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Simply Amazing

I saw this movie ten times. I just love it. It was a great movie just as I expected. A must see. The others who didnt like it, they dont have a life. they just give racist comments. They didnt see the movie. When i was wathcing the movie, everyone in the theatre were highly enjoying especially during the action scenes. me too. Jackie Chan has done it again. A must buy. A must see for die hard fans.

Fun

This movie is a lot of fun to watch. This movie shows what is wrong with all the Matrix movies, poor casting. Jackie Chan and his supporting characters look like they are having a good time during this movie. The Matrix movies, on the other hand aren't very fun and the actors look like they are just going through the motions. The Medallion nicely incorporates Chan's trademark stunts with visual effects much better than in The Tuxedo.
Just because is not made by a big Hollywood studio does not make it boring. I had more fun watching this movie than the Matrix movies altogether.
7/10

Extrodinary Powers

I have seen this movie like 15 times, I didn't know that Julian Sands was in it when I first saw the cast members on the back of the movie. Until I saw it, it was pretty funny as it was with "The Legend of Drunken Master," I mean Jackie Chan was so funny when he does some great stunts, Lee Evans was as doofy as he was in "Mouse Hunt," Claire Forlani is one of many beautiful ladies in the entire L.A., California. Julian Sands is still pretty cool when he was in "The Medallion." The movie brought some great tips and greatest touch, Jackie, Lee, and Claire can kick some bad guys butts when they were playing along with each other. I can't believe Jackie would say "I want ice cream" comment and I laughed my whole heart and lungs out while the credits were rolling by. One of my most favorite parts in the movie was when Eddie and Snakehead were fighting in air, but I love it when Snakehead was walking down the stairs upside down, that kind of stunt reminded me of the movie called "Labyrinth" and then I just thought that Watson was poking Eddie around. Ha ha ha! When the chosen boy told Eddie to throw the medallion towards to the life that it gave, that gave Snakehead's attention. He was like "Oh no! No! No! Not me!" he was scared to death, but I just love Julian's expression when he was like about to cry and get the pain out of his back. Those creatures that came out of Snakehead's back, they're ugly creatures, but they're ok. They're pretty cool to me, just not my taste. That's all I can give for now.Crystal Weideman

Chan's Age Is Showing

The Medallion, as most Chan flicks, features an absurdly stupid plot with some horrendous dialogue and acting thrown in. See why do people go and see them? Because most feature some top notch fight scenes highlighting the incredible talents of Chan. But the Medallion fails to deliver to this core expectancy. Most of the action comes from finding new ways for Chan to jump over objects. The fighting is supremely sophmoric and poorly choreographed. On top, The Medallion feautures some ghastly looking f/x. You'd think in this age that 40 million would get finer effects than this, especially when it looks like little money was spent elsewhere. Most acting in Chan films is bad, but Lee Evans sets a new standard. His acting is painfully petrified and unfunny is apparent from the get go that he will be nothing but a burden. Claire Forlani does what she was paid for, which is too look hot, but you'd think maybe she could have decided if her accent was going to be Irish or American, instead of switching several times between the two. Chan is Chan. It's still mildly fun to watch him perform, even in such a shoddy film as this.See it if you absolutely love Chan. Otherwise, stay away. If your deadset on seeing a terrible film, go see Gigli. Trust me, it's better.1.5/10

Not that bad.. but not that great either

I just saw this film last night. Honestly, I wanted to see another film, but I digress. To be honest, I was impressed. I'm not the martial arts freakazoid type. You can read other reviews to see a plot layout. I did notice, as others have said, obvious cuts in the story. One spoiler: One of the character's wives ends up being a kick butt martial artist. One of the plot points is that he pretends to be a librarian.
Nothing more is said. I assume she belongs to the Interpol police as well, but nothing is touched again. But overall I enjoyed the film. Jackie Chan is really starting to show his age, as others have said. And the probability between him and a 20-something relationship wise is rather unlikely. However, it's escapist fun. If you just want to go out and have fun at the movies with no expectations, watch this film. It's no Matrix, but at least it isn't drek like The Four Feathers or Star Trek 5. Expect nothing and you'll enjoy yourself. Expect great art, and you'll be disappointed. 6/10

