The Medallion

Resurrection as a theme for a comedy action picture, starring the man who speaks worse English than Arnold Schwarzenegger, is pushing what some people call the envelope to a point of snappage. Ever since The Tuxedo, Jackie Chan has entertained the concept of supernatural powers. After working with Chris Tucker in a couple of Rush Hours, imortality feels good.

Trouble is the story disintegrates on impact. Interpol sends a team to Hong Kong to save the life of a 10-year-old religious deity and capture the dastardly Snakehead (Julian Sands), an English fop, who has his Dr No-ish control centre in a ruined Irish castle. The leader of this faux commando group is an idiot, called Dixon (Lee Evans): cue banana skins.

Part of the boy's sacred collection of artifacts are two medallions, which, when brought together, are capable of stuff David Blaine can't do yet, including bringing people back from the dead. Snakehead wants them, because he craves life everlasting, being as vain as Dorian Gray.

Chan is resting. There are few stunts and only rudimentary fight sequences, dependent upon fire power rather than martial artistry. The girl (Claire Forlani), an Interpol agent, has nice lips and a wide smile, but no personality. Evans, sad to say, is a disaster. Playing a Norman Wisdom role in a kick'n'paste runaround, he appears to have wandered onto the set from a Forties spy spoof.

Chan has charm and a great sense of humour. You can't deny it. When his famous end-of-movie outtakes don't crack a smile, something is not right.

The Medallion has five scriptwriters. Surely one of them might have noticed a gaping hole where the story should have been.