The Medallion (2003) was director Gordon Chan’s first english language picture and his second film with star Jackie Chan. Gordon Chan established himself with the Fight Back To School films in the nineties so he was no stranger to the cop thriller genre. In fact, Chan seems most comfortable as a director photographing Jackie Chan’s awesome chase sequences and high-wire fights as opposed to the more comedic segments meant to highlight Lee Evans. However, this gets to the fundamental failing of The Medallion which is that, despite the cast, none of the jokes ever land and the dramatic stakes are always in flux.
As always Jackie Chan excels as the martial arts clown with affable aplomb. Opposite Chan are the equally good bad guys Julian Sands and Anthony Wong; Sands is doing his Warlock (1989) thing while Wong keeps it weird in a bowler hat. In the midst of what should be a surefire recipe for top-notch escapism are Chan’s British sidekicks Lee Evans and Claire Forlani. Forlani’s performance suffers more from not having the screen time to be developed rather than any acting choices of her own. Sadly, the same cannot be said of Lee Evans; work in The Medallion.
The duo of Jackie Chan and Lee Evans has all of the same problems that plagued Chow Yun-fat and Sean William Scott that same year in Bulletproof Monk (2003). Essentially these problems boil down to the fact that the two men have absolutely zero chemistry. This shortcoming is further compounded by the fact that, to ensure financial success in the english market, the film is as much a showcase for Evans as it is for Chan when the film is clearly about Chan first and foremost. Every time the film invites the spectator to get lost in the wild stunts of Jackie Chan, Evans appears with a lame comedy bit that throws off the rhythm of the film.
So it is little mystery that The Medallion bombed with critics. The low production values, crappy techno score and poor screenwriter assured that even Jackie Chan’s most loyal critics kept away. Twenty years later, there is little to rediscover or appreciate about this Jackie Chan flick. But critics and audiences don’t always see eye to eye and The Medallion proved to be a modest hit in the United States. To this day The Medallion is more popular in english speaking territories than most of Jackie Chan’s superior Hong Kong films.