I beg to differ - more painful than a root canal

This is a movie where casting and writing (and probably directing) demolished a good idea. Jackie Chan, as usual, was wonderful - Jackie could stand still and smile and be wonderful. Being older than him, I get a kick out of a 50 yr. old that can move, let alone balance on bicycles. Claire Forlani, who is wonderful in Meet Joe Black, has no passion in this movie. The way Jackie and Claire look at one another, it is clear that there has never been any relationship between them and that they just met (which is probably the case, so no acting there). However, I am impressed with actors who do their own stunts and in that, she was totally believable. I would like to see her in something where the guy really lights her up. So far Jackie and Brad just amused her. Lee Evans ( a Jim Carrey/Jerry Lewis wannabe) is as painful as Jar-Jar Binks and that's saying a lot; so if you hated Jar-Jar, you're not going to like him. I think he ruined the movie, and unfortunately he's at the beginning, and never stops. There are scenes where he's a bit better, but he's no Will Smith and Owen Wilson even starts looking good. This is one I bought - how could you go wrong with Jackie. Needless to say it's going back up for sale - I don't think I can take Lee Evans again. But I can't give Jackie a 1, so it's a 3, but strictly for him.

Pretty entertaining.

It was a fun movie to watch. Good ol' Jackie Chan stunts. I felt that some of the CGI stunts could've been taken out of the movie. They were very fake looking and probably weren't necessary. But Jackie Chan can still make me laugh. I also enjoy the way they incorporate comedy into the action. Good entertainment.

Astonishingly Horrible!

Let me preface by saying that I really like Jackie Chan. Not all of his films are A+ material but all of them that I've seen before this one were at least watchable if for no other reason than the interesting stunt work. This one was REALLY PAINFULL to sit through it was soooo bad! I really feel embarrassed for Mr. Chan and just don't understand why he took part in this film. The story is beyond being cheesy, it is ludicrous. Which would be ok if that was what the film was going for like a lampoon or something but this is obviously not the case. The fight scenes are quite poor for any other film in this genre, for a 'Jackie Chan' film they are worse than a bad joke. I am honestly giving this film a rating of 1/10 not as some sort of 'statement' but because this truly reflects this films lack of quality.

Neat superhero-ish action adventure

I don't know why a lot of people seem to think Jackie Chan's The Medallion is so terrible. I thought it was effective comedy and good action with a superhero-like slant. All of the cast turn in good performances with hints of true zaniness (if that's a word - and acc. to the IMDb spellchecker, it is!).It's not a masterpiece, but it's an above average adventure/comedy flick, *at least* as good or better than recent movies in similar genres (like for instance Tomb Raider). It's true it is reminiscent of Eddie Murphy's Golden Child, but The Medallion is much better than that one.7 out of 10.

Liked it better when it was called "The Tuxedo"

Jackie Chan is an agile Hong Kong cop working with Interpol (who knew they did anything besides make the warning messages about copying or rebroadcasting DVD's) to bust one of the most wanted men in the world. Unfortunately, he is teamed up with Arthur Watson, one of the most bumbling fools on the force (played by usually funny British comic Lee Evans).

The bad guy named Snakehead (played by Julian Sands) has his eye on a medallion and a kid. When the two parts of the medallion are combined, the recipient will gain super-human strength and immortality. But the kid is as important as the medallion because only he can bring both parts together.

Jackie Chan's love interest in the movie is Claire Forlani, who does a reasonable job as the jilted love that never was called after that weekend of passion. As is my understanding of the way the world works.

