The Scroll of the Ultimate is the world’s most powerful artifact and whoever reads it has ultimate power and could change the world into a land of peace or destroy it. A group of Buddhist monks from Tibet are its guardians and its is there job to make sure it never falls into the wrong hands. Every 60 years a new chosen one is selected as the scrolls guardian and gives up his name and commits himself to its safety for the next 60 years tell a new chosen one is passed the burden. In 1943 a young acolyte takes on the chore but just after accepting the roll a group of power hungry Nazi’s storm the monastery and try and take the scroll. Now 60 years have passed and the madman who led the Nazi’s has not given up his desire for the scroll nor has he stopped hunting the monk with no name. The monk with no name has come to New York City where he is about to meet the most unlikely of prospects to be the chosen one. A pickpocket named Kar shows his compassion by helping the monk and now the monk must learn if he really is to be the next chosen one. So he takes to following him and imbedding himself in all aspects of Kar’s life which includes a job as a screen projector at a Chinese movie house, a bad girl named Jade he has the hots for and a vast potential that he doesn’t realize he has. But along the way gun-touting mercenaries will chase them both down and now they must team up together to protect the scroll and defeat the bad guys out to get it.

This movie incorporates a lot of action with a lot of humor, in fact it reminded me a lot of Shanghai Noon where east met west. But I thought William Scott was a lot better and more clever than Owen Wilson could be in his dreams. He has more of a style of panache and excitement then the goofball Wilson. Also Chow Yun-Fat is just as good of a martial artist as Jackie Chan but without all the crazy items that Chan likes to use. That is not to say that this movie did not have its own little style and twist ala The Matrix at times with their bullet time camera effects and the fact that the monk can walk on air like it was a stone and sail through it like water. Still the action was superb and all the comedy and one liners helped to give the movie a break in the tension and entertain the audience at the same time. My favorite had to be Jaime King who just seemed to add to the movie with her wittiness and her ability to interact with both characters so well. The movie has it all lots of action with some really cool fight scenes, funny characters that show great screen presence and make you laugh, and a great climatic final battle. The movie does get a little hokey at times and some of the plot lines are left unresolved but still the movie is a great action/comedy film that everyone should go out and see.
4 stars out of 5