Sunday

For some reason I wanted to see Bulletproof Monk when it came out. Perhaps it was merely the combination of Chow Yun-Fat and Sean William Scott, produced by John Woo, that seduced me. Whatever the reason, I only actually got round to seeing it last night. It's pretty bad. There were a lot of special effects - someone spent money on this movie - and sometimes they look good, but sometimes they also look very cheap. All the blue screen action looks terrible. The fight scenes just weren't quite good enough and felt awkward, especially when compared to The Matrix (which this obviously emulates). Chow Yun-Fat is a great comedy actor, but it's unfortunate he can't quite deliver the lines in English. The plot itself is absurd, more like a TV movie, or an episode of MacGyver. There is a scroll that can give whoever reads it all the power in the world. One chosen monk has to guard it, he will not age while it's near him, and he has currently been pursued by a Nazi for sixty years who has set-up an evil empire in its pursuit fronted by the Human Rights Organisation. See what I mean? The acting of everyone but the main characters is awful, and I'm sure some of the voices are dubbed. I suppose this could have been an interesting buddy-cop type film, but it fails dramatically.