A solid if unexceptional martial arts fest, Rob Minkoff’s The Forbidden Kingdom is notable for one reason: it’s the long-awaited team-up of Hong Kong superstars Jet Li and Jackie Chan.
Story – a standard Kid in King Arthur’s Court-like fish-out-of-water tale mixed with the traditional evil warlord plot one expects from these films – is nothing special, but the stars are on screen together and make the best of it: an extended fight scene between the two of them that incorporates a number of different martial arts styles is the film’s definitive highlight.
Put-upon Boston adolescent Jason (Michael Angarano), a rabid kung fu fan who spends his time browsing the DVDs at a Chinatown pawn shop run by Old Hop (Chan), is forced by some neighborhood bullies to use his connection to the old man to help them rob the place.
Hop is shot during a wildly unconvincing robbery scene, and hands Jason a mystical staff, instructing him to return it to its rightful owner. During an escape attempt, Jason is conveniently transported to Ancient China, where he soon learns of the staff’s owner: The Monkey King (Li), who needs it to break free from a stone-encasement and defeat an evil warlord who has been enslaving the countryside.
Returning it won’t be so easy, though, as the warlord’s minions spot Jason and the staff almost as soon as he arrives. But drunken master Lu Yan (Chan again), vengeful orphaned girl Golden Sparrow (Yifei Liu) and Silent Monk (Li again) unite to train him in martial arts and aid him in his quest.
Plot is just an excuse for one fight scene after another in a showcase for the two stars, and they don’t disappoint. Best of the best: the aforementioned Li-Chan duel, which has the two of them battling it out for nearly ten minutes, and a terrific brawl in a teahouse that recalls some of Chan’s best work, in which he uses the helpless Jason as a projectile weapon against attacking minions.
Chan has the choice role of drunken Lu Yan, a return to famed Druken Master Wong Fei-hung, one of the roles that made him famous (interestingly enough: Li has actually played Fei-hung more often than Chan).
Li has less to do (and a real lack of dialogue, which isn’t a bad thing) but still commands attention with his screen presence. The dual roles allow them to stretch their acting muscle, too: Chan, though nearly unintelligible, is clearly having a lot of fun as Old Hop, and Li is, well, let’s say ‘amusing’ as the Monkey King.
Angarano, who looks like a young Sam Rockwell, is unconvincing throughout as the kung fu apprentice (he’s no Ralph Macchio), though he stops short of being a true detriment to the film.
One might expect the potentially legendary teaming of Li and Chan to be helmed by a similarly experienced Hong Kong presence, or at the very least, a veteran action director of some distinction. But here’s Rob Minkoff, the man behind The Haunted Mansion and Stuart Little 2.
Before you cry foul, however, he actually handles things quite well here, though there’s a bit too much editing and CGI during the fight scenes for my tastes. Still, he lets choreographer Yuen Woo-Ping do his thing often enough and ultimately succeeds; at the very least, the action here is an improvement over, say, the Rush Hour series.
Lovely cinematography by Peter Pau makes the best of some breathtaking Chinese locales.
