The Forbidden Kingdom

[so sorry]

Jackie Chan and Jet Li together at last

Man, this looks like all sorts of ass.

[Keepcoolbutcare]

I finally saw a trailer for this...

and, surprisingly, didn't loathe it.

maybe I just want it to be better than what it will be, but it seemed kinda fun, kinda goofy, and kinda endearing.

Peter Pau is an amazing shooter, and Yuen Woo-Ping is the action director, so at least it has them going for it...

[silentbobafett]

I like the look of it!

Isn't the western chap the young William from Almost Famous? Cool to see him getting a nice role like that if it is. Although it looks the worst part in it! But not as bad as it could be... from the trailer at least!

[MacCready]

It would be nice for this not to suck.

[MadCapsule]

Is Jet Li playing a mute in this? I haven't heard him speak in any of the trailers I've seen, yet they feature Jackie Chan stumbling through the English language like a drunken redneck trying to fuck his sister.

I don't recall Jet Li's English being all that bad.

[MacCready]

I think I heard just a snatch of dialogue between Chan & Li, so I'm guessing NO on the mute bit.

[LeFlambeur]

The first trailer looked all kinds of milquetoast, but I have to admit that I was geeking out a little bit when I saw the second trailer when Li and Chan were fighting while schooling the white boy. Between Hero, Unleashed, and Fearless, Jet Li's been on a roll, so I might end up seeing this just because of him. Plus some Yuen Woo Ping never hurt either.

[Nachokoolaid]

the Chan and Li combination is beyond badass. I really want to see this.

[thebabypanda]

the Chan and Li combination is beyond badass. I really want to see this.

bifecta'd

[Keepcoolbutcare]

The first trailer looked all kinds of milquetoast, but I have to admit that I was geeking out a little bit when I saw the second trailer when Li and Chan were fighting while schooling the white boy.

oic, I must've just caught the 2nd one then, after having avoided the first after the tepid response I was reading.

[bastard_robo]

I have a large group ready to roll out on this on Friday night!

From what I've been hearing, this is actually good...

[JustinG]

sure it's jet li meets jackie chan. but the martial arts look so 1990s. whats so fresh about this?

[thebabypanda]

it's jet li meets jackie chan. fresh!

Enjoy and repeat!

[Keepcoolbutcare]

but the martial arts look so 1990s. whats so fresh about this?

have new martial arts been invented for the new millennium?

i mean, the martial arts go back thousands of years, right?

[so sorry]

not gunkata

[Keepcoolbutcare]

not gunkata

Or Gymkata!

[Maui]

have new martial arts been invented for the new millennium?

[RogueScribner]

review on the main page


I was looking forward to this movie until I read that review. I had no idea it was supposed to be a kid's flick.

[unikrunk]

review on the main page


I was looking forward to this movie until I read that review. I had no idea it was supposed to be a kid's flick.

That's due to the marketing of the film being a complete red herring. My co-workers were talking about how psyched they were that Li and Chan were in this awesome looking kung-fu flick; it took me tracking down the one trailer with the stupid kid in it, learning kung-fu, to convince them that I was serious about it being a kids movie.

A Kid in King Wu-Tang's Court.

As soon as they watched the trailer with the kid in it, they denounced the entire thing. They were also extremely pissed off that all the other adverts had misled them.

So, in short, don't feel bad, Rogue, you are not alone.

[Pacino86845]

Mori hated it, says "Watch Kung Fu Panda instead!"

[Maui]

I have a large group ready to roll out on this on Friday night!

From what I've been hearing, this is actually good...

It is extremely good!!! I certainly thought so.

The fight scenes are incredible. Spectacular scenery. Some really good laughs too. Both Jet Li and Jackie Chan have dual roles. The kid is a newcomer (atleast I've never seen him before) - but he was great!

We are making movie history here with Li and Chan together. It's a religious moment when you see these two on the screen together for the first time - then their fight scene begins - just WOW!!!

This movie is the complete package. Go see it!

Don't turn your back on this because of a kid. You would be missing out big time. Besides, the kid's got some killer moves.

[Retardo_Montalban]

I saw this last night and I didn't hate it, but it is totally forgettable. The story was lame by the numbers dribble. That stupid kid's storyline ruined any decent chance that Jackie and Jet could have had some real interaction with each other. There was one fight scene with Jackie and Jet going at it with each other and while that was awesome, it is regrettably only 5 minutes sandwiched in between a movie that clocks just under 2 hours. That kid reminded me too much of that other annoying kid from "Last Action Hero". If You're really desperate to see Jackie Chan do some drunken master and Jet Li do some monkey-fu, then rent the thing on DVD and fast forward to the fight scenes. The rest of the story is inconsequential anyways.

