Chan's a Medallion Man
The villainous Snakehead (Julian Sands - Leaving Las Vegas) has discovered that he can become both immortal and invincible if he steals a legendary medallion and kidnaps the child who wears it. But things don't go as he planned as Hong Kong cop, Eddie Yang (Jackie Chan) and Interpol agent Arthur Watson (Lee Evans - The Ladies' Man) stop him. It doesn't stop Snakehead from trying again and a while later he attempts the same thing in Dublin but again is foiled by Eddie, Arthur and this time the high kicking Nicole James (Claire Forlani - Meet Joe Black) except Eddie is killed in the process. Fortunately the mystical medallion not only resurrects him but gives him some special powers.
"The Medallion" is two things; it's fun but it is also a typical Jackie Chan movie from the turn of the century. We see him paired up with a comical cop to try and stop a bad guy and his evil plans all of which has some minor variations which this time include a romance element with a female agent on top of the obligatory comical male agent. And of course being a typical Jackie Chan movie it is all about the entertainment of watching Chan defeat the bad guys with his comical martial arts whilst playing off of those around him.
But "The Medallion" is not up to Chan's usual high standards and has that feel of being forced with someone just trying to rework the formula. As such when it comes to Lee Evans as Arthur he doesn't have the comical chemistry with Chan as he is playing every joke full on. It makes Evans's performance come across as attempting to steal scenes but then Forlani ends up also coming across as scene stealing with her sexy, confident antics.
The worst of all this, although at the same time understandable, is that Jackie Chan himself is not as good as he usually is. Chan looks like he had a lot of fun making "The Medallion" but the signs of age are creeping in with not only the action scenes being heavily edited but what to me looks like the use of both a stunt double and CGI. The thing is when it comes to Chan is you watch movies because it is him doing his own incredible stunts and when you have someone else doing them it just isn't the same.
What this all boils down to is that "The Medallion" is just a typical Jackie Chan movie which uses the formula of comedy and action. But sadly it is not up to Chan's usual high standards as the use of stunt doubles and CGI is more obvious.
