The Forbidden Kingdom

[FUS1ON]

IMDB page - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0865556/
Trailer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE7ny2bfXF0

Plot - A discovery made by a kung fu obsessed American teen sends him on an adventure to China, where he joins up with a band of martial arts warriors in order to free the imprisoned Monkey King.

Jet Li ... The Monkey King / The Silent Monk
Michael Angarano ... Jason Tripitikas
Jackie Chan ... Lu Yan / Old Hop
Bingbing Li ... Ni Chang
Yifei Liu ... Golden Sparrow / Chinatown Girl
Juana Collignon ... Southie Girl
Morgan Benoit ... Lupo
Jack Posobiec ... Southie
Thomas McDonell ... Young Southie
Zhi Ma Gui ... Old Woman
Shen Shou He ... Farmer
Bin Jiang ... Young Village Man
Shaohua Yang ... Jade Soldier
Yu Yuan Zeng ... Inn Keeper
Deshun Wang ... Jade Emperor


Jet Li, Jackie Chan .... come on now, you know this was going to be good. This movie rulz if you are fan of those guys or Martial Arts movies in general because the fight scenes are awesome, there is tons of action from beginning to end. It was done like the old school Kung Fu movies but with today's fight scene techniques (Flying Fighting) added in al la Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Some Kung Fu movies storylines are kind of weak, this one is not and it's worth seeing ..... 8/10

[Pathos]

Agreed. Caught this the other night. Take Shinobi, coat it in Crouching Tiger, add a swab of Karate Kid and just a pinch of LOTR spice... and et voila. Forbidden Kingdom! [judo chop]

The Good Stuff

• The iconic meeting of Jackie Chan and Jet Li! Sure it's 10 years overdue and now they're kinda old and goofy, but still - it's J&J for f's sake! This is a big deal. Imagine if Pacino and De Niro in Heat suddenly leapt across that table and went at it! This is that movie.
• The ever reliable Collin Chou as lead bad guy. Forget that Seraph crap in Matrix Overloaded and check his moves out in Yen's Flashpoint. This is one mean mofo! Though the eyeliner here was wayyy overdone. Perhaps this is just my cultural disconnect talking, but eyeliner on a guy shouldn't even be UNDER done. What up with that?
• Two asian mega hotties straight outta Soul Caliber whaling on each other. I paused this scene a lot and added my own brand of special audio effects. Wasn't this supposed to be a family film? Liars.
• The martial arts on the whole was decent, to good, to occasionally excellent. They even made Michael Angarano AKA Shia LaBeouf v2.0 look more than competent! Dude must have worked his butt off to pull of some of those moves. Colour me impressed.
• The CGI was really well incorporated into the battles, notably with the evil asian hottie and her "hair attacks". Reor! Is it possible to maintain a boner while getting beat up? This movie will force you to confront that question.
• While we're on the subject of hair, Jackie Chan grows (wigs) it long for this one. Always looks cool on him for some reason (refer to Shanghai Noon and The Myth). You see, the real reason mythical martial arts masters spend ten or more years meditating on mountain tops is for hair growth. It's all about the look. Also, mountain tops are real turbulent, which lends itself well to the all important standing-against-the-wind pose... a key element in the book of bad ass.

The Sorta Bad stuff

• Man, Jet Li has really slowed down! Still looks good doing his thing, but damn dude, drink some coffee. Might be time to undercrank the fellow.
• Speaking of old, Chan's drunken fist style really needs to be retired. Is anyone a fan of this style outside of Drunken Master 2? No, Jackie, put your hand down.
• If you're gonna see this one, bring a dialect coach with you. Jet's english has actually gotten worse over time! Even the subtitles seemed garbled.
• While the fight choreography was indeed above par, there was some truly atrocious wirework in the opening scene. I don't mind wushu styled almost-flying, but this was just badly done. What the heck happened there? Fortunately, things really pick up, so stick with it.

I'm gonna stop there with the bad, because while there is soooo much more i could pick at, it's one of those flicks that's so dang charming i couldn't help but shove that aside and just go with it (standard approach to any Jackie film, really).

Anyway, this one is good ol' fashioned FUN! Go see it so you can disagree with me and we can grow our hair and have at it. [slow motion CGI hair attack]