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Member since:24.12.2002
Reviews:23
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I’ve been watching martial arts films since I was a kid. I grew up with them, at a time when they weren’t so big in Hollywood. When Jackie Chan was working with Yuen Biao, and Jet Li was making amazing films like “Once upon a time in China”. The early work that not a lot of people have seen, unless they know their martial arts. This was the good stuff and there are very few Hollywood martial arts films that have matched them or even come close. Unfortunately Bullet Proof Monk was not one of them.
Taken from a comic book is the story of a monk who has to protect a certain scripture with his life, which in turn will protect him too. This scripture if read aloud by a person will give them immense power over erm …something…enyhow moving on – the film starts with Chow-Yun Fat’s character (which remains nameless so we’ll call him Bob…imaginative I know) becoming the next protector as he finishes passing his three tests. After obtaining the power he is rudely interrupted by a bunch of Nazi’s that want the scripture. Sixty years later and it is time for “Bob” to find the next protector. Cue Kar played by Sean William Scott a kid that has no family and lives at a Chinese cinema theatre. He picks pockets for a living and has morals. There is also a female character in the film – Jade; she plays the love interest
and annoying woman in the background.
As the story develops “Bob” and Kar are acquainted, Kar thinks the monk is some whacko, and “Bob” thinks that Kar is the next protector. Now “Bob” has to train Kar whilst dodging the Nazi’s who are still after him, it’s pretty straightforward. And the girl just pops up every once in a while with no significance just so you remember that she exists.
Characters. No-name “Bob”- Chow-Yun Fat (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) I think he is a very good actor. Crouching Tiger was a great film and he gave a great performance in it. His character is very 2D in this film – he basically plays the “wise Asian guy”. Never the less he still gives a good performance and keeps you interested to a certain extent. He is slightly comical but most of the comedy is left to Sean.
Kar – Sean William Scott (American Pie – Dude Where’s My Car) Sean is known for his teenage comedy, his character is basically Sean. He’s kind of acting like himself; the character again is very 2D. You learn why he is in the movie, and what his significance is but his character just reminds you of “Sean”. I like Sean, he’s a funny guy and not in an annoying way – which is a very fine line. But I wouldn’t say he gave an outstanding performance or anything really memorable.
Jade - Jaime King (Pearl Harbour – Blow) Like I said earlier she plays the love interest, now if you thought the other characters were bad, imagine how bad her character is. Okay I might be over stating just a little. But I think her character isn’t very well rounded at all and is too simple. How can you enjoy a movie when the characters don’t seem real? The performance wasn’t great it was very average, but I don’t know if that was down to the bad character or the bad acting.
I think it already shows, that I didn’t enjoy this movie very much. I don’t think it was written very well, and I am positive the characters were not developed to their full potential. The directing lacked a little direction… but then again this was the guy’s first movie…but that’s no excuse. I think this movie was a very big let down, so I’m not sure where to start with my criticism. Okay we’ll start with the martial arts. Too many strings, I’m not against using strings for martial arts I think they create some great moves, but it got kind of ridiculous in this movie, and at certain points it was too obvious that they were using strings. The other thing that ruined the martial arts was the very bad camera work; they wouldn’t let you see a full fight they kept cutting at different angles whenever there was a good move to be seen. They did it quickly and very irritatingly. That ruined the martial arts scenes and seeing as this was partially about the martial arts, in turn it ruined half the movie.
Coming to terms with the burden of having to look after this scripture for the rest of his life wasn’t very hard to grasp for Kar; because he came to terms with it in all five minutes, granted for a second he thought he couldn’t do it, but a few seconds later the director told him they didn’t have enough time for his doubts. The next successor had to pass three tests, which were placed very badly; by chance he seems to complete these tasks without even knowing what he’s doing.
Both the bad guys and the love interest; Jade, come up every once in a while, just dropped in to remind the audience of them. The ending was also a big let down, with it resulting in Kar having to try and save “Bob” from the Nazi. So in a Matrix type style both the girl and guy go forth to save the teacher. The ending was messy; by this I don’t mean there were blood and guts everywhere (that might of helped the movie), but that the director did a very messy job.
This movie is pretty much predictable all the way through, and has a corny ending (I despise corny endings, but Hollywood can’t seem to avoid them). It was as if they made a martial arts movie because every one was doing it. I am not going to spoil the ending and tell you what happens because I feel they did a pretty good job of spoiling the ending them selves.
Damn I am making this movie sound really, really bad, I think I should say something nice…erm… it wasn’t as bad as Italian Job (2003) or 2 Fast 2 Furious, there that’s definitely a compliment.
This film is available on DVD or video from any video store or rental shop, not that you needed to know that because surely I must of put you off by now.
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Martial Arts - Director: Prachya Pinkaew - Original Language: English\Vietnamese\Thai\Mandarin - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: Tony Jaa, Bongkoj Khongmalai, Petchtai Wongkamlao
Production Year: 1991 - Martial Arts - Director: Tsui Hark - Original Language: Cantonese - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: Donnie Yen, Jet Lee, Rosamund Kwan, Yuen Biao, Mok Sui Chung
Martial Arts - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: Bruce Lee, Sho Kosugi, James Ryan, Jim Kelly, Jimmy Wang Yu, Bolo Yeung, Christopher Lee
Saw this one a while back and I completely lost interest in it within the first 30 mins. Normally I try to give a film a chance to improve, but this one just didn't. Lousy film and rather weak plot.
The tremendous charisma of Chow Yun-Fat anchors this entertaining comic-book ... more
romp.Bulletproof Monkcentres around a monk with no name (Chow) dedicated to protecting a sacred scroll that can give world-manipulating power to anyone who reads it. A hidden ...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
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found the one who's supposed to take his place-and it's the most unlikely candidate of all.In this dazzling action adventure, the Monk (Chow yun-Fat, Crouching Tig...
The tremendous charisma of Chow Yun-Fat anchors this entertaining comic-book ... more
romp.Bulletproof Monkcentres around a monk with no name (Chow) dedicated to protecting a sacred scroll that can give world-manipulating power to anyone who reads it. A hidden ...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
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Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
Advantages: a good family film, fighting a few jokes but good entertainment, Disadvantages: more character interaction especially the main characters, maonk jade kar may be teaching tricks.
![Bulletproof Monk [DVD] [2003]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78519031.jpg "Bulletproof Monk [DVD] [2003]")
Jul 5th, 2004
very helpful by (100%):
