everything goes in forbidden kingdom
Jackie-Jet show filled out with mumbo-jumbo and splashy effects
A fantasy-adventure-comedy geared for mass audiences, “The Forbidden Kingdom” is a sort of kung-foolish paella, with a little of everything thrown in so that everyone can find something to like.
For kung-fu fanatics, there’s the first-ever pairing of legends Jet Li and Jackie Chan. For youngsters, there’s a teen heartthrob (20-year-old Michael Angarano). And the script borrows from all over: “The Wizard of Oz,” “Crouching Tiger” and “The Karate Kid” come easily to mind.
A pleasant pastiche from family-friendly director Rob Minkoff (”Stuart Little,” “The Lion King”) and writer John Fusco (”Hidalgo,” “Young Guns”), “The Forbidden Kingdom” relies on all manner of made-up prophecies, myths and magic spells to get its young hero from modern America to ancient China and into a movie’s worth of trouble. The portal to the past is the armed robbery of an old shopkeeper (yes, that’s Chan in heavy makeup). Somehow, our young hero finds himself whooshed into the past, where he encounters a drunken master (Chan again) and a whole raft of evil tidings. We particularly liked the whip-wielding wicked witch Ni Chang (Bingbing Li).This film’s universe is one of mystic transformations, of warriors turned to stone (and back again) and epic, special-effects confrontations.
But the highlight is human. That’s when Chan’s drunken master confronts Li’s Monkey King. Watching these two old pros go at it is indeed a treat — one that makes the rest of this lightweight epic more tolerable.
The film is rated PG-13 and runs 113 minutes.
We give it a B-.
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