The plot wasn't anything special, but the superpowers thing was done once before (and done better) in the movie "The Tuxedo." The writing is spotty at best (the worst being the 5 minute insinuation that Chan and Lee Evans were homosexuals).

The action sequences went like this:
Running, running, running, dodging pullets, running, jumping through fire, running, running, drowning, running, running, running, etc. There was so much running in this movie that I was tired just looking at it.

Overall, not as painful as a root canal, but I still stumbled to my car after the movie with the same overall feeling of badness in my head.

Pee-yew

Poor movie. Even worse than The Tuxedo even though it has a similar plot. I am also growing tired of wire-fu fight scenes. One bright spot is a chase scene where Jackie climbs a 15 gate, squeezes through a grate and climbs back down faster than I can sit down on my couch. All this being said, I would be happy to pay $7 just to watch Claire Forlani drink a cup of coffee.

Chan's fall from 80s/90s action hero to 00 bore draw continues...

Since Chan moved from Hong Kong to Hollywood, it seems he's carved himself into an impossible situation where directors, screen writers and producers seem to want Chan to do virtually the same plot, ideas and stunts with a little "twist" or as we like to call it, the fish-out-water plot.I feel that Jackie's fall from the mega heights of 80s and 90s action hero to a bore draw continues in this film, which has elements of different ideas from different films put together for (what was deemed at the time to be) the most expensive Hong Kong movie of all time - although I can't really see where the money was spent.In fact it feels like they put a bunch of ideas into a hat and pulled out words to form a plot, story and said "okay, let's throw in some Matrix sci-fi CGI and that will do". The result is credulous to say the least.Chan also, like other films before, surrounds himself with younger women – in this case, the fantastically eye-pleasing Claire Forlani (and her very striking eyes), although this eye candy doesn't help with the plot, which looks and smells like a poor-man's version of the Golden Child.I didn't really like this movie – the CGI took too much away from the danger, risk and stunt work that we all know Chan for. Indeed, CGI has already taken so much away from stunt work that I think this film underpins the very reason why audiences do not feel the same when they see a "real" stunt compared to one done with CGI… the reason is quite simple, CGI stunts offer no connection between the viewer and fear.Overall, this movie has its moments – but they are few and far between, this film highlights Chan's fall from action hero to a children film hero - bore draw.Chan's recent eagerness to get back to Hong Kong dramatic movies and hard nosed action spectacular show that he is coming back – but I think the damage might already been done because of poor films such as The Medallion.Overall: 2/10.

Bemusing and agreeable film with super Jackie Chan

The movie centers about a police agent (Jackie Chan)who will confront against an evil baddie (Julian Sands) by the possession a medallion with extraordinary power. Chan and others agents (Claire Forlani and Lee Evans)will must face off nasties who are waiting rule over world and obtain eternal youth , but the medallion is carried by a boy and he hands over one halve to Jackie Chan.Since the start until end action pace is interminable ,the movie is fast moving and for that reason is amusing and isn't boring neither tiring. The film blends intrigue , humor, pursuits ,frenetic action,struggles and is amount entertaining. In spite of it, this comedy/action picture failed in the box office and was a true flop.The action by Jackie Chan is by means of special effects FX and strings to difference others films that he's the stunt. The motion picture has a certain likeness to ¨the Tuxedo¨ similar in extreme powers of Jackie such as : thanks to the 'medallion' and 'tuxedo'. While in the first Jennifer Love Hewitt played as ¨buddy movie¨ couple with Jackie Chan, here plays along with Claire Forlani.The final showdown between the starring and nasties contenders is astounding and overwhelming although there are deal computer generator FX. The yarn will like action-packed buffs and Jackie Chan fans.Rating: Average 5/10

Bashful's DVD Summary #023

Best:

1) Jackie doesn't spend a lot of time making his usual goofy faces or doing slapstick routines to entertain.
2) The comedy relief is done by a supporting cast of British actors who offer an offbeat twist.
3) There's a producer/editor commentary track and 15 deleted scenes.

