Great Film: The Medallion
Fun fantasy, and not much else
It has taken Jackie Chan about 27 years, a good 60 movies or so, and a
few near death experiences for him to decide that he can start making
movies that don't regularly involve certain death, thanks to CGI. The
results are not so good. In fact, I'll just say it: 'The Medallion' is
a terrible action movie.
Jackie plays Eddie Yang, a Hong Kong detective chasing a villain named
Snakehead (those villains and their crazy names). Snakehead, like all
Hong Kong villains is actually English, so when he kidnaps a boy with
the power to control The Medallion, Yang follows him to Ireland to
reclaim the Medallion and find the child (who just goes to prove, that
even if you live in a Buddhist temple in a sewer below Hong Kong, you
can still learn to speak perfect English with an English accent).
Seems like 'The Golden Child'? Why yes, yes it does. Its a fun fantasy
movie for kids, but anyone wanting to watch an action movie should
watch this up until a short cameo appearance by Sammo Hung and then
turn it off very quickly. Now I'm not a fan of CGI action, but I
assumed that with Jackie Chan starring and Sammo Hung directing the
action - two action masters - could still pull of some entertaining
action scenes. Apparently not, as 'The Medallion' is only marginally
better than, oh, say 'Charlie's Angels 2'.
Fun for kids, but action fans should avoid entirely. I'm being generous
when I give this 5/10.
Cast
- Eddie Yang played by Jackie Chan
- Snakehead played by Julian Sands
- Antiquerium Dealer (as Lau Siu Ming) played by Siu-ming Lau
- Nicole James played by Claire Forlani
- Arthur Watson played by Lee Evans
- Cmdr. Hammerstock-Smythe played by John Rhys-davies
- Lester (as Anthony Wong) played by Anthony Wong Chau-sang