The worse part of this movie was probably the lame street toughs. Holy shit, think of any generic street tough story line from any of them 80's type movies (Karate Kid, Never Ending Story, Adventures in Babysitting) and make them twice as ALF then give them a gun and you have the street toughs in this movie. I think as a prerequisite to putting street toughs in any movie, you must watch "The Outsiders" and if you can't do better than that, then just copy the characters verbatim and leave it be. There should be no excuse in making street toughs this lame.

[Maui]

I saw this last night and I didn't hate it, but it is totally forgettable. The story was lame by the numbers dribble. That stupid kid's storyline ruined any decent chance that Jackie and Jet could have had some real interaction with each other. There was one fight scene with Jackie and Jet going at it with each other and while that was awesome, it is regrettably only 5 minutes sandwiched in between a movie that clocks just under 2 hours. That kid reminded me too much of that other annoying kid from "Last Action Hero". If You're really desperate to see Jackie Chan do some drunken master and Jet Li do some monkey-fu, then rent the thing on DVD and fast forward to the fight scenes. The rest of the story is inconsequential anyways.

The worse part of this movie was probably the lame street toughs. Holy shit, think of any generic street tough story line from any of them 80's type movies (Karate Kid, Never Ending Story, Adventures in Babysitting) and make them twice as ALF then give them a gun and you have the street toughs in this movie. I think as a prerequisite to putting street toughs in any movie, you must watch "The Outsiders" and if you can't do better than that, then just copy the characters verbatim and leave it be. There should be no excuse in making street toughs this lame.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

[RogueScribner]

Yeah, I think I'll wait for DVD. The next movie I see will probably be Iron Man.

[bastard_robo]

Saw this earlier today..

Really enjoyed it! A hell of a lot!

Is it the best movie no.. But its a fucking fun movie!

The movie moves at a steady paste, getting to the point.

Jackie Chan is great as usual.. and Jet Li as the Monkey King is probably one of the best characters he's done (sans DANNY in UNLEASHED)

The fights are really good, Yuen Woo Ping knocks it out of the park with the fights, especially the Jackie and Jet's first ever match up..

Its not a kiddy film, nor is it a sappy family film. The bigging and end are a tad bit forgettable, but the rest is a really nice flick... Hell, even the American kid did well.

Not the shit fest that Mori put it out to be, and its not this years BULLET PROOF MONK...

[Maui]

Saw this earlier today..

Really enjoyed it! A hell of a lot!

Is it the best movie no.. But its a fucking fun movie!

The fights are really good, Yuen Woo Ping knocks it out of the park with the fights, especially the Jackie and Jet's first ever match up..

Yup! I'm no kung fu movie expert - but I just found it a very entertaining film to watch.

The entire theatre roared (including myself) when Li pissed on Chan's ritual paper to start rain.

[bastard_robo]

YES! That was funny as hell...


When Jackie and Jet are fighting over how to train the kid was classic..

[Maui]

YES! That was funny as hell...


When Jackie and Jet are fighting over how to train the kid was classic..

Indeed. Chan knows how to do the funny bits quite well. I bet the outtakes to this movie are hilarious.

The two girls: Sparrow and Witch were impressive as well. Incredibly beautiful women with solid acting and kung fu moves.

[bastard_robo]

YES! That was funny as hell...


When Jackie and Jet are fighting over how to train the kid was classic..

Indeed. Chan knows how to do the funny bits quite well. I bet the outtakes to this movie are hilarious.

The two girls: Sparrow and Witch were impressive as well. Incredibly beautiful women with solid acting and kung fu moves.

The chick in the white hair.. Yummy...

[Toonol]

I caught this on Friday and recommend it also. It's not hardcore, it's just light fun. A lot of humor; probably one of the only martial arts films that work as a good family film, too.

And the two actresses were jaw-droppingly attractive...

