Movie Review: The Forbidden Kingdom

Movie Title: The Forbidden Kingdom
Starring: Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Michael Angarano and Collin Chou
Genre: Action/Adventure/Martial Arts/Fantasy
Directed by: Rob Minkoff
My Rating: 7/10

I haven't blogged for a while. There weren't too many great movies over the harshly cold winter, and I just lost touch. I might start posting reviews of movies I watched on Netflix here.

The Forbidden Kingdom is a movie that had a lot of potential to be great. Too much star power, too much hype, weak script and lame direction made it just the opposite.

Michael Angarano plays a bully-magnet teen in south Boston who is a big fan of Martial Art movies (like yours truly). One evening while escaping from bullies with a Chinese staff in his hand he jumps of a building. Before he reaches the ground time travels to China in the past where magic and immortality supposedly existed. His mission is to return the staff to the statued Monkey King (Jet Li) with the help of an old drunk (Jackie Chan) and a monk (Li, again). Jackie Chan could totally do without playing a drunk martial artist here. I am a big fan of the Drunken Master movies but here it just didn't fit. He did stay comical and fought well, nonetheless. Surprisingly, Jet Li cracked a few jokes himself, a rarity.

Even the work of legendary kung-fu choreographer Yuen Woo-Ping (Once Upon a Time in China, Crouching Tiger, Matrix, Kill Bill) in this movie couldn't be put to justice. There was way too much string-held jumping/flying, unnecessary magic and cliches that ruined the movie. I still enjoyed it just a bit only because of the few fight scenes. I think I'm going to add more Bruce Lee and Sonny Chiba movies to my Netflix just to make up for watching this movie. I'm sure Jet Li and Jackie Chan made good money, but I hope their agent finds them better movies with more seasoned directors.

For those who don't know, the villain in this movie is played my Collin Chou - same guy who played Seraph in the Matrix sequels. Good fighter too, also in need of good representation in Hollywood.

Teenage kids would appreciate this movie. I prefer the old Chinese movies with subtitles and fewer jumper strings. 7/10.

Jet Li & Jackie Chan in a movie? HELL YEA!

As a martial art movie fan, today's news on collider and other related sites couldn't have been any better for me. Jackie Chan and Jet Li are working together for the first time in a movie about "The Monkey King" due for release next year. Li will play the double role of the Monkey King Sun Wu-k'ung and the Silent Monk, while Chan will play heroic monk T'sha Ho.

Jet Li had announced retirement from epic action flicks after last year's blockbuster Fearless, but has still signed up for this movie and another about warlords in ancient China.

Adding to the good news of this collaboration is that Yuen-Woo Ping is doing the action choreography for "monkey king" - which makes it all a triple whammy! Ping choreographed all the fight scenes in the Matrix trilogy, Crouching Tiger, Kill Bill I & II and many of Jet Li's greatest movies.

In my honest opinion, the casting and production team would be complete with Donnie Yen joining the cast as one of the fighters. Yen is one of the guys you see in every other Jet Li flick dominating one or two fight scenes with Li and almost winning every time.

Would this be a Drunken vs Shaolin Tai-Chi battle? We'll wait and see...

Other Reference:

• Wikipedia on Monkey King

In related yet other news, Jet Li has signed on to act in Mummy 3 with Brendan Fraser and ... yes, Michelle Yeoh! Rachel Weisz has grown as an actress and even won an Oscar since the last Mummy movie, but 3 would be incomplete without her, IMO.

"I can still kick your ass!"