Le mdaillon

It has taken Jackie Chan about 27 years, a good 60 movies or so, and a few near death experiences for him to decide that he can start making movies that don't regularly involve certain death, thanks to CGI. The results are not so good. In fact, I'll just say it: 'The Medallion' is a terrible action movie.

Jackie plays Eddie Yang, a Hong Kong detective chasing a villain named Snakehead (those villains and their crazy names). Snakehead, like all Hong Kong villains is actually English, so when he kidnaps a boy with the power to control The Medallion, Yang follows him to Ireland to reclaim the Medallion and find the child (who just goes to prove, that even if you live in a Buddhist temple in a sewer below Hong Kong, you can still learn to speak perfect English with an English accent).

Seems like 'The Golden Child'? Why yes, yes it does. Its a fun fantasy movie for kids, but anyone wanting to watch an action movie should watch this up until a short cameo appearance by Sammo Hung and then turn it off very quickly. Now I'm not a fan of CGI action, but I assumed that with Jackie Chan starring and Sammo Hung directing the action - two action masters - could still pull of some entertaining action scenes. Apparently not, as 'The Medallion' is only marginally better than, oh, say 'Charlie's Angels 2'.

Fun for kids, but action fans should avoid entirely. I'm being generous when I give this 5/10.

"The Medallion" has a pretty good first half: there are enough scenes to prove that Jackie Chan's still got it, from a fight aboard a ship (where he ties a guy's arm to his leg using his own shoelaces and a piece of clothing!) to a fun freewheeling foot chase, and other minor stunts. But after Jackie "dies" and comes back equipped with superpowers, there are no more real fight scenes for him: they are all special effects - enhanced and wired. From a pure martial arts perspective, Claire Forlani's close-quarters fights near the end are the best that the second half of this film has to offer (more proof that Sammo Hung can make anyone look like a genuine martial artist!). The story is basically a rehash of Eddie Murphy's "The Golden Child", and it has a rushed feel to it (it's probably no coincidence that the DVD contains about 15 deleted scenes). But the cast is likable: Forlani is utterly lovely, Julian Sands is ideally cast as the immortality-seeking villain, and Jackie is always Jackie. "The Medallion" will probably disappoint most martial arts fans, but those who like the main actors will definitely get some enjoyment out of it. (**)

They had $35 million or so dollars to make this movie! If you've seen plenty of Hong Kong movies like I have, you know they are able to stretch a dollar to incredible levels. So you might think that this would be the Hong Kong movie to rule over all others.

Think again! The first and obvious mistake they made was having Jackie using wirework and other special effects. Huh? Did they somehow forget that Jackie made a name for himself by NOT using wirework and special effects? Plus, you could see that he was taking real risks by not using that stuff, so his antics were more thrilling and entertaining as a result. Also, ANYONE could have easily done what Jackie did in this movie because of all the special effects work - so what was the point of hiring Jackie?

Even with all the money and time put into these action sequences, they are a mess. The editing gives us a different shot every millisecond or so, making it hard to get a handle on the action. (Also, the camera was a lot closer to the action than in Jackie's other movies, so much so that even seeing the movie in widescreen still makes it confusing at times.) Look at Jackie's other movies - the camera stays back, and the editing is kept to a minimum. We see everything of the action in those movies, and the minimum editing prevents any breaks in building excitement.

Speaking of editing, the American editors did a TERRIBLE job altering it for North American audiences. The story makes no sense, with even a lot of the minor details not being explained. (For example, the surprise revelation of Watson's wife.) The DVD contains a number of deleted scenes, though watching them clears up very little of the confusion - in fact, the deleted scenes just reveal new murky details that add MORE confusion! I suspect there were a number of other scenes cut that did explain things better, but that were left out by Sony in perhaps embarrassing realization their American editors did a terrible job.

But even with a story that would make no sense, this would still be tough going, not just with the mishandled action scenes but also because of the movie's incredibly bad sense of humor. Particularly with Lee Evans' character, who is unbelievably annoying - at least the editors showed SOME sense by cutting out some of his painful scenes. So even if you have a region-free DVD machine and are a die-hard fan of Jackie, I strongly suggest you don't even pick up the Asian DVD release of this movie when it comes out!

Being a long time fan of Hong Kong cinema and a big Jackie Chan fan, I had high hopes for The Medallion. Shanghai Knights was pretty good. When I saw the trailer for The Medallion, it showed Jackie performing as usual plus the cgi crap. But, I wanted to give it a chance. A lot of film experts and other sources of information gave insight into the movie, and it received a lot of promotion. I thought Jackie would return to his original style in this one considering his age. I'm going to look at two perspectives of film, the pros and cons.

PROS - There were two action scenes where Jackie doesn't do any wire martial arts nor requires cgi involvement during the first half of the movie. Given the fact that Jackie is reaching 50, he can still get down. The female lead was great. Claire Forlani exceeded my expectations of the female character, and her acting wasn't really bad either. She gets to do some martial arts herself (couldn't stand Jennifer Love Hewitt in The Tuxedo egh!!!). Lee Evans provides the comic relief along Jackie's martial arts and stunt work. I liked the way Hong Kong and American filmmakers collaborated to do the film. Look out for veteran Hong Kong actor Anthony Wong in a supporting role as the bad guy.

CONS - The cgi incorporated into the film just didn't do it for me. Filmmakers can't use cgi for everything. I'm tired of seeing people running through trees and jumping over things that's not possible in reality. The plot in the film had to many holes and seemed to be rushed at times. Jackie's acting didn't seem to fair well including the chemistry between him and Claire. It seemed to dull. Julian Sands wasted his time in this film. Hope he takes this as a lesson learned. Bey Logan's writing skills needs a brush up before he can continue on in my opinion. I hope he doesn't utilize the same form in the upcoming movie, Kung Fu Master. The mystical kid in the movie annoyed me too much, and he only said two sentences throughout the whole movie. Repeating the Golden Child theme is just ridiculous.

All in all, the movie was alright. Compared to Jackie's recent American releases, this better than The Tuxedo but less than Shanghai Knights. Jackie doesn't have to take every movie offer he can. Take a break and come back with the Police Story series or something. This is a type of movie that can only be seen once or twice if you want to consider your judgement about the movie.

My final vote 6/10

What a dreadful movie. Even my children were bored. I thought the point of Jackie Chan was that he did his own stunts? Isn't that his main claim to fame? So what is the point of having half the film devoted to boring CGI stuff with people flying around and disappearing in puffs of smoke and so on? And if you are going to hire a REAL genius like Lee Evans for your comic relief, why not use him properly, let him do his own thing, instead of making him adopt a silly I-say-old-boy accent and utter lamentable lines? It's a shame as Jackie Chan comes over very appealingly on screen, he has a genuinely warm and affable screen presence. The romantic element is especially embarrassing. The film looks as though it's been chopped about like chicken livers to end up with an incomprehensible plot of no interest whatsoever.