[LeFlambeur]

I ended up seeing this, and it turns out my assesment from seeing the first trailer was correct, though the film does have a few moments. Amuzing and unpretentious enough to hold your attention, The Forbidden Kingdom is still weak enough to make you long for the real HK cinema. The main draw is of course the pairing of Chan and Li, and the inevitable fight scene doesn't dissappoint. Its as good as you would expect a combination of Li, Chan and Yuen Woo-Ping to be, and the otherwise weak director does a descent job of not intruding on the proceedings. Concidering the favorable box office returns on recent martial arts films absent of white main characters, the decision to use a white kid to frame the narrative seems a bit unnecessary. The actor does fine, and is fairly well cast for the role, his boyish features work well to convey his bewidlerment, and naive enthusiasm, and turns out to be surprisingly athletic. Indeed the cast is solid all around, considering the material they were working with (the clumsy, rudimentary dialogue would make Lucas cringe) save for the insufferable "street toughs" already aptly described by Retardo_Montalban. The film's quasi-Wizard of Oz conceit isn't inherently bad and the beginning seems to suggest a concideration of and homage to Kung-Fu film tradition. Unfortunatly the film never really gets inside of the attitude or aesthetics that made these films exhilerating; the visuals are Hollywood standard and the plot is overly explicated. The film seems respectfull of tradition but it doesn't expand on or even really live up to it. Additionally, the subject of the westerner navigating an inward genre world was already handled much better in the Kill Bill movies.

[Maui]

Interesting trivia from IMDB:

* Based on the Chinese epic story 'Journey to the West', one of the four great classic novels of Chinese Literature. The novel is a fictionalized account of the legends around the Buddhist monk Tang Sanzhuang's pilgrimage to India during the Tang dynasty in order to obtain Buddhist scriptures. Many programs have been based on this tale, such as television show "Saiyûki" (1978), and anime series _"Dragon Ball Z" (1989)_ holds a few loose facts from the same story.

* The characters are mostly taken from Chinese mythology and adventure pulps. Lu Yan is a famous Taoist Saint. The Jade Emperor is the ruler of the Heavens in Chinese myth. The Monkey King is from a 16th Century fantasy epic by Wu Cheng En. Golden Swallow was the name of the character played by Cheng Pei Pei in a number of Shaw Bros films like Da zui xia (1966). The White Haired Demoness is the anti-heroine of a pulp novel by Liang Yusheng (filmed twice) with the same title.


* This is the very first movie that Jackie Chan has made in Hollywood where he hasn't served as martial arts choreographer.

* This movie went through five script re-writes before it was completed, many of which were done in the middle of filming.


I still dug the movie though.

[Retardo_Montalban]

I don't know how "based" this story actually is. This story somehow takes place before the whole Journey to the west story begins, but doesn't transpire in any way to the original story. In the original story the Monkey King is an asshole who mucks up heaven. The Jade Emperor is so distraught over the chaos that he begs Buddah to do something, so Buddah sentenced the monkey king to be trapped under a mountain for five hundred years. The monkey King is only released to serve penance for his sins by helping a buddhist monk journey to India and collect the sacred Sutras then bring them back to the East.

That story is a hell of a lot more interesting than what we got.

[Bean]

This is an approximate timeline of the events surrounding Friday, April 25, which led me to seeing THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM.

3:00 - I am laying in the grass by the lake, enjoying the 70 degree weather.

3:05 - My friend AJ comes down to join me, throws me a water bottle that suspiciously does not look like water.

3:06 - It's definitely not water... sky vodka.

4:00 - AJ and I have finished the vodka, AJ let me do most of the drinking. I am trashed at this point. I try to get up and fall to the ground laughing.

4:05 - My friend Nate calls me and demands that I go with him to see THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM. I am down for anything at this point, and so I agree.

4:15 - I manage to walk back to my dorm. Nate is waiting outside with Jon in a car, a bowl already packed. I can see things are about to really get interesting.

4:20 - We finish the bowl and arrive at the theater, I duly note what time it is. I am proficiently fucked at this point, the weed coupled with the intense amounts of vodka I had drank is making me feel all sorts of happy. The only drag is I can not function in public and proceed to embarrass myself at the ticket booth. I don't remember the name of the movie we are going to see. I don't even know what it's about, but I'm beginning to get nervous upon entering a theater filled with little kids and their parents.

4:25 - The movie starts right on time, no commercials either! Lots of people are fighting, I have no idea why but it is entertaining as hell.

4:30 - SHIA LABEOUF IS IN THIS FUCKING MOVIE!? Is there a law that demands Shia to be in every movie ever?? Christ that is annoying.

