The Forbidden Kingdom (DVD)

Jason is obsessed with kung-fu; in fact, he probably could have named every actor and movie that flicked past in the poster-montage of the opening credits. Alas, it's the viewing of and not the actual practise that he's any good at, so he has to put up with the endless bullying from the neighbourhood thugs. So far, so Karate Kid. In fact, that's easily the worst thing about this movie: picking a teenager (albeit one who's fairly obviously in his 20s!) to be the main core of the story. And then, of course, you soon start to realise that the story itself isn't so original, instead pulling in bits of many ancient Chinese legends, quite a few of which will be ...  Read the complete review

note: appears in part on The Student Room and Flixster The hype machine really is a terrible beast - it gets our hopes up so much, only for them to be dashed when the final product can't live up to all the hot air puffed around it. The Forbidden Kingdom is just one such film (of many) victim to this syndrome - it was promoted as long awaited showdown between Jackie Chan and Jet Li, with the hope that they'd be battling each other for a long portion of the screen time. Sadly, this isn't true, and instead we get a very strange, although not entirely bad, fantasy film that just doesn't deliver enough on the action front. Who would have thought that a ...  Read the complete review

I like science fiction and fantasy. Books, movies, artwork, I just love the genre. I also like Jackie Chan, so a fantasy story starring Jackie Chan is right up my street, and I've been looking forward to seeing this film. The story starts with an incredible fight between the Monkey King (Jet Li) and various flying warriors, on the top of a mountain range. The scene shifts to a young man,(Jason Tripitikas played by Michael Angarano.) who was obviously dreaming of the Monkey King, just waking from his dream, and the camera pans around his bedroom to show us a shrine to kung fu. We next see Jason at a Chinese pawnshop, where he is obviously ...  Read the complete review

'The Forbidden Kingdom' brings Jackie Chan and Jet Li together in a Kung Fu movie directed by Rob Minkoff. The film begins in the US with a somewhat weedy teenager (Michael Angarano) visiting a pawnshop owned by an old Chinese man. Whilst there, he sees an ancient looking fighting staff which he is told once belonged to the legendary 'Monkey King'. Later that night (against his will) he becomes part of a robbery which results with him falling (staff in hand), from the roof of the shop. Unconscious, he wakes up in ancient China with the task of returning the staff to its rightful owner. There's one problem however... he doesn't know Kung Fu! Enter Jackie Chan ...  Read the complete review

For a long time, there have been two names who have risen to the fore of martial arts films. Irrelevant of the legendary Bruce Lee, and focusing solely on the past 10 or 15 years, look no further than Jackie Chan and Jet Li. The former has made a string of pleasing to the eye kung fu films using stunning fight choreography and injecting elements of comedy here and there; the latter has used a traditional and artistic portrayal of his martial arts skills in true and serious martial arts style, switching every now and then to Hollywood to apply his talents with the LA scene. What is certain is that, when rumours broke out of a film starring the two of them together, the ...  Read the complete review