Review of The Medallion (2003) by Nick W — 27 Apr 2014

Directed by Gordon Chan (Fist of Legend (1994), Thunderbolt (1995) and 2000 AD (2000)), this action-comedy caper originally started out life being called Highbinders, but after filming wrapped, it was recut by the studio, who didn't "get" the humour, and had part of it refilmed.

It's a shame it came to that, as it had a good concept yet it should and could have been better than it ended up as. Hong Kong detective Eddie Yang (Jackie Chan) looking for international crime lord AJ "Snakehead" Staul (Julian Sands), who has found a mysterious young boy called Jai (Alex Bao), who has been chosen to bind together two halves of a medallion, which grants superpowers and everlasting life.

Snakehead takes Jai, and flees to Ireland, with Yang and Interpol agent Arthur Watson (Lee Evans) in pursuit. In Ireland, Yang is reunited with his British agent girlfriend Nicole James (Claire Forlani).

Yang supposedly drowns while trying to save Jai from inside a locked container, but the Medallion gives Yang superpowers and a second chance at life. It's a very silly film, and you can see in it's truncated version what Chan and Co.

wanted to do, and it would be nice to see the original cut one day. But for now, it's an insane action film with some very cheesy humour and a few moments of very dodgy CGI, but it manages to have a very likeable charm which manages to succeed.