Bulletproof Monk

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

It has a life and style that other buddy action movies lack

Salon.com Charles Taylor

Lightweight but delightful martial-arts romp.

Variety Robert Koehler

Not surprisingly based on a comic book series by Brett Lewis and R.A. Jones (whom pic fails to credit), pic hurtles along at a pace designed by vet music vid and ad helmer Paul Hunter to engage short attention spans.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Too much seriousness can be fatal to a picture like this one, since it impedes the efficient delivery of dumb laughter and easy thrills.

Film Threat Clint Morris

It’s a film that walks a fine-line between serious superhero flick and slapstick, giving the audience a conglomerate of great martial arts moments intertwined with some very funny dialogue and impetus.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The story's entire foundation is based upon a plot hole so gargantuan that anyone not suffering a brain cramp will identify it at once.

LA Weekly Hazel-Dawn Dumpert

It’s a testament to Chow's star power that, even with an accent more than casually reminiscent of Elmer Fudd's, he comes off charming, handsome and cool in a movie as ridiculous as Bulletproof Monk.

Washington Post Mark Jenkins

One of those motley movies that borrows from just about everywhere.

Dallas Observer Andy Klein

It's pretty good fun, once it gets going, but still makes some of the same mistakes that have plagued other Hollywood films that interpolate the concepts of Hong Kong action.

Village Voice Ed Park

Some reliably vertiginous fight sequences (rope bridge, rooftop signage) and modest flight experiments liven up the mix, but for all the leads' individual appeal, they seem to occupy slightly different films.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Began life as a comic book, and screenwriters Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris, ever respectful of that lineage, have not allowed the film's dialogue or plot points to rise above their cartoonish origins.

Chicago Tribune Robert K. Elder

First-time director Paul Hunter delivers a quick-cut, loud movie that betrays his MTV roots -- but then again, the script never demands that he do much more than exactly that.

USA Today Mike Clark

Action star Chow Yun-Fat's latest is as thin as the buzz cut he sports in Bulletproof Monk.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The fight scenes in Bulletproof Monk are not as inventive as some I've seen (although the opening fight on a rope bridge is so well done that it raises expectations it cannot fulfill).

Philadelphia Inquirer David Hiltbrand

The worst sin is the way the film borrows and corrupts the gravity-defying action style of Yun-Fat's international hit, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

As ungainly in its jammed-together East-meets-West-ness as Steven Seagal in a yoga pose.

Chicago Reader Bill Stamets

A fair amount of visual panache, but the fight scenes are routine, the humor juvenile, and the Toronto locales rendered drab through muddy cinematography.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

So formulaic it starts to fade from memory before the last punch is thrown.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

No visual style, amateur effects.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

A plot so preposterous it could only have emerged from the underground comic world.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

The picture's a dud... Instead of Chow's gravitas rubbing off on the kid, Scott's dude-ness dilutes Chow's authority.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Indeed a rip-off - a rehash of Hong Kong superstar Chow's greatest celluloid moments with an overlay of Hollywood action cliches, youth-flick silliness, and ah-so stereotypes.

Premiere Aaron Hillis

Flashy, forgettable fluff.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paul Lewis

Most surprising (and disappointing) is the film's lack of humor. Scott, who has a huge following and has developed a lively comic persona, never seems in on the joke.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

It never makes much sense.

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

Monk would probably make a nice rental on a dull evening, with some kind of salty snack and a drinking-game accompaniment. (Drink whenever Scott cries, "Oh, shit!")

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

Relentlessly stupid.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Sadly, it's yet another intercultural mishmash that hopes for its iconic star's charisma to overcome a dire script, cardboard characters, indifferently directed action scenes, and an atrocious villain buried under layers of unconvincing old-man makeup.

Slate David Edelstein

Yeah, they made a ton of junky movies in Hong Kong, but those were dazzlingly fluid and high-flying junky movies. This American retread has the same sort of hack plot but none of the bravura. It makes them look like monkeys, and not bulletproof ones.