Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith, Working Girl, 1988)
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Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith, Working Girl, 1988) |
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Bulletproof Monk is the tale of a nameless monk, the protector of an ancient power, finding his replacement while confronting his archenemy. This is based off of a comic book, which I am not familiar with. However, if the movie is good indicator of the comic’s quality, I do not wish to become familiar with it. Let’s get the good thing out the way first: Chow Yun-Fat carries this film, he is excellent in the role. The acting in general is very good, all of them doing their best to get a silly script to work. But the script is just too inept for it to work. While the basic concept is interesting, a monk training a reckless American youth, the story is very witless. For example, Scott’s character learned martial arts from watching old Karate films. I understand this is from a comic, but come on, that is ridiculous. The dialog has the same problem, the old why-do-hot-dog-buns-come-in-a-package-of-8-while-hot-dogs-come-in-a-package-of-10 question is stated over and over, as if it was some sort of deep Eastern theological thought. Even if this was meant to be a joke, I not sure if it was, couldn’t the screenwriter come up with something more original, than the old hot dog question? Also, the film uses the standard cliché of the villain being a Nazi, literally. That is one cliché that is overused.  The opening scene is very well done though. My expectations were raised a lot because of that scene. But, unfortunately, the rest of the film is nowhere as good.The direction is too slow. At a run time of 104 min, it feels a lot longer. The film tries to cover too much material; the three prophecies, the Monk-Nazi relationship, the training of Scott, and the love between King and Scott are all part of this film. The director seems unable to decide what story he wants to tell and they all suffer because of it. This could have been a really neat movie, a good action comedy, but the film wastes its potential. Technical Merit D- (physical effects, editing, cinematography Ext.) The lighting was extremely inconstant in this film, at times it was clear, and clean, at other times grayish and fuzzy. It was almost as if somebody placed a cloth over the camera lens that distorted the image. The CGI was very clearly CGI. It was not the worst I have seen, but not the best either. Its main problem was it seemed too weightless, and glossy. The fighting most of the time was boring, and that is not a good thing during an action movie. The martial arts were very proficient but lacked a certain flair to them. The main down fall was the editing of the wirework. It was confusing; the aerials never seem to follow any sort of pattern, or logical bodily mechanics. Also, certain moves were used too many times, after seeing Yun-Fat spin side over side more than twice, it loses its effectiveness. Summary: This is a silly, inept movie that wastes its potential. The martial arts while technically proficient are tired and uninspired. The editing of the aerials is confusing. The acting, especially of Yun-Fat, is very good; it is too bad the story wasn’t nearly as good. |
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