The Forbidden Kingdom
Review
by Clint Morris
Just
as Jet Li’s character does to Jackie Chan’s in the film, Hollywood is
used to taking a leak on the two legendary icons of Asian Cinema.
Hollywood hasn’t done right by Li or Chan (besides pay them their
astronomical fees) from the day they walked them into SAG. And with the
money they make from their films – especially Chan’s Rush Hour series –
they probably won’t be changing their tact.
Chan and Li’s Tinseltown efforts combined don’t even come close to
equalling the entertainment factor of a Police Story (one
of Chan’s best) or a Black
Mask (a Li favourite). And considering the talented base
of writers and directors (not to mention money available) in Hollywood,
that’s not only a shame, it’s a surprise.
If James Cameron can give Schwarzenegger solid-as-rock action pics
like True Lies
and Terminator 2,
then why can’t someone put more thought into giving Chan or Li (just as
talented as the Austrian Oak in many people’s opinions) a better
stateside vehicle than one about a magical-tuxedo or one where the
Asian doesn’t serve as the punch line to an African-American comics’
jokes?
Now, for the first time, Chan and Li join forces to star in…. yet
another underwhelming under-written Hollywood effort. It’s a Double
Whammy!
OK, so The
Forbidden Kingdom isn’t Tuxedo-dire
or War-bad,
but it’s definitely not the film those of us who have been waiting for
a decade or more to see the Kung-Fu great’s team on screen expected.
To say its underwhelming is being nice.
To say it may get better with age is being optimistic.
Maybe I was expecting too much from a Li/Chan teaming, I dunno. One
thing’s for sure, the film leaves you starved for more – because it
merely gets going about 80 minutes in.
Having said that, this might be the best thing Chan and Li have done
with a Hollywood studio – if only because they’ve both been let off
their chains to do what they do best for once (Hollywood studios don’t
generally let Chan and Li do their own stunts, fearing a major lawsuit
or hospital bill).
The fight scenes are evidently much more effective, and fun, than the
skirmish scenes in every other recent Li/Chan vehicle of late. Now is
that only because those films – be it Rush
Hour 3 or Kiss of the Dragon
– haven’t encompassed much action? Or is it because the scenes are
meticulously crafted and choreographed? Probably a combination of the
two.
Veteran martial-arts choreographer Woo-ping Yuen set-up the action
scenes in the film – and a few of them, the end one especially, are
terrific. If the studio had decided to do away with the
seen-it-all-before plot of the film (kid is magically transported to
long-ago Asia where he, Chan and Li take on an evil warlord who has
kept ‘The Monkey King’ frozen for years) and just provide 90 minutes of
foot-to-face action, featuring two of the greatest martial artists of
the western world.
We might’ve had a monster of a movie here (I know, a film with no plot
is usually as weak as piss, but the thing is, most of Chan and Li’s
films in Asia had little to no storylines, but they’re brimming with
action, and remain consistently entertaining). In its current state,
it’s a film with teeth – but they’re a little blunt.
Instead of The
Never-Ending Story meets The Karate Kid,
maybe the next Chan/Li teaming can be a little more Bloodsport meets Lethal Weapon? Just
an idea.
One to watch on fast-forward - stop for the fight scenes - when it hits
DVD.
3 out
of 5
The
Forbidden Kingdom
Australian release: 24th July, 2008
Cast:
Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Michael Angarano, Bingbing Li
Director: Rob Minkoff
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