What do you do with a popular action star when he begins running out of energy — both as a creative force, and as performer of formerly high octane stunts?
In the case of the visibly tired Jackie Chan, the makers of "The Medallion” decided that the best way to bring their fading franchise back to life was to kill off their star, then put him through an on-screen Resurrection, as he returns to action with new superhuman powers. For the first time, Our Man Chan gets to fly – taking to the air with gravity-defying abilities that place him somewhere between “Crouching Tiger”/”Matrix” balletic vaults and “Superman” leaping-tall-buildings-with-a-single-bound. The movie also speeds up every chase scene so that Jackie tears through even marathon pursuits with the velocity of an Olympic sprinter. The result is sad, rather than exhilarating — wasting all that effort and all those ambitious special effects on one of the most disappointing feature films of Chan’s checkered career.
He plays a Hong Kong cop who teams with Interpol to try to bust a criminal mastermind named “Snakehead” (no, it’s not James Carville) and played with embarrassed, surly, where’s-my-check listlessness by Julian Sands. The bad guy gets away, and succeeds in kidnapping a cute kid identified as “the Chosen One” who comes equipped with a mysterious medallion containing all sorts of supernatural powers. To rescue this innocent, Jackie jets to Dublin, linking up with three Interpol colleagues: John Rhys-Davies as the bellowing boss, Claire Forlani as the doe-eyed love interest, and the over-acting, unfunny Lee Evans as Chan’s bumbling rival and putative comic relief.
The plot, with its inexplicable occult references, makes no sense whatever, leading to some reasonably spiffy effects when both the hero and villain possess super-powers and duel-to-the-death (even after they’ve already both died) in some oddly unfocused astral realm. Claire Forlani possesses a nice smile and a startlingly slender body (which makes her hard to believe as a formidable martial arts fighting machine), but she generates no chemistry whatever with Jackie Chan — looking even less comfortable with the producer-star than did Jennifer Love Hewitt in last year’s take-it-to-the-cleaners dud “The Tuxedo.”
The “Irish” locations also add nothing to the film. If the action is supposed to take place in Dublin, then why does the cast lack even a single Irish actor (or accent)? Director Gordon Chan delivers the flavor of “The Auld Sod” no more convincingly than the makers of Jackie’s early U.S. release captured the essence of the Big Apple in “Rumble in the Bronx” — which was notoriously shot in Vancouver, with snow-capped peaks towering over “New York City.”
This time, the fight scenes provide more energy than the clumsy special effects, and the choreography proves undeniably skillful and inventive as Jackie simultaneously dispatches a half-dozen thugs. His nice-guy, everyman appeal remains his most obvious asset, though it’s not a good sign when the best scenes in the movie are the giggly out-takes during the end credits. The PG-13 rating proves appropriate — for standard issue martial arts combat and a bit of double entendre. TWO STARS.
Michael Medved hosts a nationally syndicated daily radio show focusing on the intersection of politics and pop culture. He's the author of eight non-fiction books, was co-host for 12 years on "Sneak Previews" on PBS, and is the former Chief Film Critic for the New York Post.