4:40 - I have a bad case of the cotton mouth and sleepiness. It becomes harder and harder to keep my eyes open. I begin to fall asleep through out the movie. I fell asleep when our heroes were in the desert. I wake up to a theater ROARING with laughter. I ask Nate what just happened: "Jet Li just PEED on Jackie Chan, man!" FUCK ME! I can't believe I just missed that! Furious, I take a swig of my friends obscenely large Dr. Pepper to keep myself awake. I fall asleep again several times. At the end, I fall asleep and wake up to find that floor of the temple has fallen away revealing a HUGE PIT FILLED WITH LAVA! How the fuck did that happen!? I really shouldn't have gotten so fucked up for this movie!

6:30 - The movie is over. I find out from Nate that it wasn't Shia LeBeouf, but some kid doing his best impression of Shia. Upon further reflection, I'm glad I went so fucked up. I could enjoy the predictable, cheesy storyline interrupted by 5 or 6 long, overly stylized and choreographed fight scenes much better in an altered state of mind. If I hadn't, I wouldn't have had nearly as much fun.

Moral of this review? Get trashed, get stoned and see it. I don't think I can recommend it to a sober person. I just am not confident enough in the movie for that.

[Maui]

Um, that's kinda funny there Bean!

[so sorry]

One wonders how much of that story is really accurate, considering Bean's mental and physical state... he probably saw Baby Mama, and laughed the whole frickin time!

[Bean]

Yeah I basically made the time line up because I had no concept of it at the time. It seems to collaborate with what my friends told me happened. Everything I wrote is true, the times, not so much I'm sure. I don't even remember leaving the theater. They told me I was really angry over the whole Shia mix up, they kept telling me it wasn't him but I wasn't having it. I needed to hate on somebody . I went back to my dorm and passed out for 3 hours. Nate keyed my door and busted into my room to wake me up so I could party with him. I was still drunk and pretended to be the Monkey King all night haha

[Brit Pop]

The Forbidden Kingdom... Fucking Awesome!

This film is essentially what happens if you put The Karate Kid in one car... then put Frodo Baggins in another car... and drive them together really fast.

I'm not saying this is a car crash of a movie - far from it - if you suspend any belief that you are watching a 'serious' movie, then its bloody good fun to view.

I think the kid in this was the same kid who was in Sky High - one of the Nakhes Pack most likely.

Recently, if I was going to watch a Jackie Chan movie, I would expect it to be a series of SOOO obviously coreographed fight scenes... and this film does contain one of those... but most of the time is PURE OLD SCHOOL DRUNKEN MASTER JACKIE CHAN!!! Also, his acting in this is the finest I've ever seen him do, his english is beacoup good too.

Yes, as mentioned in a post above - the street punks in this film are so cliched - that at one point I though a chorus of Grease Lighting was about to break out.

But all the stuff in China AKA The Forbidden Kingdom is proper heroes journey stuff.

Jet Li does a magnificent turn in TFK as The Monkey King, dont think I've ever seen him have so much fun in a movie!

My review - 8/10 just for the amount of fun I had watching JC & JL share some screen time - like two tigers on a mountain!

[Maui]

Jet Li does a magnificent turn in TFK as The Monkey King, dont think I've ever seen him have so much fun in a movie!

My review - 8/10 just for the amount of fun I had watching JC & JL share some screen time - like two tigers on a mountain!

I was very impressed with Li's portrayal of the Monkey King too. I think I was grinning along with him.

Glad you enjoyed it, I really had a fun time with this movie as well.

[papalazeru]

Thought the movie was ok. It was nothing special because it didn't really let Jet Li and Jackie Chan loose. The kung fu looked basic and slow and I didn't feel a single impact like I do with a Chinese Kung fu flick.

The story was bollox. Anyone could have written that story. I preferred it in Monkey the series to be honest.

Did anyone else have the same thought as I did throughout this movie?

Jackie Chan would make a great Mr Miagi in his old age get up.

I would pay money to see a modern version of Karate Kid (maybe Kung Fu kid) with a lot more Jackie Chan action.

[RogueScribner]

I'll be catching this one on DVD.

[bastard_robo]

I like to think that Forbidden Kingdom is like this...

[Maui]

Did anyone else have the same thought as I did throughout this movie?

Jackie Chan would make a great Mr Miagi in his old age get up.

Hop = Mr. Miagi

Yup, did cross my mind.

[RogueScribner]

It's definitely aimed towards kids, but it was chock full of action (and a little too much wire-fu) and I had a good time with it. The story is nothing groundbreaking, but the performances elevated the material.

