That was an excellent one.

it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Critics and fans alike have been fairly ruthless in recent years in giving Jackie Chan's Hollywood movies a real drubbing. I'll admit that the last film I saw of his, THE TUXEDO, was a two-star effort with poor casting and choppy action sequences. Thankfully, THE MEDALLION, another film which has been pretty much panned across the globe, comes across as something of a revelation. For a start, it's a quite good movie, much like Jackie's '80s efforts, with plenty of humour and action to keep the audience from noticing the thinness of the plot. Thanks to some particularly good international casting as well as interesting locations – when was the last time we had an action film set in Dublin? Never! – this is a mildly entertaining effort, low brow but crowd-pleasing with it.The story is as thin as they come and former stuntman Bey Logan even had a hand in creating it (Logan is the guy who does all the DVD commentary tracks on martial arts movies). It involves a medallion which makes the wearer become immortal – so this is basically the film where Jackie gets to be superman. Unfortunately the CGI effects to show the magical nature of the talisman are very poor, but they do fit in with the film's comic-book style. Jackie, although starting to look like a piece of crumpled parchment, is very good here in the comedy stakes and, although his once famous stunt work is replaced by wire work and computer enhancements, he still cuts it as the clumsy but lovable hero. Jackie's opponent this time around is Julian Sands, an actor who doesn't seem to have aged much recently; Sands is wasted and doesn't even get to overact much, but its still good to see him on cinema screens again after so long.The film is action-packed from beginning to end. There are a handful of fun martial arts battles and plenty of stunts, even if they aren't the most realistic on offer. Jackie's fall from a high building is a hilarious moment and the chase through the streets of Dublin is great to watch as well. Primarily, though, this is a comedy, which sees Lee Evans being cast as Jackie's partner. Evans is a delight to watch here, despite what others may have to say. Utilising the old-fashioned slapstick kind of humour, he plays a clichéd, stuffy, stereotyped British upper-crust character with non-stop pranks, pratfalls, and gurning, and I was actively looking forward to him appearing in each scene. He's ace and his natural, non gross-out gentle comedy is a real delight.The supporting cast includes veteran Chinese bad guy Anthony Wong as a suit in a bowler hat, reminding me more of Charlie Chan than anybody else. John Rhys-Davies shows up in a minor supporting role – the likes of which he used to do in the '80s/'90s all the time - but is wasted as usual. The love interest is played by Claire Forlani who is easily more attractive than Jennifer Love Hewitt – a natural beauty, her presence is delightful every time she shows up. Generally, that's all I have to say, except for older non-critical fans to check this out, as it's a return to the old days for Jackie and a film which leaves me actively looking forward to his next.

I love Jackie Chan, so much to the point where he inspired me (partially) to start doing karate (Tang Soo Do) and after sticking with it for three-and-a-half years, I finally achieved my black belt. In a way, Jackie is one of my all-time heroes.However, this film is probably his worst yet -- possibly ever. Every single attempt at comedy falls flat, which is a real shame, as I was expecting a lot more from the star of Shanghai Noon and The Legend of the Drunken Master. Chan's performance is lackluster, Forlani is okay, John Rhys-Davis seems bored and unenthusiastic, and Evans is total lackluster in every way.The action is mediocre, and to finally see a film where Chan didn't do the vast majority of his own stunts was sad. The lame attempts at resembling an old (corny) martial arts' film and possibly The Matrix at some points, made me cringe too much. The final battle is preposterous and made me lose a lot of hope for Chan's future career in film.All in all, with very bad acting, story, and action to match, there's just nothing to appreciate from this movie. Nothing works, except to bring another guilty pleasure into my collection. This is a film I highly recommend to anyone who likes to make their own commentary, as I can't think of any discernible reason as to why someone would have to endure this. I give it three-stars for the fact that it really is a guilty pleasure for its extreme lameness. Don't watch this.

