BulletProof Monk is apparently based on a a comic book, but I haven't read it, so I'm forced to view it in relationship to its movie predecessors: "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Generic Eastern Religion", "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Coherence", "The Matrix: Diluted", and "Dude, Where's My Check?" And for all that, it's not a bad way to kill a bucket of popcorn.
The great thing about a movie like "Bulletproof Monk" is that if the film is simply in focus, your expectations have already been exceeded. Having given up any hope of a surprising plot, plausibility, great effects, or non-herbaceous characters, you are free to be charmed by the little things. For example, the young dude star, Seann William Scott, has a crooked smile that's cute the first 40 times. It's mildly clever that he learns his Eastern martial arts by watching too many movies at the theater where he works and lives. Yun-Fat Chow is becoming twinkly in his middle age. And some of the stunts - old hat in a post-"Crouching Matrix" world - are funny.
Of course, it's hard to get excited by stunts when you know there's nothing the slightest bit real about them. It wouldn't have been very interesting to watch Jackie Chan hurdle from one building to another if you thought there was a net beneath, straps above and a digital reconstructionist putting the whole thing together. "The Matrix" and "Crouching Tiger" were startling because they were the first time most of us saw such startling visualizations of fights. Now, as everyone from "Charlie's Angels" to "Bulletproof Monk" repeats them, we're left just feel faked. Watching a stunt these days is about as interesting as watching an extra get "shot": Oh my, do you think maybe they used a real bullet?
So, that leaves us with plot and characters. Ok, so we're back to the stunts. Over all: Amusing, not annoying, and acceptable if the popcorn is fresh and the soda is fizzy.
Article comments
1 - visualsimplicity
The "Crouching Tiger" visualization of fights you mentioned have been around for years in other Chinese fight movies (although some of the really really old ones, you could see the rope they used) prior to that movie being released. "The Matrix" thing on the other hand was completely new when it came out, and for some reason, I'm more desensitized to "The Matrix" effect than I am of the Chinese flying effect, go figure.