Bulletproof Monk (2003)

User Rating:

5.2/10   

Director:

Paul Hunter

Writers (WGA):

Ethan Reiff (written by) &
Cyrus Voris (written by)

Release Date:

16 April 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Comedy

Tagline:

A power beyond measure requires a protector without equal.

Plot:

Based on the very underground comic book, a Tibetan monk becomes a mentor to a young street kid whom he can teach to protect a scroll.

Plot Keywords:

Scroll | Monk | Tibetan Monk | Martial Arts | Secret Scroll

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Yun-Fat Chow	...	Monk With No Name (as Chow Yun-Fat)
Seann William Scott	...	Kar
Jaime King	...	Jade
Karel Roden	...	Strucker
Victoria Smurfit	...	Nina
Marcus Jean Pirae	...	Mr. Funktastic
Mako	...	Mr. Kojima
Roger Yuan	...	Master Monk
K.C. Collins	...	Sax (as Chris Collins)
Sean Bell	...	Diesel
Kishaya Dudley	...	DV
Rob Archer	...	Buzz
Mauricio Rodas	...	Wicho
Bayo Akinfemi	...	Shade
Russell Yuen	...	Brother Tenzin

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for violence, language and some sexual content.

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Tibetan | German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:14 | Malaysia:18SG | Netherlands:12 | South Korea:15 | India:UA | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Brazil:12 | Canada:PG | Denmark:11 | Finland:K-15 | Germany:12 (cut) | Hong Kong:IIB | Ireland:15 | New Zealand:M | Norway:15 | Philippines:R-13 | Singapore:PG | Spain:13 | Sweden:11 | UK:12A | USA:PG-13 (certificate #38899)

Filming Locations:

Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Company:

Cub Five Productions

Trivia:

Jaime King broke her finger during filming, but not in any of the stunts - just while walking up the stairs talking on the phone.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: The train that passes by in the scene in the in the subway tunnel, clearly says Kipling, which is a station in the Toronto, Canada subway system, and is not the city in which the movie is set.

Quotes:

Master Monk: You defeated an army of enemies while a flock of crane circled above. You battled for love in the palace of jade. You freed brothers you never knew with a family you never had.

Movie Connections:

References Kaidan (1964)

Soundtrack:

The Way You Dream

Watchable but still awful

Chow Yun-Fat hasn't made a film since Bulletproof Monk, and that may just be out of embarrassment. On paper this could have been an enjoyable disposable action film, but nearly everything goes wrong. The script is poor, littered with tired clichés long past their sell-by dates and fortune cookie homilies passing for dialogue, and Chow, once the most charismatic of Asian stars, cuts a rather chubby and past his prime figure, at times distressingly like a post-Star Trek George Takei doing panto. When Seann William Scott cuts a more convincing figure in an action movie, things have gone very wrong, though in all fairness to Scott he is a surprisingly likable hero and turns in the films one decent performance. As for the Nazi villain of the piece – oh dear. Was every other actor in Germany busy that month? Even the fight scenes are pretty dire: none of the cast are martial artists, and the direction, editing and choreography do little to hide the fact, while the wire work is possibly the worst ever seen – slow, unconvincing and completely lacking in any sense of weight or gravity, it just makes the fight scenes look ridiculous. Watchable, but pretty awful.