I think a lot of people hated this movie (and believe me, millions will !) and no one maybe knew that the main reason of hatred comes from this quintet's errors ! OH MY GOD the 5 writers of the screenplay absolutely didn't care for presenting a fantasy had its own solid logic, or building a good connections between the scenes, or anything we remember after watching with feeling of respecting the movie or ourselves ! Except that we watched a simpleton emaciated work.The plot is so weak. You'll hate it more when you love it in the beginning then, as we all did, feel the deception after. So it's a situation of nice idea turned into a hasty poor thing ! You'll find yourself asking questions like : did (Jackie Chan) and his girl just die at the end ?!, and to where exactly they was running ?? To heaven ? Or to cash their money for being in this ? And why they're making money out of trashy work like this and we don't ?!! To tell you the truth we are the idiots who pay money for seeing this to have nothing at all, so we are the perfect losers ! See.. This is the kind of questions this movie makes you ask yourself after watching !!Another catastrophe : the action scenes ! (Another OH MY GOD !). You know as I know as we all know that the fine action is the basic good thing you'll ever get from a (Jackie Chan)'s movie, with some brisk comedy of course. BUT HERE it's obviously spurious and excitedly provocative with all of those silly wires which they hanged (Jackie) with all the time ! They, the American producers, are just so apprehensive of anything bad would ever happen to the profiteer Asian star, totally forgetting that his bold merry jobs as one of the cinema greatest clowns are the main reason for his global success. So they misused him and haired stunts for him to ruin the man's own legend which had been based on his no need for a stunt and his realistic action ventures ! But this time, as well as most of his last American movies, the legend is nearly destroyed, the action that we always expect and deliver is irritatingly phony, and the Man is hanged by stupid weirs (hanged indeed !). So the result would be : a nice idea transformed into a fine trauma ! + a supposed to be nice action turned into fake thing + a great icon making a goof of himself (Like it's a parody of Jackie Chan by Jackie Chan !). Nevertheless this movie had 3 high points.. One is the sweet presence of (Claire Forlani). She got fascinating tender features. However the script gave her nothing to do except smiling !! Although this could be a very beautiful thing to watch, but when it repeated, it became meaningless and boring act which made us remind the old performance of the silent movies !The second point : this movie includes a real rare event maybe you'll find it in history books after (and I'm not kidding !). There is actually a kiss between the Asian actor and the non-Asian actress; this is HUGE as well as historical because there was always (and I mean ALWAYS !) this unspoken objection about a love scene or even a simple kiss between an Asian and an American or European human being !! And the examples for that are quite endless. It was strangely prohibitive and made a lot of fuss about Hollywood's real and old sense of racism. But this movie, which is produced by Hong Kong & USA, DID IT in surprising precedent, to give itself one reason to livelong in addition to its Ritzy Razzie condition ! The third and the last good thing about this movie is being less worse than another flashy yet unfruitful American movie by (Jackie Chan) also from the same time named (Tuxedo) which you must thank God if you didn't watch it till now ! P.S : when the British officer, who hides his reality as a secret agent on his wife, discovered that this very wife is another secret agent who was trained for killing, hiding that fact on him ! You'll see extraordinary resemblance with (Mr. and Mrs. Smith – 2005) ! And the similarity is just outstanding when in one scene of (The Medallion) the wife was shooting in the house and stopped to ask her husband softly with the machine gun in her hands "Are You Fine Baby ?" because there is unbelievably almost identical scene from (Mr. and Mrs. ..) of which you could watch in its trailer.. but 2 years later !.. Just ????

Recap: Police officer Eddie Yang traces known gangster Snakehead to Ireland after Snakehead kidnapped a holy kid in Hong Kong. According to the myth, the kid, with a certain medallion, can resurrect people and give them superpowers (like immortality). Yang, and his colleagues Watson and James, tries to free the kid as Snakehead tries to smuggle the kid into Ireland on a boat. The result however is that the kid and Eddie falls in to the water, trapped in a container. Eddie drowns, but saves the boy, and in return, the boy later resurrects Eddie. Now, Eddie, with superpowers must stop Snakehead once and for all.Comments: I thought they really had something going there. Started out nice. As I expected, a lot of martial arts and fights, all nicely choreographed and with augmented with extra aids (like wires), of course, but still with a good feeling and some nice touches. The story was nothing fancy, but they had found the balance in the fights. Just enough fancy kicks and jumps. Action director Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan were onto something here. Then came the superpowers. Then everything went just silly. The balance went right out the window (along with Jackie Chan/Eddie Yang actually). Instead of nicely choreographed fights we get ridiculous fights with a lot of special effects. Net result; Silly. And the story didn't get any better either.Jackie Chan delivers what is expected of him, he does what he usually does. But I can't do anything but wonder why the character Arthur Watson is in the movie? To add some comic element apparently, as that was needed. Watson is annoyingly clumsy, petty and incompetent and has mysteriously risen to a high position within Interpol. Evans plays the part well, I guess he does what is asked of him, but again, why is the character in the movie? Claire Forlani got the role of Nicole James, agent/love interest, of Eddie Yang. Though Nicole is much more competent than Watson she is clearly side-stepped both in the movie and with the virtual Interpol. Therefore her role is small, her potential and talent not used, her major part is as the one taking care of the kid (Doh, she's a woman - and this is a boring stereotype). She gets to show her skill in martial arts a few times though, showing she (or her stunt double - some shots make it easy to assume she has one) got them. Her only major fight though is, of course, against the female bad guy (to the sound of screeching cats... oh, come on!).So, the beginning was promising, the second "half" disappointing. On average a 5.