the medallion
Director: Gordon Chan
Cast: Jackie Chan, Lee Evans, Claire Forlani, Julian Sands, John Rhys-Davies, Anthony Wang Chau-Sang, Christy Chung, Johann Myers
4.5/10
Remember Chin-chin-chu? Well, The Medallion’s mystical charm is all about Chan (actor), Chan (director), Cheung (producer). But this action quickie is Jackie’s flickie all the way. He’s your regular macho male mortal who assumes superhuman powers, like comic book super-heroes. Asinine plot just facilitates stunning stunts.
Little Buddha-like boy possesses magical medallion. Bad guy (Julian Sands) wants it bad, so kidnaps kid. Cool cop Eddie Yang (Jackie Chan) and his ‘yin’(?!) lady-love (Claire Forlani), get on hot trail of villains in their land, Ireland. And we’re transported from seemingly seamy Hong Kong sewers to fairly fairytale-ish Irish castle where the boy’s kept captive. What follows are frantic chases and good old Chanantics.
Jackie’s action entertains. Comic timing amuses. Even at his age, he never ceases to amaze, with youthful dexterity and masterly martial-arts craft. Part-Superman leaping horizontally, part Spider-man, scaling vertically, it’s awesome watching the legend do his thing. Of course, as plot and dialogue get cornier by the minute, it helps that the film, just an hour long, is short and sweet ? like Mr Chan himself!
Mandira Mitra
the pacifier
Director: Adam Shankman
Cast: Vin Diesel, Lauren Graham, Faith Ford, Brittany Snow, Max Thieriot, Chris Potter, Carol Kane
5/10
Sit back, relax and smile all the way. Action hero Vin Diesel appears in a new avataar surrounded less by weapons and bombs, more by diapers and soft toys, in this action comedy. A Navy Seal who fails to save a government scientist from terrorists, shifts base to protect the dead man’s kids while their mother is away.
Typically, the kids and Vin hate each other. They go through a hilarious series of minor (and some major) disasters, bonding in the process. No new ingredient in this casserole, people! There’s no smart script, no slick camera, no real action. But the kids are cute and so is Vin, especially when he has a soiled diaper in hand! And there is wholesome family entertainment, leaving you grinning from start to finish. Well, okay, almost from start, but definitely to finish! So bundle up the kids and go have a good time. And if you don’t have kids, go anyway, it’s fun!
Pooja Tolani
the fantastic four
Director: Tim Story
Cast: Loan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis, Julian McMohan
3.5/10
Five of them go on a space mission that not just fails, but fundamentally goofs up their DNAs as well. This, they discover one by one, in sequences that do raise a few good laughs, after they return to earth. And then we discover yawn by yawn, in the sequences thereafter, that this Tim Story’s adaptation of the popular Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s 1961 Marvel comic strip, has very little else to offer, in terms of plot, adventure or pure entertainment.
Four of the five return to form the Fantastic Four. Loan Gruffudd, who can stretch his limbs at will, as Mr Fantastic. His love interest, Jessica Alba, with powers to be invisible on dropping her clothes which she does in rather contrived situations, as the Invisible Girl. Her good-at-raising-a-few-laughs brother, Chris Evans, as the Human Torch. And Michael Chiklis, as The Thing, cosmically transformed into a monstrous shape, shunned by his wife but embraced by a blind girl. Together they form a dysfunctional family, incredibly boring in their bickering and bantering.
The fifth one, Julian McMohan, the billionaire who financed the space mission, returns as Dr Doom, one of Marvel’s most lethal villains, here a miserable megalomaniac. And in the final clash between the Fantastic Four and Dr Doom, one couldn’t care less who was using which power and how. Or even as to what happens to their DNA reversal plans. But for that, there’s a sequel coming, which hopefully will take the story somewhere.
Deepali Singh
