For those, like me, who were disappointed by The Matrix Reloaded and Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, relief is at hand. Bulletproof Monk is a finely tuned spoof of martial-arts action movies, one that neatly sends up the portentous mysticism of The Matrix while achieving the enjoyably ironic humour that Full Throttle let slip from its grasp.Seann William Scott plays Kar, a young New Yorker who works in a cheesy cinema showing Chinese martial-arts movies while indulging in a little light-fingered crime on the side for extra pocket money. A mysterious Buddhist-type monk (Chow Yun-Fat) appears in his life; he’s on the run from a bunch of evil would-be world-dominators who are after the sacred scroll in his possession. Despite his reluctance, Kar of course gets dragged willy-nilly into the monk’s mission. It’s hard to resist the invitation to save the world.Such a plot is hardly new, which is why it has to be played with knowing irony by the actors, and in Bulletproof Monk they do so very well. They manage to keep it all just this side of absurdity, and to give the action sequences a good dollop of excitement with a slightly fantastical air. Chow, here playing The Monk With No Name, is gamely sending up his own acting history, especially his starring role in the worldwide hit that was Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. He’s also very ably sending up all those mysterious-Oriental clichés. A sparky script helps — the jokes in Bulletproof Monk are genuinely funny, and many a scenario in the movie puts a new spin on things seen many times. For instance, there is the tuition montage sequence so sentimentally milked by movies such as The Karate Kid and its many sequels: the tutor/mentor engages his pupil in stylised battle, pausing between blows to utter nuggets of Eastern wisdom. The way Bulletproof Monk reworks this scene, swiftly and amusingly, should put paid to our being able to take such sequences terribly seriously in future. Which is a good thing. The key achievement, though, is that the filmmakers keep the high-flying martial-arts action coming while maintaining the tongue in the cheek. If the action falls flat, all we have is comedy, and comedy on its own is seldom satisfying, as so many Hollywood movies demonstrate. It needs something to play off. Bulletproof Monk skilfully manages the balance of action and humour, aided by Chow’s intelligent self-parody and Scott’s scruffy charm. One sensed, even in teenfests such as American Pie and Road Trip, that Scott had more than a skew grin to offer, and in Bulletproof Monk one is proved correct. Co-star and romantic interest Jaime King rather lacks a real personality, but perhaps she will grow into it if, as seems likely from the ending of this movie, there are sequels. As mindless fun goes, Bulletproof Monk certainly trounces its nearest rivals.