The Medallion

Rating:
Summary: The Medallion- What the?
Review: It seems Chan just doesn't know what to do anymore. The more films he makes the worse they seem to be, well not seem they
actually are. The Medallion, the new Chan action flick is rather
appalling and just plain dumb. The movie has a nonsencial plot and is poorly conceived. It's incoherent and a waste of your time and ultimately worse was a waste of mine. Now in contrast to "The Tuxedo," well maybe they were equally horrible. It's hard to say. Here's the best I can offer you of a plot:
Jackie Chan plays (now this is shocking) a cop from Hong Kong. He works with a complete doofus Waston played by funny Lee Evans and another secret agent Nicole Jones (gorgeous Claire Forlani). They are on a mission to rescue a boy being kidnapped who owns a medallion which allows its owner to have amazing powers and of immortality.
The action sequences are done in ultra-fast motion as if being fast-fowarded so not the best, but a few of the sequences are rather good. Jackie Chan does have his occasional comic scenes along with Evans but the film is really not worth it. Stick with a good Chan film such as Rush Hour 1 or 2, hell even Shanghai Knights, which was decent. The Medallion is rated PG-13
for Action Violence and Some Double Entendre. In one word, BAD!
See if you must, or if it's even still playing.

Rating:
Summary: Funniest Jackie Chan movie I've seen yet
Review: This movie has a lot of funny action scenes and lines in it. Some things were funny (and stupid in some ways). Overall I found the movie to be on the edge of the seat action movie while all along the movie was very funny. I recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Pamela's Pick of the Week!
Review: What a delightful evening our family had watching Jackie Chan in the fairly thick, action packed storyline of The Medallion. Jackie may be aging, but he still magnificantly moves fluidly across the big screen with his leaps and high flying kicks continuing to hold the attention of audiences of all ages. To keep up with movies like The Matrix, digital special effects are incorporated with Jackie's movements making him appear supernatural--but he does become supernatural after rescuing a small boy who holds the key to the meaning of the medallion which brings people back from the dead making them impervious to knives and other weapons. With such a fun story line and comical dialog, this movie is fun to watch.

Rating:
Summary: Take off the Medallion and put back on the Tuxedo
Review: It's hard enough to figure out why this film was once called "High Binders" let alone why Jackie would short change his fans with this very weak action movie. I thought that the Tuxedo was Jackies weakest picture, although not as bad as everyone had claimed. After seeing the Medallion that film becomes a bit better now that we see that things could have been worse.

Where to begin. In this movie we get a Jackie who seems more comfortable with adding special effects to jazz things up. From the opening titles I was pleased to see "A Jackie Chan Production" which has always meant quality in the past. Although this may seem to be another Hollywood action flick, it's actually one of Jackies international movies. He does the smart thing by adding a mostly American star cast, a few recongizable faces makes things feel more at home. Claire Forlani is an excellent choice especially after the dudd of choosing Jennifer Love Hewitt for Tuxedo.

This movie can't decide if its' a traditional Chan pic or one of his new jazzy ones that have special effects. In the end we get a [bad] version of both. Shanghai Knights was excellent and proved to me that Jackie can still be fresh and new in his action scenes. In this he treads alot of old ground, doing nothing that one would call impressive. The effects, as always, seem to hinder chan rather than help him. It was kinda cool to see him play Superman in the second half of the film but the script was just awful. They actually stop the plot for a kitchen scene montage of jackie and friend cooking dinner to the hit song "twist and shout". If that doesnt say it all I dont know what will.

On one positive note actor Lee Evans provides some much needed comic relief and Jackie is left playing the straight man. A pleasing twist but over all it can't save this sorry movie.

The Accidental Spy was a great film and was also his last previous international movie. What went wrong between these two I will never know. Jackie seems to be giving in to what seems to sell here in American but at the same time he's doing it completely wrong. Let's hope for better next time, and forget this movie ever happened.

Rating:
Summary: *** THE MEDALLION ***
Review: Wow, this movie was great!!. It was filled with loads of laughs and action, and just a little romance on the side, which is a pretty good combination. Jackie Chan still got it! He still has the moves! This movie was just hilarious! but not as funny as Rush Hour 1 and 2. I recommend this for all the Jackie fans out there!!!

Rating:
Summary: Liked it better when it was called "The Tuxedo"
Review: Jackie Chan is an agile Hong Kong cop working with Interpol (who knew they did anything besides make the warning messages about copying or rebroadcasting DVD's) to bust one of the most wanted men in the world. Unfortunately, he is teamed up with Arthur Watson, one of the most bumbling fools on the force (played by usually funny British comic Lee Evans).

