Bulletproof Monk (2003)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

A monk at a Tibetan monastery has been protecting a mythical scroll for the last sixty years and now, in 1943, it is time for him to hand over the task to the one who has fulfilled the three prophecies. No sooner has he done this than Nazis attack and kill the old monk. His successor gets away and we next see him sixty years later as he prepares to find his successor. He bumps into a pickpocket named Kar, who takes the scroll from his bag; he sees something in the young crook though and wonders if this unlikely character will be the next guardian of the scroll. The monk has other problems too; the Nazi, now an old man, is still after the scroll which has the power to change the world into a paradise or a hell depending on the person who reads it. As the film progresses Kar shows more signs that he may be 'the one' and they have more run-ins with the Nazi and his henchmen before the inevitable final confrontation.This is definitely not a film to be taken seriously; it has plenty of flaws but is still kind of fun. There is plenty of action but much of it looks rather fake; and not in the beautifully choreographed way of films like 'Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon'. Nazis have been a popular choice for villains ever since the war but they have been a cliché for much of that time and here it feels as though somebody watched 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' and decided they wanted those villains! Chow Yun Fat does a good job as the monk; he is genuinely funny and is great in the action sequences. Seann William Scott is okay as Kar but doesn't really have the presence for the role. Jaime King, who plays Kar's love interest Jade, had more of a presence and I'd have preferred it if her character had a greater role rather than Kar. Overall this is okay if you want some mild action and don't mind all the clichés; not necessarily a film to seek out but it passes the time well enough.

Poor old Chow Yun Fat—lured to the U.S. with the promise of an international career and big pay checks only to wind up playing second fiddle to Stifler in a trite adventure dependent on sub-par CGI and lousy wire-work. No wonder that, with the exception of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, he has worked exclusively in his homeland ever since. Hollywood really sucks sometimes!Yun-Fat plays a Tibetan monk who, during WWII, is tasked with looking after an ancient scroll able to endow the person who reads it with the power to rule the world. Because the screenwriters haven't got a single original bone in their bodies, this ancient artifact is sought after by the Nazis; sixty years later but not a day older, Yun Fat is still protecting the scroll from now aged Nazi Strucker (Karel Roden). Seann William Scott plays Kar, a pickpocket who unwittingly fulfils three ancient prophecies that mark him as the next protector of the scroll...Predictable, unimaginative nonsense from start to finish, with decidedly mediocre action scenes, Bulletproof Monk will annoy the hell out of anyone with a half decent knowledge of martial arts/Asian action cinema; Kar learning his martial arts skills by watching old kung fu movies is hard enough to accept, but I simply will not forgive director Paul Hunter for completely wasting the talents of the legendary Yun Fat.

The central idea of "Bulletproof Monk", that of a gang of Nazis trying to get their hands on an artifact of great supernatural power, seems to have been lifted straight from Spielberg's "Raiders of the Lost Ark". The story opens in the year 1943 when a squad of Nazi soldiers attack a remote Tibetan monastery. (The German invasion of Tibet is an episode of Second World War history which appears to have escaped the notice of most historians). They are seeking a mystical Scroll which contains arcane knowledge which will confer immense powers upon the reader. They kill most of the monks but not the one entrusted with custody of the Scroll, who succeeds in escaping by using his martial arts skills to dodge the German bullets (hence the film's title).Fast forward to 2003. The nameless monk now reappears in an equally nameless American city. (The film was actually shot in Toronto, Canada). Although 60 years have passed, he still looks as youthful as he did in 1943, having been immunised from the ageing process by the power of the Scroll. The Scroll is being sought by a gang of fanatical neo-Nazis led by the now-aged Strucker, the officer who led the attack on the monastery, and his granddaughter Nina (who, in an ironical touch, poses as the leader of a human rights organisation). The monk, assisted by a young pickpocket named Kar and Kar's girlfriend Jade, who turns out to be the daughter of a Russian crime lord, have to thwart the evil plans of the villains.The star of the film is Chow Yun-Fat, the Hong Kong actor who also starred in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" but the two films have little else in common. The martial arts sequences in "Bulletproof Monk" are not nearly as well choreographed or directed as those in the earlier movie, and have nothing of their surreal, haunting power. The plot is just one standard action-movie cliché after another. None of the actors stood out, except perhaps Victoria Smurfit as Nina, the sort of sexy-but-evil villainess who would be at home in a Bond film. Jaime King (formerly known as James despite being female) is the latest in a long line of models-turned-actress who look as though they would be happier as a model-turned-actress-turned-model.I must admit that I didn't have high hopes for the film when I learned that it is based on a comic book, a genre of "literature" which has been responsible for some pretty poor film adaptations, and I can say that my low hopes were fully realised. "Bulletproof Monk" is a dull, unoriginal and cliché-ridden film which reveals a depressing lack of imagination on the part of the film-makers. 3/10

When I saw the small TV trailer for this film, I kind of wanted to see it at the time it was out, but now, I'm glad I missed it. Basically there is this scroll that can give whoever reads it the power to change the world as we know it, for good or for bad. It is the job of the Monk With No Name (Crouching Tiger's Chow Yun Fat) to protect it from any bad guys, and he has done so for 60 years, oh and whoever protects the scroll has no ageing process and is apparently indestructible (just about). Monk is on the lookout also for a new scroll keeper, and he finds young streetwise pick-pocket Kar (American Pie's Seann William Scott), they become unlikely partners to save the world from the scroll's avid pursuer, Jade/Bad Girl (Jaime King), who you find out is working for once thought dead Russian Struker (Karel Roden). That's about it. Also starring Victoria Smurfit as Nina, Marcus Jean Pirae as Mr. Funktastic, Mako as Mr. Kojima and Roger Yuan as Master Monk. Scott is usually likable as the cocky guy, and Yun Fat is just as likable as he was in Crouching Tiger, it is just a shame that the similar fight sequences and special effects look very cheap, the story suffers from being too boring, well, the whole film suffers from this. Pretty poor!