Bulletproof Monk

Spiderman and Daredevil made a mint at the box office so it makes sense that the graphic comic hero ‘Bulletproof monk’ should make the transition to the big screen, combining high kicking ‘Crouching Tiger style’ combat and streetwise humor.

In 1943 Tibet, a nameless monk (Chow Yun-Fat) inherits from his apparently ageless mentor the sacred duty of protecting the ‘Scroll of Sublime Truth’. Whoever reads the scroll gains absolute power. But no one must get near it, the master tells his apprentice. "Mankind is not ready for such power," he says.

No sooner has he assumed his holy duty than the Monk witnesses the slaughter of his brothers by Struker (Karel Roden), a ruthless Nazi bent on acquiring the scroll. In the nick of time, the Monk retrieves the scroll, takes a bullet and vanishes.

Sixty years later, in a city that looks like New York but is in fact Toronto a pick pocketing dude called Kar (Seann William Scott) bumps into the same Monk. The scroll has ensured the Monk hasn’t aged one day, but the Nazi guy is now really old and ugly so he has got his evil granddaughter involved to get the scroll back for him.

The monk sees potential in Kar and they team up. The rest of the movie is pretty standard fair, think Rush hour 1 and 2, or Beverly hills cop with kung fu. But whilst the premise and plot is linear and predictable, it is actually a really cool movie. For a couple of reasons:

1) Chow Yun-Fat is quite possibly the coolest man in the movies at the moment. The role isn’t exactly challenging for him but he plays it straight (not Jackie Chan camp style), and delivers some nice one liners, he has good comic timing and brings a dignity and class to the movie.

2) There are some funny lines, especially when we meet the leader of a street gang called Mr. Funktastic, played by Marcus Jean Pirae. This guy would appear to be English, but its that weird sort of cockney Dick Van Dyke (I love you Mary Poppins) English that Hollywood seems to think we speak like. Anyway his rhyming slang is hilarious :)

3) There are some really good action sequences and the combat isn’t too over the top.

4) The relationship between Kar and the Jade (Jaime King) is not too cheesy and is quite believable.

I was expecting Seann William Scott to be kind of annoying, but he is really likeable in this. It has been compared elsewhere to Indiana Jones, but the only similarity I see is that the nasty Nazis are trying to take over the world (again).

This is not a challenging film, its just good fun and I really recommend it. Of course if you disagree with me you can kiss my Khyber Pass!

Watch the trailer

Jamie O'Connell