For today’s Ass Whoopin Wednesday film, I searched the internet far and wide to find a film that peaked my interest. I settled on a Jackie Chan (Rumble In The Bronx) film that I had never seen in The Medallion. In the film Chan plays a Hong Kong detective named Eddie who is hot on the trail of a criminal named Snakehead (Julian Sands). When he gets close to Snakehead, he finds out that Snakehead is after the chosen one Jai (Alex Bao) for a medallion. After an accident finds him dead, Jai uses the medallion to bring him back to life and it turns him into a super warrior. Now with the help of Interpol agents, he has to stop Snakehead from getting his hands on it. The film also stars Lee Evans (The Fifth Element) as Arthur Watson, Claire Forlani (Green Street Hooligans) as Nicole James, John Rhys-Davies (The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring) as Cmdr. Hammerstock-Smythe, Anthony Chau-Sang Wong (The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor) as Lester, Christy Chung (The Defender) as Charlotte Watson, Johann Myers (Black Hawk Down) as Giscard, and the film was directed by Gordon Chan (Fist Of Legend). Before we get into the review of the film, let’s check out some stats:
As far as the stats are concerned, Jackie Chan has about 21 1/2 kills/knockouts in the film and he has a 1/2 because Watson finished off one of the guys. He doesn’t really have an origin story in the film even though you figure out he had a past relationship with someone and that person is ultimately his love interest. I put a question mark after whether anyone close got hurt because even I am unsure. The boy gets kidnapped, but he’s not really family even though he does save him and Watson’s family is targeted. So, I’ll leave it to all of you to be the judges on that one. The big boss is defeated in the film, but as always you have to watch it to figure out how. While some of the martial arts action in the film was decent, this was actually a pretty cheesy film from beginning to end. The villains were cheesy, the partnership with Lee Evans was cheesy, and some of the fight choreography was cheesy. I thought Jackie Chan was great, but the rest of the cast were kind of awful and awkward. Julian Sands isn’t a bad actor, just didn’t favor him in this film and his sidekick who does all his bidding is cheesy as well. The film was too over the top at times as far as the comedy was concerned which I think is what bothered me the most. I don’t know, I think it was worth at least one watch, but other than that I would say no. I am going to give the film 2.7 fists out of five for a final grade.
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