Worst:

1) Jackie's medallion-induced superpowers don't kick in until the movie is half over. When they finally do, they're manifested mainly through wire work and simple lighting effects.
2) The villians, in general, weren't all that scary. That made the final good guys vs. bad guys showdown unfulfilling.

Recommendation:

If you're a Jackie Chan fan, you'll want to see this one at least once. Since it's so different from his usual fare (using wires and not clowning around so much), you might think hard before buying it at the full retail price.

Not very memorable

I love Jackie Chan and all of his movies, buy I will admit this is not one of his best. It's quite bad actually, I bought it cos it was cheap and I like to own all of Jackie's movies in my collection. Not even Claire Forlani could really save this one, she looks totally out of place in this movie. I only recommend it to serious Jackie fans, I couldn't imagine anyone else getting through the whole 85 minutes.

Ridiculously bad

I really like most Jackie Chan movies, but nothing could redeem this stinker. The less said about the plot, the better. The dialogue was awful. And the action scenes aren't even very good. The most enjoyment I got out of this movie was sitting around afterwards drinking to forget and hoping that in our drunken stupors, the movie would magically make sense and be entertaining.

Watch the DVD version

This is an entertaining movie, but by no means is it a complicated movie. But if you get a chance to watch this on DVD, watch the deleted scenes. It looks like they had started off with the intention of filming a much more complicated movie and then changed it entirely to something more lighthearted. It looks like the original title of this movie was Highbinders, probably a take off on Highlander, since this movie deals with immortal supermen. Maybe it was supposed to be a comedic Highlander originally, or something like Eddie Murphy's Golden Child. Perhaps they decided that Golden Child had already been done, and it wasn't that successful, so they edited this down heavily. In the deleted scenes we see that the Watson character, played by Lee Evans, is even more frantic than he is in this cut. Bordering on Inspector Clouseau even. It even looks like they originally had plans to make a sequel to this movie, and even put a hook at the end of the movie to allow it to continue. But they decided against all that, and made it much less likely to have a sequel. This movie is 90 minutes, but if they had kept the original plot it may have gone 2-2.5 hours. I think they made the right decision to shorten down and reduce the complexity of this movie. It keeps your attention longer this way. However, I wouldn't have minded seeing the more complex movie either.

Take off the Medallion and put back on the Tuxedo

It's hard enough to figure out why this film was once called "High Binders" let alone why Jackie would short change his fans with this very weak action movie. I thought that the Tuxedo was Jackies weakest picture, although not as bad as everyone had claimed. After seeing the Medallion that film becomes a bit better now that we see that things could have been worse.

Where to begin. In this movie we get a Jackie who seems more comfortable with adding special effects to jazz things up. From the opening titles I was pleased to see "A Jackie Chan Production" which has always meant quality in the past. Although this may seem to be another Hollywood action flick, it's actually one of Jackies international movies. He does the smart thing by adding a mostly American star cast, a few recongizable faces makes things feel more at home. Claire Forlani is an excellent choice especially after the dudd of choosing Jennifer Love Hewitt for Tuxedo.

This movie can't decide if its' a traditional Chan pic or one of his new jazzy ones that have special effects. In the end we get a [bad] version of both. Shanghai Knights was excellent and proved to me that Jackie can still be fresh and new in his action scenes. In this he treads alot of old ground, doing nothing that one would call impressive. The effects, as always, seem to hinder chan rather than help him. It was kinda cool to see him play Superman in the second half of the film but the script was just awful. They actually stop the plot for a kitchen scene montage of jackie and friend cooking dinner to the hit song "twist and shout". If that doesnt say it all I dont know what will.

On one positive note actor Lee Evans provides some much needed comic relief and Jackie is left playing the straight man. A pleasing twist but over all it can't save this sorry movie.

