2003, PG-13, 104 minutes

Umm, what's this movie supposed to be? It's not a comedy, since I didn't crack more than a half-hearted smile during the whole duration. It's not an action movie, since the action isn't too exciting (a lot of it is obviously computer-generated), and the film doesn't take itself too seriously, thankfully. An action-comedy, maybe? Who knows, all I know is that Bulletproof Monk isn't worth your time and money.

It's 1943 and a Monk (Chow Yun-Fat) is becoming the next protector of a scroll that can give whoever reads it unlimited power. After a bunch of Nazi soldiers kill the man that trained the Monk, he goes into exile in America. Now fast foward to 2003: the Monk ends up running into street punk Kar (Seann William Scott), whom he sees has great potential to become the next protector of the scroll. Of course, those damn Nazis still want the scroll (the leader, Strucker, is now an old man in a wheelchair, but he has plenty of people working for him), and Jade (Jamie King) comes along to play the romantic interest for Kar.

The comedy here almost seems restrained - Scott (from American Pie fame) is a lot calmer than I think he was meant to be. He's absolutely hilarious with the right script - here he's just boring. Chow Yun-Fat (from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) fairs a little better as a wise man who utters advice like "it's not about anger, it's about peace" during a fight. Yeah, the stuff he says is pretty lame, but the worst line goes to Victoria Smurfit, who plays Strucker's granddaughter. One character calls her a "crazy bitch," and then she spouts out, "I'm not crazy, but I am a bitch." Such a witty response, don't you think?

Bulletproof Monk also relys too heavily on computers for the fight sequences. This is most obvious during a fight towards the beginning on a bridge; it was almost funny to watch the computer do its "magic." Whatever happened to the days when actors like Jackie Chan did all of their own stunts? No momentum is really generated during the course of the film either, and there's nothing truly interesting or innovative to watch on screen.

I yawned a lot during Bulletproof Monk, and you probably will too. It's not funny, exciting, or interesting; a movie of this type has to be at least one of those things to be considered watchable. Sadly, this isn't one of those films - sure, it had potential, but it's about as exciting as watching a Monk meditate for hours on end.