Bulletproof Monk (2003)
Review by Doc Ezra
Film:
DVD:

Written by Ethan Reiff & Cyrus Voris, based on the comic book published by Flypaper Press Directed by Paul Hunter
Starring Chow Yun-Fat, Seann William Scott, Jaime King, Karel Roden, and Victoria Smurfit

Features:

• Running audio commentary with director Hunter and producers Charles Roven & Douglas Segal
  
• Running audio commentary with writers Reiff & Voris
  
• Six production featurettes
  
• Deleted scenes with commentary by editor Robert K. Lambert
  
• Alternate ending with commentary by editor Robert K. Lambert
  
• Photo gallery
  
• Trailers
  

Released by: MGM
Region: 1
Rating: PG-13
Anamorphic: Yes

My Advice: Solid rental for action fans.

The Monk with No Name (Yun-Fat) has been tasked with protecting an ancient scroll that, if read aloud, would grant the reader untold cosmic power. In return for that protection, the scroll grants the monk extended life, phenomenal strength and speed, and an ability to recover from injury and illness that makes him damn near immortal. A prophecy exists, however, that predicts that a new protector can be found every sixty years, if a certain set of criteria are correct. Having served his six decades, the monk is wandering the world, chased by agents of a megalomaniacal Nazi who has pursued him since the day he became the scroll's protector.

Kar (Scott) is a street punk who lives above a Chinese theatre and has taught himself rudimentary kung fu through exhaustive repetition of the theatre's entire film catalog of martial arts flicks. He's also one of the best pickpockets in the city. This light-fingered wuxia enthusiast has no idea of the changes in his destiny when he lifts the scroll from the monk's satchel while passing in a subway station, each pursued by their own foes. When the monk goes to recover the stolen scroll from Kar, he witnesses a battle that leads him to believe that the young crook might just be the next chosen one, as dictated by prophecy. He therefore takes an active interest in Kar's life and attitude, hoping to train him up to become his replacement.

Based on the obscure comic by Gotham Chopra and Brett Lewis, Bulletproof Monk manages to convey that sense of pulpy, over-the-top adventure that has long been the province of the comic world. It unfortunately brings with it some of the frequent weaknesses of comic-book storytelling: plot holes, glossed character development, and a certain level of predictability. Here, those gaps are somewhat compensated by the jolt of Hong Kong cinema action stylings added to the mix. The fight sequences are solidly choreographed and well-executed, but suffer the same malady that inflicts the majority of action films in America. Cinematographers, listen up. If you've invested months of training in getting your talent capable of faking some solid kung-fu, don't focus the damned camera two feet from the combatants' heads. Most martial arts sequences involve the entire body, and if I can only see what's going on from the shoulders up, eighty percent of your grueling fight arranging is completely wasted.

Story simplicity and camerawork gripes aside, this movie is a fun piece of action fluff. The chemistry between Scott and Yun-Fat is a source of some great comic moments in the midst of all the bullets and the ass-kicking. "Bad Girl" Jaime King doesn't really get much to do here, which is a shame, because the character actually had some potential. But with very little screen time, the character's sudden blossom into interesting and lovestruck just comes across as forced and unconvincing. Roden's nasty Nazi is decent, if a bit of a walking (or rolling) cliché.

The DVD release is loaded with bonus material. For a movie that didn't have such a great bow at the box office, MGM has pulled out all the stops for the extras here. Two commentary tracks, six production featurettes, deleted scenes and alternate endings with commentary make for a pretty well-stacked disc. A little more material that actually involved the actors would have been cool, but there's at least some of their thoughts about the process contained in the featurettes. Basically, if you're a fan of action flicks, this DVD merits a rental on the bonus features alone. You get the added goodness of a slightly better than average action movie to go with it, too.