Review of The Forbidden Kingdom (2008) by Dave H — 19 Feb 2013
Nicely unpretentious family-style martial arts movie, decent attempt to merge Eastern legends and the Hong Kong kung fu genre with Western sensibility and Hollywood flash - this is worthy of both Jackie Chan's goofy charmy chop-suey style, and Jet Li's intense starey aggression (and while I much prefer Jackie's warm and relatable persona to Jet's aloof dispassion, I loved Jet's fey Jack-Sparrow-like interpretation of the Monkey King here).
Plot you've seen a thousand times before - The Wizard of Oz meets The Karate Kid. But the prod design is pretty special - and the (non-CGI) locations are staggering. Quite light and fun, and often funny whenever Jackie does his thing.
And - if anyone ever tells you that Jet Li pisses all over Jackie Chan in this film, don't assume that they are talking about martial arts ability. Because Jet Li LITERALLY pisses all over Jackie Chan in this film.
This review of The Forbidden Kingdom (2008) was written by Dave H on 19 Feb 2013.
The Forbidden Kingdom has generally received positive reviews.
Was this review helpful?