The bad guy named Snakehead (played by Julian Sands) has his eye on a medallion and a kid. When the two parts of the medallion are combined, the recipient will gain super-human strength and immortality. But the kid is as important as the medallion because only he can bring both parts together.

Jackie Chan's love interest in the movie is Claire Forlani, who does a reasonable job as the jilted love that never was called after that weekend of passion. As is my understanding of the way the world works.

The plot wasn't anything special, but the superpowers thing was done once before (and done better) in the movie "The Tuxedo." The writing is spotty at best (the worst being the 5 minute insinuation that Chan and Lee Evans were homosexuals).

The action sequences went like this:
Running, running, running, dodging pullets, running, jumping through fire, running, running, drowning, running, running, running, etc. There was so much running in this movie that I was tired just looking at it.

Overall, not as painful as a root canal, but I still stumbled to my car after the movie with the same overall feeling of badness in my head.

Rating:
Summary: Better than "The Tuxedo"
Review: Although "The Medallion" is much better than "The Tuxedo," there are still a few problems. The special effects are good, but to replace Chan's fights with computerized craziness is wrong, and is excessively used in the dull final battle. However, about one third of the movie contains real Chan fights and stunts, including jumping onto a truck, dodging traffic, climbing fences, and leaping through fire. His costar Lee Evans is no Chris Tucker or Owen Wilson, but provides a couple of laughs once in a while. As usual, Jackie is the funniest person in the movie, showcasing his humor during his fight routines. The only other problem with this movie is that Jackie doesn't convert everyday objects into weapons, unlike "First Strike", "Project A", and many of his other films. Hopefully Jackie's next movie won't resort to him getting superpowers.

Rating:
Summary: Forgettable
Review: Jackie Chan has really cranked out a lot of movies and I have found some of them quite entertaining with action packed fight scenes, good stories, great stunts, and Chan's self deprecating sense of humor. This is not one of them.

There is not much to the plot - Chan is a Hong Kong cop facing off against a super criminal "Snakehead". Snakehead is after a medallion that is possessed by a kid. The medallion gives people special powers. Snakehead kidnaps the kid and Chan is in the hunt to save the kid and keep the medallion out of Snakehead's hands.

Unfortunately, the plot is awful and makes little sense. The fight scenes are not very good. The movie essentially breaks down into a not very interesting series of vignettes that I could never decide whether they were supposed to be funny, scary, thrilling - they were just plan dumb.

Chan would be better served to make fewer, higher quality movies than to churn out forgettable fare like The Medallion.

Rating:
Summary: Not one of jackies best.
Review: Maybe it is because I love jackie's earlier movies which he surpassed himself in, but I was very disappointed with this film. Okay, so it's funny in parts but having said this that's about it. I realise that jackie is trying different things in his new films, but for me I preferred the original hong kong movies. I really never thought I would ever give a JC movie 3 stars, but I have to be honest and do so. Sorry jackie. But I am still an avid fan of yours.

Rating:
Summary: What in the hell is this? Jackie, is that you?
Review: In this movie, Jackie Chan is a Hong Kong detective who investigates a smuggler after an artifact called "The Medallion" that can give eternal life to those who wears it. However, there is a child who bears its powers and he was kidnapped. So, of course, Jackie Chan must save the child and stop the bad guys from misusing the Medallion.

The problem with this Jackie Chan movie...is that it's not a Jackie Chan movie. I am a fan of many actors, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jim Varney, Chris Tucker, but there is no actor I hold as high as Jackie Chan. I have seen virtually every movie of his back from when he was a teenager and I'm still searching for all the well hidden films of his. To make the point short, I am an enormous Jackie Chan fan.

What does that mean? Basically, it means I'll watch anything with Jackie Chan in it. Hell, I'll watch an martial arts porno if it has Jackie Chan in it. What THIS translate to is that I'm not difficult to please when it comes to Jackie Chan movies. All you have to do is star him and let him fight, preferably for at least 40% of the movie, and I'll love it. So how in the hell did this movie turn out like this?

Well, because they mess up the fighting scenes. I hate those magical-type martial arts movies and, in this one, Jackie is jumping all over the place. What a misuse of talent. I hated this movie because it didn't have any of the classic Jackie Chan attributes.

There was no jaw dropping fight scenes, there was virtually no Jackie-type comedy, there was no ANYTHING! You could replace Jackie Chan with Jet Li and I don't think people would notice the difference. This movie is an atrocity and, frankly, it should be torched. Jackie Chan movies from decades ago is better than this.