| The Medallion | | Cast : | Jackie Chan, Lee Evans, Claire Forlani | | Director : | Gordon Chan | | Studio : | Columbia Tristar Hom | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | August 22, 2003 | | DVD Released Date : | January 04, 2005 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), French (Subtitled), English (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | February 02, 2005 | | Summary | What in the hell is this? Jackie, is that you? | Content
 | 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. |
| Rating | | | Date | November 27, 2004 | | Summary | Probably One Of The Worst Films I've Ever Seen | Content
| The Medallion isn't one of those huge martial arts blockbusters that you would expect with Jackie Chan being in it. The storyline kicks off with a Hong Kong detective named Eddie Yang [Jackie Chan], attempting to apprehend a criminal mastermind known as Snakehead with a fellow partner. He eventually discovers that Snakehead has kidnapped a boy who has the power to work the supernatural abbilites of the "Medallion", a medallion [Obviously], that make people immortal, give them super speed, super strength etc. etc. Yang dies in the act of rescuing the boy, but is revived with the Medallion and granted supernatural powers and immortality. He then goes to battle Snakehead who gifts himself with the same powers, giving the movie a kind of superhero like edge. The end fight is extremely boring with supernatural people punching eachother around. Some of the quotes in the film are horrible and make no sense and a lot of the film has an air of "Why didn't he do that earlier?" plot which makes the film seem entirely terrible. Don't even rent this film...yes its that bad! |
| Rating | | | Date | November 13, 2004 | | Summary | A near-total waste of time | Content
| Now don't get me wrong, Jackie Chan is one of my favorite actors of all time and I've loved watching his movies ever since first seeing "Rumble In The Bronx" in the spring of 2001, albeit five years late, and I've come to enjoy many of his other movies but his 2003 outing called "The Medallion" is without a doubt the weakest moive that he's ever starred in and is a major disappointment considering how great many of his others, or even his other subpar films at least had some funny moments. On here however, even the funny momemts are hardly enough to muster up a laugh at all.
Jackie Chan stars as a Hong Kong detective who is investigating a notorious international smuggler who is after a mysterious ancient artifact called The Medallion that resurrects and gives eternal life to those who wear it but a kid who bears it's power is kidnapped by the smugglers and now the Hong Kong detective must rescue him from them and retrieve the artifact before it is used by the ringleaders.
Sadly, being a huge Jackie Chan fan, "The Medallion" is by far the most uninspiring movie that he has ever starred in. Even all of the slapstick stunts are nowhere near as funny as like those in classics like "Rush Hour" or his cult hit "Rumble In The Bronx". There is virtually nothing that inspires laughs like the truck full of childrens play balls falling off the fourth level parking garage in "Rumble In The Bronx" or even those from "The Tuxedo", his weakest movie before this travesty came along.
The acting is absolutely ridiculous and even Jackie's eccentricity that has made him so much fun to watch isn't enough to save this garbage. The acting by almost everyone else doesn't help either. Everything about this movie gives a sense of this having ground already been traveled on countless times without giving it a different light.
I am a major Jackie Chan fan and have been for many years but this is the first time that I have felt really let down by a movie of his. If this is a sign of artistic decay then "The Medallion" is perhaps a crossroad of where Jackie must try to come up with new ideas to bring new magic into his career because this movie has none of that. An outright disappointment.
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| Rating | | | Date | October 25, 2004 | | Summary | Physically Painful to Watch | Content
| Boy is this thing one of the worst films I have ever seen. I know and accept that a Jackie Chan movie doesn't care much about its story or characters, and using only a thin plot as an excuse to showcase his near superhuman acrobatic and comedic combat skills. However, this film, especially in the early going, is so lifeless and unexciting that it nearly resembles a funeral procession. There is none of that patented Jackie Chan energy and joy anywhere to be found, and he seems to be just going through the motions of movie making. It can't even work as a background distraction and merely annoys with its complete blandness. Worst of all none of the stuntworks were choreographed or filmed with even an ounce of creativity, and simply relegates Jackie to scale tall objects of various types. This is where an infantile script and failed comedy bits come together to murder the film. It's so bad I actually developed chest pains watching it, and I can't say that about too many films. Frankly Jackie deserves better, but perhaps it's a sign for him to retire. The only saving grace is the delicious presence of female lead Claire Forlani, who is perfection personified. Though that illusion works better with the activation of the mute button. I will still take two of her please. Where was I? Yeah, Jackie, hire me to work on your scripts, at least the thing would be watchable without causing any physical harm to your loving worldwide audience. |
| Rating | | | Date | October 17, 2004 | | Summary | Thank heavens for small favors. | Content
| This movie was AWFUL. And not in a bad-Jackie-Chan-movie-is-good way. This movie was actually horrible. See, there are a few things about bad (good) Jackie Chan movies that the producers apparently forgot.
1) Jackie's character must be named "Jackie."
2) Jackie's character (or "Jackie") must start the movie as a cab driver, or butler, or similarly innocuous occupation, and only get roped into crime-fighting ACCIDENTALLY. This way, he can go half the movie with a confused look on his face.
3) If there are artifacts or other elements of Eastern mythology, they are introduced by a sexy female archaeologist.
4) If there is a sidekick, he must actually be FUNNY (i.e. Owen Wilson).
5) Jackie must appear naked at some point in the movie (actually, they remembered this one).
6) The outtakes ought to show Jackie doing things that would get a regular, non-Jackie-Chan person killed.
I am disappointed to say that this is one of the worst bad movies I've seen in a while. However, in watching the deleted scenes on the DVD, I find that the directors spared us from an even WORSE movie. So thank goodness for that. |
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