My first though when I saw this was that it was the type of movie Jackie Chan would make; sidekick that provides comic relief, hero with great martial arts capabilities and an equally strong enemy, corny, at times crude, humor, etc. Then again, I haven't really seen any other movies with Chow Yun-Fat, so I have no idea how his movies usually are; but I think that given that this movie has so many similarities to a typical Chan movie, it should have been at least a little better; Chan's movies always seem to have good comedy, entertaining martial arts fights, and a story that allows for plenty of both, without keeping the audiences attention at the plot for any minute over the complete run time of the film. This just seemed to fail at most of these; the comedy is too much aimed at the teenager audience, apparently trying to cash in on the success of movies such as American Pie, with its innuendo and crude comedy. The martial arts seem to be inspired by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which some people will probably say is a good thing; not me, though. It's too athletic and looks more like dancing than fighting. It especially looks bad since some of it is far more aggressive and intense, which just makes the ballet-like fighting seem even more ridiculous. As for the story, it seems to try to learn you something new, make you think, but it ruins any potential it might have by constantly throwing some (often bad-looking) martial arts fight scene in your face, just as you're starting to think more about what Chow just said, which often will sound like something out of a fortune cookie. I also think the plot is too derivative of the same themes and ideas that also inspired The Matrix, which, being far more spectacular than this, will make this seem very inferior, even boarding on being a rip-off(which I don't feel it is, but it tries too hard to learn you these things as if they had never been told before). I know that this is based on a comic book, but it seems too much like a bad excuse to put martial arts in a teenage comedy or vice versa. I don't know if this movie does the comic book any justice, but I wouldn't guess so. I do think that it is good that Seann William Scott and Jaime King performed their martial arts moves themselves, but, this has also been done in The Matrix, and here it seems more like a gimmick(though I think it was the actors' choice themselves). The plot is OK, but it just barely keeps your attention, and every attempt it does at doing anything else come off as pretentious. The acting is decent enough, nothing great, but not bad either. The characters are a little stereotypical, especially the villains, but they manage to surprise and interest you a little. All in all, a decent enough martial arts teen comedy, but should have been better. I recommend it to fans of teen comedies, martial arts and/or one of the two main actors, since this is probably them both at their best. 6/10
Review of Bulletproof Monk
