The Medallion

While pursuing a ruthless gangster bent on kidnapping the young keeper of a mysterious medallion, Hong Kong detective Eddie Yang (Jackie Chan) drowns after saving the boy’s life. But he’s resurrected by the medallion, and…Actually, you know what? It doesn’t really matter. Like all Jackie Chan movies (and slasher flicks and porno), if you’re paying attention to the story line, you’re in the wrong theater. What matters is the action, which is uniformly impressive here—although Chan has, unfortunately, begun to rely on wires and special effects for many of his stunts (aw, cut him some slack, he’s about to turn 50, for Christ’s sake). Chan’s requisite comic-relief sidekick in The Medallion is Lee Evans (you may remember him as the fake-cripple from There’s Something About Mary), whose incompetent Mr. Bean–like Interpol agent is—unlike the shrill, jive-talking Chris Tucker and the annoying-in-his-own-special-way Owen Wilson—genuinely funny. Supercute ass-kicker Claire Forlani also appears as Yang’s old flame, creating a love interest subplot that is embarrassingly unnecessary; Forlani does an admirable job faking romantic chemistry, while Chan, like us, can only gape in wonder. OK, so it’s no Drunken Master 2, but it’s not The Tuxedo, either.