Hey, Spielberg, wouldn't Yun-Fat go well with Harrison Ford in a movie?So who is this movie intended for? I would say the teen to 20s pop-think crowd. Either that, or cats. The rest of the acting wasn't bad, but Yun-Fat is the only reason a serious moviegoer would find this movie interesting.