Best & Worst: Jackie Chan
Sifting the hits from the chops...
By Mark PowellJul 30th 2010
Worst: The Medallion
Year: 2003
Plot: Chan plays - wait for it - a Hong Kong police officer (good grief), drafted in by Interpol for no discernible reason to help them catch a not-especially-terrifying bad guy. Actually, the cops probably needed Chan's help due to having Lee Evans (yes, the sweaty one - careful, sweary video link) heading up their international crime squad. Jesus...
Anyway, Chan gets hold of a magic medallion that makes him even better at tying baddies' spines in knots, then toddles off to do precisely that. Just not in a particularly interesting way, alas.
Trivia: Most of the plot exposition was left on the cutting room floor - which is just one of the many problems with this decidedly stodgy effort - but the original idea was to introduce a legion of spooky-powered martial masters known as 'Highbinders', all of whom had been touched by the magic of the medallion.
Which, to be honest, doesn't make much more sense than the final cut did.
Check out the Total Film page on Chan's latest, The Karate Kid (2010), over here.
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Comments
Serrano
Jul 30th 2010, 16:24
Fantasy Mission Force is easily my favourite Jackie Chan film. I am not kidding.
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Hadouken76
Aug 1st 2010, 10:03
Armour of God 1 & 2, Snake in the Eagles shadow. Classic Chan.
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hago1
Aug 1st 2010, 10:47
No mention of Shanghai Noon/Shanghai Knights?
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Carl1984
Aug 1st 2010, 23:13
I am a self proclaimed massive fan of Jackie's I have every one of his films (some more then once), I also have his Hong Kong albums, books, magazines, posters ect anyway about this list I agree with some of the worst ones for instance Police Woman (A.K.A Rumble In Hong Kong) and Fantasy Mission Force deserve to be in the wost list completely also sorry to say so does The Tuxedo and The Medallion if them two had a better story they wouldn't be there. The other three Half A Loaf Of Kung Fu, Master With Cracked Fingers and Battle Creek Brawl (A.K.A The Big Brawl) don't deserve to be there. You've missed a few off the best list i.e New Police Story, The Myth, Rob-B-Hood and Shinjuku Incident. As for Drunken Master 2 it does deserve to be in the best list but the only thing that annoys me is it has never been released in the UK and I've never found a reason why.
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