The Forbidden Kingdom Review
by Steve Rhodes (steve DOT rhodes AT internetreviews DOT com)April 23rd, 2008
THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2008 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ** 1/2
The dirty little secret of film reviewing is that some films are much more fun to review than others. It's all about quality.
Give me a wonderful film or a real stinker, -- I don't care which -- and it becomes sheer joy writing about it. If the movie is terrific, there is no end to the examples one can come up with to explain why it is so special. Conversely, if a movie reeks, a critic can at least enjoy taking an ax to it afterwards, since there will be no end to the points to criticize.
And then we come to movies like THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM, which is neither fish nor fowl. It's not an awful movie, but, although it has its moments, it is not a particularly good one either. So, no matter how hard you try, it's hard to get much passion into saying anything good or bad about it.
Billed as the inspired pairing of two martial arts legends, Jackie Chan and Jet Li, the movie's central character is played by neither of these actors. Instead it falls to Michael Angarano, a relatively unknown actor whose best know part was a relatively minor character in a few episodes of last year's "24" on television.
As Jason Tripitikas, Angarano is given a character straight out of THE KARATE KID. Chan and Li, who each play a pair of characters, are seen most as Lu Yan and The Silent Monk. These characters teach Jason how to fight. Of course, this proves as painful as it is successful. Most of the story is set in ancient China, where Jason is thrust as he goes off on a quest to return a long-lost staff to its rightful owner.
Although the lush mountain settings are gorgeous, Peter Pau's cinematography proves pretty pedestrian. The Jackie Chan comedy show is a bit more effective, but most of his jokes feel like retreads.
There is one and only one part of the production that you will remember. Li gives an absolutely inspired reading of the Monkey King, his other character. A cinematic original, this infinitely charming character might best be described as a Donkey Kong-type character as seen in The Wizard of Oz. Every scene with the Monkey King in it is magical and mesmerizing. It's too bad the movie wasn't just about the Monkey King. Now that would be a film I would pay to see again and again.
THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM runs too long at 1:53. It is rated PG-13 for "sequences of martial arts action and some violence" and would be acceptable for kids around 6 and up.
My son Jeffrey, age 19, loved the Monkey King character but not much else about the movie, giving it just **. He thought the movie was such a dud that it could have been better if they had made it more into a parody. He said it was half serious and half comedy, but that neither part worked. Jeffrey's girlfriend Yasmin, age 18, said that she kept falling asleep during the movie but that, when it engaged her enough to stay awake, she liked some of the action scenes and Chan's drunken comedy routine.
The film is playing in nationwide release now in the United States. In the Silicon Valley, it is showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
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