The Medallion (2003)

Director:

Gordon Chan

Writers:

Alfred Cheung (story)
Bennett Davlin (written by) ...

Release Date:

22 August 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Action | Fantasy | Thriller

Plot:

A Hong Kong detective suffers a fatal accident involving a mysterious medallion and is transformed into an immortal warrior with superhuman powers.

Plot Keywords:

Fight Scene | Interracial Marriage | Video Conferencing | Poison | Resurrection

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Jackie Chan	...	Eddie Yang
Lee Evans	...	Arthur Watson
Claire Forlani	...	Nicole James
Julian Sands	...	Snakehead
John Rhys-Davies	...	Cmdr. Hammerstock-Smythe
Anthony Wong Chau-Sang	...	Lester (as Anthony Wong)
Christy Chung	...	Charlotte Watson
Johann Myers	...	Giscard
Alex Bao	...	Jai (as Alexander Bao)
Siu-Ming Lau	...	Antiquerium Dealer (as Lau Siu Ming)
Diana C. Weng	...	Undercover Woman (as Diana Weng)
Chow Pok Fu	...	High Priest
Chan Tat Kwong	...	Monk
Wai Cheung Mak	...	Monk (as Mak Wai Cheung)
Anthony Carpio	...	Guard Monk

Also Known As:

Highbinders (USA) (working title)
Médaillon, Le (Canada: French title) (France) [fr]
Medaillon, Das (Austria) (Germany) [de]
Himmlische Gerechtigkeit (Austria) [de]
Kultainen medaljonki (Finland) [fi]
Medalhão, O (Brazil) [pt]
Poder del talismán, El (Spain) [es]
The Medallion (Italy) [it]

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for action violence and some sexual humor.

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

Hong Kong | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

South Korea:12 | Iceland:12 (video rating) | Malaysia:U | Netherlands:12 | Ireland:12 | Iceland:10 | Australia:M | Canada:14A | Finland:K-15 | France:U | Germany:12 | Norway:11 | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:PG | Sweden:11 | UK:PG | USA:PG-13 (certificate #39538)

Filming Locations:

Dublin Castle, Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland

Company:

Emperor Multimedia Group (EMG)

Trivia:

According to tour guides at Dublin Castle in Ireland, Jackie Chan hopped onto the throne during filming of The Medallion (2003). This made him the first person to sit on the throne since King George V.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: When Jackie gets off the chopper you can see the camera in the back window of the SUV that he is getting into.

Quotes:

Snakehead: [after fleeing the henchmen after the Medallion, Snakehead runs into Eddie in the forest] We meet again... Eddie Yang.
Eddie Yang: Where's the boy?
Snakehead: My guest is of no concern of yours. All that matters is that you have the other half of the medallion.

Movie Connections:

References "Lee Evans: So What Now?" (2001)

Soundtrack:

Twist and Shout

It Almost Worked!!

Being a long time fan of Hong Kong cinema and a big Jackie Chan fan, I had high hopes for The Medallion. Shanghai Knights was pretty good. When I saw the trailer for The Medallion, it showed Jackie performing as usual plus the cgi crap. But, I wanted to give it a chance. A lot of film experts and other sources of information gave insight into the movie, and it received a lot of promotion. I thought Jackie would return to his original style in this one considering his age. I'm going to look at two perspectives of film, the pros and cons.

PROS - There were two action scenes where Jackie doesn't do any wire martial arts nor requires cgi involvement during the first half of the movie. Given the fact that Jackie is reaching 50, he can still get down. The female lead was great. Claire Forlani exceeded my expectations of the female character, and her acting wasn't really bad either. She gets to do some martial arts herself (couldn't stand Jennifer Love Hewitt in The Tuxedo egh!!!). Lee Evans provides the comic relief along Jackie's martial arts and stunt work. I liked the way Hong Kong and American filmmakers collaborated to do the film. Look out for veteran Hong Kong actor Anthony Wong in a supporting role as the bad guy.

CONS - The cgi incorporated into the film just didn't do it for me. Filmmakers can't use cgi for everything. I'm tired of seeing people running through trees and jumping over things that's not possible in reality. The plot in the film had to many holes and seemed to be rushed at times. Jackie's acting didn't seem to fair well including the chemistry between him and Claire. It seemed to dull. Julian Sands wasted his time in this film. Hope he takes this as a lesson learned. Bey Logan's writing skills needs a brush up before he can continue on in my opinion. I hope he doesn't utilize the same form in the upcoming movie, Kung Fu Master. The mystical kid in the movie annoyed me too much, and he only said two sentences throughout the whole movie. Repeating the Golden Child theme is just ridiculous.

All in all, the movie was alright. Compared to Jackie's recent American releases, this better than The Tuxedo but less than Shanghai Knights. Jackie doesn't have to take every movie offer he can. Take a break and come back with the Police Story series or something. This is a type of movie that can only be seen once or twice if you want to consider your judgement about the movie.

My final vote 6/10