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Parents' Guide to

Bulletproof Monk

By Nell Minow, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 14+

Violent but cool martial arts movie.

Movie PG-13 2003 104 minutes
Bulletproof Monk Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

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age 12+

Based on 2 parent reviews

wrgtyp
wrgtyp Adult
September 28, 2011
age 12+

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat movie

bloody but great but if you are 11 or under in the words of the movie "it's gunna cut your balls off".
lizperle
lizperle Adult
April 9, 2008
age 11+

VERY VIOLENT

Enter Review Here We love the main character -- a monk who never hurts anyone -- but we wondered why there was over-the-top violence in a movie like this that basically had good messages for young teens. Half send up, half action flick, this had SO much potential, but a scene with TORTURE in it really put off me and my tweener kids.
See all 2 parent reviews

What's the Story?

Chow Yun-Fat (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) plays the Monk With No Name (like the Clint Eastwood character, The Man With No Name), who back in World War II was assigned the task of guarding a sacred scroll. A Nazi officer named Strucker tries to get it, but the Monk escapes. Sixty years later, the Nazi and his grand-daughter are still after the scroll. Strucker is old and in a wheelchair, but the Monk, because of his special assignment, has not aged. It is time for him to find the next guardian of the scroll, however, and it just seems that it might be a petty thief and chop-socky film projectionist named Kar (Seann William Scott).

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (2 ):
Kids say (1 ):

Chow Yun-Fat, as ever, has all the presence it takes to make the screen come alive. Here is how cool Hong Kong action superstar Chow is: while clearly capable of outshining just about anyone and anything in movies today, instead he manages to somehow shine his coolness over everything around him, making action heroes out of Seann William Scott (of Dude Where's My Car and American Pie) and model-turned actress Jamie King (Pearl Harbor). The result is a popcorn pleasure, an action movie with a little wit, a lot of spirit, and some kick-butt kick-boxing.

Scott has shown an appealing comic presence in previous movies, but I would never have expected him to be able to carry a leading role as well as he does here. He is buff and he is game. He is confident enough not to take himself seriously, and he does very well. King, playing a "Bad Girl" (that's her nickname) with a secret, handles herself well. She and Kar fight as a way of getting to know one another (as Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck did in Daredevil), so their thrusts and parries help to tell the story. The fight scenes in BULLETPROOF MONK are staged wonderfully, and the production design is outstanding, especially the underground lair of a ragtag bunch of scoundrels who live in subway tunnels. The dialogue is not completely embarassing, which makes it a big step up from most action films.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about why the monks did not just destroy the scroll. What is there in the world today that is as susceptible as the fictional scroll to being used for devastating purposes?

Movie Details

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