Bulletproof Monk
The story, loosely based on the comic book of the same name, begins in 1943 in the Temple of Sublime Truth high in Tibet and a Buddhist monk, charged with protecting an ancient magical scroll that has the ability to endow whoever reads it with the power to control the world. Mankind is not yet ready for such pow.....
The story, loosely based on the comic book of the same name, begins in 1943 in the Temple of Sublime Truth high in Tibet and a Buddhist monk, charged with protecting an ancient magical scroll that has the ability to endow whoever reads it with the power to control the world. Mankind is not yet ready for such power and, as the monks time here on Earth is about over, he passes on his legacy of guardianship to his pupil (Chow Yun-Fat).
As the student receives the power to safeguard the scroll, his aging process is halted and he gives up his name, only to be known as the Monk. Suddenly, the monastery is raided by Nazis, led by the ruthless Strucker (Karl Roden), who seeks the scroll for himself. As they attempt to seize the relic, the Monk is shot and falls off a cliff, taking the scroll with him…
However, the chase continues and six decades later in San Francisco, the Monk escapes capture with the help of a tough city kid called Kar (Seann William Scott). Kar has a talent for picking pockets but the Monk sees him as a potential replacement guardian for the scroll. Kar lives in an old Chinese movie theatre and has learned his martial arts skills from watching kung-fu movies but the Monk must train him to become a warrior fit to take over his role and protect mankind from the lure of the scroll.
Together the unlikely duo must evade the forces of the now-elderly Strucker, now even more determined than ever to possess the mystical scroll, before his time runs out for good. As Strucker's granddaughter, Nina (Victoria Smurfit), leads his band of mercenaries to track down Kar and the Monk, the two heroes receive help from the mysterious Jade (Jaime King). But their luck can only hold out for so long…
Review
We saw this movie in the cinema and my partner asked it right after so lets get the obvious question about the enormous hole in the plot out of the way before I continue. Why didn't the monks just destroy the scroll? Well they couldn't have made a movie about it then could they! Okay, lets move on…
Produced by Terence Chang and John Woo, who've teamed up before in Windtalkers, Mission Impossible II, Broken Arrow and Face/Off, this appears to be yet another attempt to put a legendary Eastern cinema star into a Hollywood buddy production. Like those before him, such as Jackie Chan (Rush Hour), Sammo Hung (Martial Law) or Toshirô Mifune (Red Sun), Chow Yun-Fat fits the bill perfectly after the enormous success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and he does a good job here, although it's far from his best performance.
Seann William Scott is better known for teen comedies such the American Pie series, Road Trip and Dude, Where's My Car? and playing Kar is perhaps a sign that he's growing up and wants to move on to more serious things. He still injects most of the comedy into the movie and the role is far from serious but it's a step closer and he shows that can handle a more complex character than Stiffler.
The rest of the cast are adequate for this average and clichéd plot. Ex-model, Jaime King shows that she has some potential as love interest Jade and I suspect that we'll see more of her in the future. Karel Roden is excellent as the power mad Nazi and Victoria Smurfit is good as his sadistic granddaughter.
This is Paul Hunter's first shot at directing a full-length feature film and his previously successful experience with high profile music videos and award winning commercial work is possibly one of the reasons he was chosen for the job. The film has lots of the superficial style ususlly associated with shorter productions like ads and videos and some of the faster moving action scenes are a bit manic and can be hard to follow.
The picture is presented in anamorphically enhanced 2.35:1 aspect and is excellent. The quality of such transfers with new movies is now such that it's hardly worth commenting on. Quality is excellent - great colours and solid blacks with no obvious damage or artefacts present. The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound and is reasonably well used. Dialogue is clear from the front, score and ambient sounds are spread around and effects such as gunfire, etc. are mainly delivered from the rear.
Extras
Commentary - this features director Paul Hunter and producers Chuck Roven and Doug Segal and the trio do a reasonable job of keeping the dialogue going. As well as the usual trivia they talk about the cast, visual effects, locations, lighting, etc. They also point out the Tibetan religious references used throughout the movie.
The Monk Unrobed - a seven-minute piece about how the comic book was developed and how that lead into making the movie.
The Tao of Monk - five reasonably good featurettes on the making of the movie and lasting about 55 minutes in all…
- Fists of Fury - deals with the martial arts elements of the movie.
- Enter the Monk - is a bit more involved and covers the comic, casting, choice of director and costume design.
- Zen Palette - is about the art design, choice of colours, and set design.
- Smoke & Mirrors - deals with the visual effects, CG and green screen effects in the movie.
- The Art of Score - is all about composing the music and sound effects. It shows a few scenes progressing from just dialogue, adding sound effects and then the music.
Deleted Scenes - five deleted scenes and an alternate ending (I think) played as one continuous piece. They are quite interesting though and at over 16 minutes long, worth looking at…
- The Monk mentally transports Kar to the Tibetan temple and gives him the background story of the scroll.
- Kar and the Monk chatting onboard a riverboat.
- Kar is trying to recruit the aid of Mr. Funktastic and his crew
- The crew at the Human Rights Organisation,
- The crew assist in the torture scene battle.
- The alternate ending.
Behind the Scenes Photo Gallery - 18 good quality, click through stills from the production. Just filler though.
Trailer - Just the theatrical trailer.
Lastly, I have to mention the animated menus. The antics of the little fighting matchstick men, as they hop around the screen elements, are beautifully done.
Overall
This won't win any awards so switch off your brain and any sense of logic that you may possess, get out the popcorn, sit back and enjoy this mayhem for what it is, a fair bit of fantasy entertainment.
With its mix of camp oriental mysticism, fortune cookie philosophy. mild comedy and martial arts along with a pretty good package of extras, this makes for a reasonable evening's viewing.
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