classicsoncall Review of Bulletproof Monk

Bulletproof Monk (2003)

"Ten fingers, ten toes, twenty reasons to die."

[6/10 · 30 May 2019]

Well, this starts out fairly interesting but winds up being rather silly. A hold-over from the Nazi regime looking every bit of a hundred years old has designs on an ancient Tibetan scroll which when read aloud, will give it's owner power over the world. I think we've pretty much reached the point where there won't be any more former Nazis running around, so might as well take what you can get. I like Chow Yun-Fat, so if you're a fan, it would be better to stick with "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". Here he teams up with Seann William Scott in a two-fold quest - to protect the scroll from the evil designs of Nazi Strucker (Karel Roden), and pass the mantle of guardianship to his newly discovered heir apparent, Kar (Scott). There's a running gag in the story about hot dogs and buns that doesn't make sense even when it's explained at the finale, so don't even try to understand it. The martial arts on display are pretty good, what you'd expect although the wirework is overdone a bit and looks more exaggerated than in other flicks of this type. Ultimately, 'The Next' keeper of the scroll turns out to be a team effort between Kar and sidekick Jade (Jaime King), but I wouldn't hold out for a sequel. Don't be disillusioned though, because you can always get a hot dog.