Spring Break
Jackie Chan, Jet Lee: 'The Forbidden Kingdom'
Karen Tableiou
Issue date: 9/17/08 Section: The Edge
Upon entering Family Video, I immediately went straight to the new release section, ecstatic at the thought of finally watching two kung fu masters duke it out in the recently released Lionsgate film "The Forbidden Kingdom." Grabbing the last copy, I drove back to my res hall and popped the disc in.
"Major disappointment" barely begins to describe how I felt after watching this flick.
"The Forbidden Kingdom" is roughly about Boston teenager Jason Tripitikas (Michael Angarano), a kung fu junkie who, after witnessing a murderous crime, flees from a gang and is magically transported to ancient China by a mysterious golden staff.
In this foreign land, Jason is incapable of understanding Mandarin (a dialect of Chinese spoken in this movie), but spontaneously he is either fluent in Mandarin, or is it that everyone else are fluent English speakers?
It's so vague and confusing, especially when parts of the movie lapse between Mandarin and English, giving the audience subtitles to understand parts of the dialogue.
Honestly, pick one or the other, especially if we're to believe that everyone is "fluent" English speakers (again, no reason is given to how this phenomenon occurred).
Enter Jackie Chan as Lu Yan, the Drunken Immortal, who gives us the background story of the fabled Monkey King, deviously tricked by the Jade Warlord and now residing as a decorative stone statue in the Warlord's palace.
The whole movie revolves around the golden staff Jason found and so the archetypal quest begins: The young untried hero (Angarano), the drunken fool (Chan), a silent and wise Monk (no name is given for Jet Li's character) and an elusive female warrior bent on revenge, Sparrow (Yifei Liu), make up this rag-tag group as they set out to return the golden staff to the stone encrusted Monkey King in order to restore good to the world.
After wasting 113 minutes of my life that could have been spent doing my laundry or staring blankly up at the bumps in my ceiling, I looked to see what else the DVD might have to offer.
Absolutely nothing.
You have the option of either watching the movie again (God knows why you would do that) or sitting through some previews.
The only good thing I have to say about this movie was the one (and I mean the only one) fighting scene between Jackie Chan and Jet Li. It was the only enjoyable scene; they should have utilized the two actors better than they did.
The writers of the script should be ashamed of the sloppy work produced (next time, re-read your work before you turn it into a major motion picture).
"Major disappointment" barely begins to describe how I felt after watching this flick.
"The Forbidden Kingdom" is roughly about Boston teenager Jason Tripitikas (Michael Angarano), a kung fu junkie who, after witnessing a murderous crime, flees from a gang and is magically transported to ancient China by a mysterious golden staff.
In this foreign land, Jason is incapable of understanding Mandarin (a dialect of Chinese spoken in this movie), but spontaneously he is either fluent in Mandarin, or is it that everyone else are fluent English speakers?
It's so vague and confusing, especially when parts of the movie lapse between Mandarin and English, giving the audience subtitles to understand parts of the dialogue.
Honestly, pick one or the other, especially if we're to believe that everyone is "fluent" English speakers (again, no reason is given to how this phenomenon occurred).
Enter Jackie Chan as Lu Yan, the Drunken Immortal, who gives us the background story of the fabled Monkey King, deviously tricked by the Jade Warlord and now residing as a decorative stone statue in the Warlord's palace.
The whole movie revolves around the golden staff Jason found and so the archetypal quest begins: The young untried hero (Angarano), the drunken fool (Chan), a silent and wise Monk (no name is given for Jet Li's character) and an elusive female warrior bent on revenge, Sparrow (Yifei Liu), make up this rag-tag group as they set out to return the golden staff to the stone encrusted Monkey King in order to restore good to the world.
After wasting 113 minutes of my life that could have been spent doing my laundry or staring blankly up at the bumps in my ceiling, I looked to see what else the DVD might have to offer.
Absolutely nothing.
You have the option of either watching the movie again (God knows why you would do that) or sitting through some previews.
The only good thing I have to say about this movie was the one (and I mean the only one) fighting scene between Jackie Chan and Jet Li. It was the only enjoyable scene; they should have utilized the two actors better than they did.
The writers of the script should be ashamed of the sloppy work produced (next time, re-read your work before you turn it into a major motion picture).
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