The Accidental Spy was a great film and was also his last previous international movie. What went wrong between these two I will never know. Jackie seems to be giving in to what seems to sell here in American but at the same time he's doing it completely wrong. Let's hope for better next time, and forget this movie ever happened.

Thrill as Chan relies as CGI! Be astounded by a lackluster script!

We would all love our favorite action stars to stay young forever. Many of them do indeed seek screen immortality, continuing in their particular genre for way past their prime. The results are often lackluster - you just can't beat the clock, but some actors manage to continue giving decent performances, even if it is a shallow version of their finest work."The Medallion" marks Jackie Chan's 89th movie, and a lot of aging has occurred to the man since his first role in 1962. At 49 years old, Chan tries to mask his shortcomings in the film by using a lot of "wuxia" special effects, that is, gravity-defying camera work made famous in films like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "The Matrix." Try as he might, though, this just isn't the same Chan.The story concerns Hong Kong detective Eddie Yang (Chan) who is working with Interpol to track down a mysterious crime boss known as Snakehead (Julian Sands). Snakehead is after what essentially every comic book villain in history has sought to acquire, the secret to immortality and invincibility. His searching has lead to him to a young Chinese boy who, as the convenient ancient prophecy has proclaimed, has the power to grant such gifts by way of a mythical talisman, the titular medallion.The gangster's thugs manage to kidnap the boy and take him back to Ireland, and Yang follows. While in Dublin, he meets his old Interpol flame Nicole James (Claire Forlani), who playfully harbors a grudge against him for leaving her, and also teams up with Arthur Watson (Lee Evans), a fellow officer with whom he had trouble working with back in Hong Kong.While rescuing the boy from the thugs, Yang ends up being imbued with invincibility and must use this new power to fight off the forces of evil. And, along the way, hook back up with his old girlfriend.The movie does have a lot of funny moments, especially when Yang first discovers his new powers and unintentionally creates havoc with them. And Evans, who basically played the straight man to Matt Dillon's goofy hamming in "There's Something About Mary" is allowed to become more of a comedian here, even if he seems to be doing a goofy mix of Rowan Atkinson and David Arquette.Perhaps that's another of the film's shortcomings, it tries too hard to be goofy when it should be trying to be funny. Chan's movies have always had a high slapstick quotient, but here it just seems like padding. Also, earlier I mentioned the villain was known as Snakehead. Given the nature of this movie, this may indeed be his real name."The Medallion" isn't really all that imaginative either. Once Yang gains his superpowers he basically just uses them to beat up the bad guys, something he seemed to be doing quite well already when he was still mortal.The villain also is not that original; he plans to use the superpowers to make him a better criminal. Sands does an okay job as Snakehead, but his character is just going through the motions, doing evil stuff and saying evil things because presumably that's all that evil people do. Perhaps if Snakehead had been given some personality it would have been okay, but instead he's just an evil foil against Yang's goodness. But then Jackie Chan movies have never been know for being morally ambiguous - the good guys are good and the bad guys are bad, and that's that.In the hands of a decent comic book writer like Kevin Smith or Garth Ennis, this premise might have been expanded out into a unique story. What exists here instead is a vehicle for a star that is slowly but surely getting over-the-hill and becoming more and more dependent on CGI to keep him in the game. Chan still moves marvelously for a man his age, but he should soon follow Chuck Norris' footsteps and place a moratorium on over-the-top action movies he can no longer do.After all, Chan has already given the genre more than its fair share of classics, and there would be no shame in him finally taking on the role of the aged master in his films, teaching a new class of students the art of kung fu. And he wants to do it in a goofy way, well, we'd expect nothing less from this comic legend.4 out of 10.

just loved it, the best jackie chan movie of recent years

a very great movie. jackie chan hasn't lost a touch yet. the best action movie of 2003 or may be possibly the best movie of this year. a must see for every true jackie chan fan. dont listen to the critics. watch the movie & you will sure love it a lot . watch it. i would recommend it to anybody who is interested in Jackie Chan.