Jackie Chan kicks into a mad quest for a marvelous 'Medallion'It's Jackie Chan-turned-Superman

It's "the Holy Grail of Eastern mythology," enthuses a rather nasty and maniacal Julian Sands in (and speaking of) The Medallion, adding that the much-sought-after object might possibly hold "the secret of eternal life."

Whatever.

Besides being a chunky gold ornament that splits in two like an Oreo (but don't try eating it!), the titular totem adorned with a snake and a dragon is as good an excuse as any to set the indefatigable Jackie Chan off and running. The Medallion, shot in Hong Kong, Dublin and Thailand, is another globe-trotting, kickboxing romp.

Like Spy Kids with (but not necessarily for) grown-ups, The Medallion isn't terribly serious. (And there's a kid in it, too: a serene-looking Chinese boy with a mystical connection to the plot.) It's not terribly good, either - the sets are cheap, the shooting's sloppy - but Chan, playing Eddie Yang, a Hong Kong detective teamed with Interpol, is his usual one-man stuntfest. He makes nice with stray dogs (giving squid to a pooch), is courteous to monks, and does slick Ninja-like moves when he's trolling the shipyards for kidnappers.

Eddie's Interpol colleague, Watson (Lee Evans), is a buffoonish Brit whose ineptness increases exponentially according to the direness of the situation. He's more Keystone Kops than SWAT, and, sadly for Eddie, he's stuck with him. Less sadly, Eddie also finds himself in the company of Nicole James (Claire Forlani), a fetching Interpol agent (she fetches coffee, she fetches dossiers) who once had a romantic tangle with Eddie, and now chases around Eire with him, thwacking thugs with fist and feet. Forlani doesn't do this with terrible conviction, but she looks smashing.

Directed by Gordon Chan with a dialogue-light script (credited to five writers!), The Medallion is export-ready action fare with a supernatural twist. The twist is that midway through the movie Eddie assumes Superman-like abilities thanks to the boy and the medallion, giving Chan occasion to swoop and swoosh through various shopping districts, upscale neighborhoods, and darkly lit harbors, performing acrobatic feats and chopping and socking endless gangs of scowling armed extras.

Chan's signature mix of screwball comedy and gymnastic derring-do landed him his own cartoon series a few years back, and The Medallion - with its bumbling spies and bounding star - is about as cartoonish as live action gets.

Contact movie critic Steven Rea

at 215-854-5629 or srea@phillynews.com.

The Medallion

** 1/2 (out of four stars)

Produced by Alfred Cheung, directed by Gordon Chan, written by Bennett Joshua Davlin, Paul Wheeler, Bey Logan, Cheung and Chan, photography by Arthur Wong, music by Adrian Lee, distributed by Screen Gems.

Running time: 1 hour, 30 mins.

Eddie Yang. . . Jackie Chan

Snakehead. . . Julian Sands

Nicole James. . . Claire Forlani

Watson. . . Lee Evans

Parent's guide: PG-13 (cartoon violence)

Playing at: area theaters