The Medallion

December 10, 2004

Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 90 min Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

I gave myself over a day between seeing this movie and writing the review, hoping I could come up with some reason not to give it only one star. Alas, this thing sucked so bad there’s just no excuse to elevate it in any way. Sorry Jackie, this one should have stayed in the can.

The Medallion

The Medallion feels like a crappy made for TV movie you’d see on a Sunday afternoon. Jackie Chan is Eddie Yang, a cop from Hong Kong who stumbles into an Interpol case involving an Irish criminal mastermind (!?) and a mythical Medallion fused together by a young boy. The plot is foiled and the Irish guy escapes back to Ireland, but has the boy kidnapped and brought along as well. Of course, Jackie comes along to.

I just can’t type anymore about this inane plot. I swear, I see a lot of crappy plots but this one was so damn formulaic that I would have walked out of the theater if I didn’t have to write the review. First, this is a kids movie even though that’s not indicated in the trailers or ads. Seriously, this thing has sound effects that must have come out of a Saturday morning cartoon. And the music! It should have got billing on the poster as a leading character is was so poorly mixed. Many times it was louder than the actors, and it was almost always inappropriate. Do I really need to hear violins when two characters meet to let me know there’s an attraction there? Do I need to hear fighting cats when two women start to fight?

Also, what’s with Jackie Chan using wires? I’m not talking about later in the movie when he has “super-powers”, I’m talking about the first half where he just knows how to fight. Wires and Jackie… who would have ever thought it.

The only bright spot in the movie was the closing credits, and not just because I could finally peel myself out of my seat and go home. Like all Chan movies there are outtakes during the closing credits, and as usual they are well worth sitting through. I don’t recommend making yourself sit through this movie just to see them though.

Posted by John | Filed Under 1 Stars, Action, Christy Chung, Claire Forlani, Jackie Chan, John Rhys-Davies, Lee Evans, PG-13, Theatrical