Bulletproof Monk (2003)

Seeing another side of Chow Yun-Fat

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. Action, comedy, drama and mystcism.
Yun-Fat did such a great comedic job - I was laughing outloud at some of his lines.
I think that Scott did really really well. I was a little worried that he would be going over the top. But he did a great job.
King also, did a great job and was well-cast for this movie.

November 9, 2008

A Wonderful Venture into Entertainment

This movie does not rank among cinema masterpieces such as Gladiator or Titanic, but the film serves up solid, fun, and funny entertainment. An excellent movie for families, teens, and adults alike, it provides a great escape into the land of make believe. It's light fare for an evening of relaxing enjoyment. October 3, 2008

Entertaining martial arts spoof

I say "spoof" because this movie isn't to be taken seriously. It's a fun movie to watch Yun-Fat Chow; the Monk with no name, and Seann William Scott (Kar) interact. The old story of the teacher and the student of martial arts; only Kar learns his martial arts from the movies, at the movie theater in which he works. Mako makes a cameo appearance as his boss Mister Kojima, at the theater. This movie kind of reminds of Indiana Jones' "The Last Crusade," in which the Nazi (in this case - Karel Roden) tries to gain immortality. Karel Roden, cast as the aging Nazi Strucker, is mis-cast; as anyone can tell, his accent isn't even close to being German. Sounds too Russian. Despite that, he does okay as villian in this movie. Jaime King, plays Jade/Bad Girl is Kar's love interest, but kind of superfluous, even though she was the co-recipient of the scroll powers in the end. This was really more Seann William Scott's movie, than Chow Yun-Fat's. August 24, 2008

Bulletproof makes the mark !

Bulletproof Monk simply makes the mark. Chow Yun Fat is the perfect pickfor the humble monk who packs a punch. Along with Seann William Scott,the duo make for a light-hearted yet action packed adventure fightinga Nazi cult and a gang of street thugs while trying to protect an ancient secret.A must see movie that I think you will enjoy. August 17, 2008

definitely one of my guilty pleasures

Okay... this is a bad movie. I'm fully aware of this. The story line is cheesy, its historical accuracy is grossly questionable, and a good portion of the acting is overdone. So why in the world did it get three stars from me? I have to come clean, this is a guilty pleasure. I'm fully aware it's not a good movie, in fact I'm probably out of my mind for enjoying it this much, but I thought it was fun!

Basically the movie premise is about this ancient Tibetan scroll that supposedly gives its reader power over the entire world. The movie starts off in the past, around 1943, where a Nazi general comes to find it. Yes, like everyone else, I was wondering why the Nazis were in Tibet in 1943. Chow Yun-Fat is introduced and becomes the protector of the scroll, then the movie fast forwards into more modern times where he ends up running into Seann William Scott's character, Kar. This is where the film takes more of its comedic twist, sometimes Scott's character can get annoying, but I think the movie gets a lot better when Jaime King's character enters the picture. For some reason her character tempers Scott's over abrasive presence on the screen, because he's playing the guy that always has something to prove and she has nothing to prove. It just blended well. Anyway there are people after the scroll and it essentially falls to these three people to protect it. That's basically how the action is generated throughout the film.

I'm not a connoisseur of martial arts films by any means, so I won't even pretend to be. The martial arts and action throughout the film, I found, to be pretty good and entertaining. Though I wish King's character had fought the German guy's granddaughter for a lot longer. There was definitely enough action to keep the film moving. For me I just found the movie fun to watch. Watching Chow Yun-Fat trying to deal with Scott's character definitely had its amusing moments.

Anyway, there really isn't much else to be said for this film. Ultimately it's not a good movie, but I had fun with it, which I think is what was intended. It's clearly not meant to be a very serious movie so if you can get beyond that, you might be able to find some merit in it. Granted I don't see how this could ever become someone's favorite movie of all time, but I certainly wouldn't say this is the worst by any measure. June 24, 2008

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