There are two ways you can look at Bulletproof Monk: On the one hand, Chow Yun-Fat finally gets to do some comedy for the first time in an American movie. On the other hand, the movie is Bulletproof Monk.
The problem with Monk is that it's below average across the board. The acting by Chow and Sean William Scott is actually pretty decent, but Jaime King's performance drags the movie down. The fight scenes pale in comparison to other recent films and the plot is incomprehensible. The storyline moves too fast to make any sense. Chow is the Monk with No Name, the protector of the scroll that could destroy the world. Every 60 years, the bearer switches, and the new bearer is Kar (Scott). Except Kar is a loner -- until suddenly he does a 180 and is fighting alongside the Monk. And Jade (King) disappears for a long stretch in the film, and when she reappears, the audience is left baffled. Naturally everything works out OK in the end -- except for the producers of Monk, which will probably suffer a quick box-office death. -- Daniel McQuade
