The Medallion (2003)
Directed by Gordon Chan
Written by Bennett Joshua Davlin, Alfred Cheung, Gordon Chan, Paul Wheeler, Bey Logan
Starring Jackie Chan, Lee Evans, Claire Forlani, Julian Sands, John Rhy-Davies
Release Date August 22nd, 2003
As a stuntman Jackie Chan is unparalleled. However, as an actor, Jackie fights dialogue and loses badly. I can't fault Jackie for not having mastered the English language but I can fault the numerous directors who still force Chan to wrestle with not only dialogue but jokes and one liners, something that is almost as painful as one of Jackie's numerous pratfalls. In The Medallion, Jackie is once again relied upon to deliver jokey dialogue in between the fights, and though the fights are fun, the dialogue is absolutely deathly.
Chan is yet again in the role of a Hong Kong cop sent around the world to fight bad guys. In this version he's Eddie Yong and he is searching for a mystical young boy with strange powers who has been taken hostage by a terrorist named Snake-head (Julian Sands). On Eddie's side are a pair of Interpol agents, the bumbling comic relief Arthur (Lee Evans)and the love interest Nicole (Claire Forlani).
The Medallion of the title is the boy’s power source. With it he can bestow immortality or take it away. He can also use it to bring people back to life, which comes in handy when Eddie is killed attempting to save him. Not only does Eddie come back from the dead he now has super strength and immortality. However Snakehead has also used the Medallion and has the same powers as Eddie leading to climactic battle that is essentially an exercise in special effects, which really doesn't suit Jackie's more natural approach to fight scenes.
But then not much of anything in The Medallion seems to suit Jackie's talents save for the early fight scenes where Jackie gracefully works his way through henchman after henchman, barely breaking a sweat. When he does sweat it's usually fighting his way through sub Abbot and Costello style banter with Evans.
Director Gordon Chan, directing his first western feature, seems at a loss trying to combine Hong Kong action with a Hollywood script that calls for as much acting as fighting. You can see from the hack job editing that Gordon Chan didn't have a clue what to do with the film’s scripted humor which looks as if it was pieced together from the outtakes that always play during the credits of a Jackie Chan film.
The Medallion is yet another attempt by Hollywood to shoehorn Jackie Chan into American style action comedy and, like last years The Tuxedo, it's yet another failure. Jackie Chan is a charismatic and lovable actor but watching him have to wrestle with a script that doesn't suit his talents is painful to watch and impossible to enjoy.