[Bloo]

I also watched The Forbidden Kingdom this weekend and while I enjoyed it and am not ashamed to own it or anything, and will watch it again, it was great or what I really expected out of Chan or Li

I know that it's been Jet Li's dream to play the Monkey King and I know chan loved being able to do a little role reversal and be they Drunken Master this time instead of the disciple, and it looked like both were having fun, I have to wonder who this movie is made for

Hong Kong cinema fans are going to be disappointed because the way the fights are filmed and their length

kids aren't going to understand the mythology or the influences (I watched this with my 11 year old sister and she loved the closing fights and was on the edge of her seat, but was confused by why the bad guys had magic but the good guys (except for the Monkey King) didn't--bored by the opening credit sequence, and had some difficulty understanding Chan and Li)

I liked Micheal Argarano in Sky High and thought he was really good in this, but in the back of my mind wondered what it would have been like if the white kid had been the bully and his role was played by an Asian

I also, unfavorably I know, compared the actor who played The Jade Emperor with James Wong and wondered what it would have been like with him in that role. I thought it would have been a nice little "shout out" to Big Trouble in Little China

like I said, not bad, but not great either, rewatchable but not a classic

[DerLanghaarige]

Forbidden Kingdom entered my DVD Player this morning and it was surprisingly solid. Okay, the story offered absolutely nothing new, but Jackie Chan and Jet Li share a great on-screen chemistry, the fights were very good and there were lots of them, the cinematography was stunning (Peter Pau, bitches!) and it wasn't nearly as emberassing, as an american-teenie-becomes-hero-of-an-old-chinese-legend-movie can be!
Okay, what really annoyed me, was that we saw from the beginning how much of a martial arts geek the kid was. But when Chan lets him beat grass "instead" of training him, he acts like he got no idea why he is doing this! COME ON, KID! Even my mother knows that the teachers in these movie are training you, by letting you do stuff, that looks completely unrelated to fighting! ("Wax on, wax off" anyone?)
A nice little touch on the other hand, was when he talked about the moves and techniques he saw in movies and video games, they don't make a cheap joke with it. They don't let Chan go like: "vi...deo games?" and stuff like that. Of course it's obvious that he got no idea what the kid is talking about, but he is more like: "Yeah whatever".They don't even use it for cheap pop culture references. It's more a nice little character touch, to show how the kid absorbs every piece of martial arts that he can find.
Overall I really enjoyed the serious tone of the movie. It's not dark and brooding, but it takes itself serious. The comedy is neither dominating or emberassing and there are lots of seriously dramatic moments and plenty of on-screen deaths, including slit throats and burned bodies.
Don't get me wrong. It's not a great movie. Like I said before, it's solid. In it's own subgenre (American martial arts movie that is aimed at a teen audience) it possible IS the best one ever, but when I say something like that, you have to consider the other contenders. (Bulletproof Monk, Double Dragon, Street Fighter - The Legend Of Chun Li...)
I give it one thumb up or 7/10

[Peven]

I give it one thumb up or 7/10

so, are your thumbs different sizes? i mean, lets do the math.......1 thumb out of two would seem to be a 50% rating, yet 7 out of 10 denotes 70%, UNLESS one of your thumbs was partially cut off in some sort of freak accident.....or if you were just born with a feakishly small, or large, thumb which would explain how 1 of your thumbs is worth 70% and the other only 30%....and if that is the case, then 1 thumb up could also mean 3 out of 10, right?

[DerLanghaarige]

I give it one thumb up or 7/10

so, are your thumbs different sizes? i mean, lets do the math.......1 thumb out of two would seem to be a 50% rating, yet 7 out of 10 denotes 70%, UNLESS one of your thumbs was partially cut off in some sort of freak accident.....or if you were just born with a feakishly small, or large, thumb which would explain how 1 of your thumbs is worth 70% and the other only 30%....and if that is the case, then 1 thumb up could also mean 3 out of 10, right?

My avatar is a pretty accurate description of what I looked like when I read this.
Anyway, let's just say that some ratings are impossible to translate 1:1. If I wouldn't have used a 10 point, but a 5 point system, I would have given it 4/5 stars. But if you then convert this rating to a 10 point system, just by multiplicating it with 2, you would suddenly have a 8/10 rating! And if it would have been 3/5, which is the next lowest rating, we would have 6/10. It's pretty much the same with my thumbs. Of course we could stop to use only our thumbs and also add the other fingers to make it more accurate. Then it would be 7 fingers. We could also add our toes, to make our rating even more detailed. And in the end, we could also add our penises, but that would mean that men are able to like movies more than women and I don't think that would be fair.