Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: The Forbidden Kingdom (2008)

my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

»	Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE » Community » Film Handlers' Movie Reviews » The Forbidden Kingdom (2008)

Author

Topic: The Forbidden Kingdom (2008)

Dennis Benjamin
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1445
From: Denton, MD
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 04-18-2008 10:26 PM

Hey - I liked this movie! Of course, I am a kung-fu movie fan.

But it was better than I expected and that's always a good thing.

[beer]

| IP: Logged

David Stambaugh
Film God

Posts: 4021
From: Eugene, Oregon
Registered: Jan 2002

posted 04-20-2008 08:39 PM

I liked it. Too bad it wasn't filmed 35mm anamorphic like all kung fu movies were meant to be [Wink]

instead of Panavision Genesis.

[thumbsup]

| IP: Logged

Stu Jamieson
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 524
From: Buccan, Qld, Australia
Registered: Jan 2008

posted 07-26-2008 09:09 AM

Jason Tripitikas (Michael Angarano) is a teenage kung fu fan whose martial arts abilities are dwarfed by his enthusiasm. During a robbery of his favourite shop in China Town, a mystical golden staff magically (though inexplicably) transports him through the "Gate of No Gate" to ancient China. It soon transpires that in order to get home he must submit the golden staff to the imprisoned Monkey King thereby setting him free. So with his new found kung fu friends in tow - Silent Monk (Jet Li), Lu Yan (Jackie Chan) and Golden Sparrow (Yifei Liu) - he sets out to fulfill his quest, picking up some kung fu tips from the masters along the way. Naturally, bad guys mean to thwart his attempts.

It's clear that this films sole reason for existence is to team up Jackie Chan with Jet Li and these guys don't disappoint. Despite being visibly slower in their later years their level of agility still impresses. Chan earns a few extra nostalgia points for reprising his comedic drunken kung fu style for which he became famous in his Drunken Master movies. Newcomers, Yifei Liu and Bingbing Li as good-girl Golden Sparrow and bad-girl Ni Chang respectively, hold their own and Ni Chang's prehensile hair attack is a nice touch.

The premise to this film is, of course, patent nonsense ("Gate Of No Gate"??) but in a PG rated film we don't ask too many questions. The movie riffs chiefly off the Chinese Monkey King legend (particularly the TV incarnation - check out our hero's surname) while additionally (and shamelessly) filching elements from the likes of Gremlins, Karate Kid, Last Action Hero, Wizard Of Oz and others. The stuff of kids' dreams, this story about an average boy becoming a kung fu master presents no surprises; everything plays out exactly as you would expect right down to its Karate Kid ending.

One question which does need to be asked however is how this film was granted a PG rating. Like the recent Get Smart before it, the violence quotient here seems remarkably high for a PG movie especially considering that Prince Caspian (appropriately) scored an M rating. There appears to be a lowering of the bar over at the Office of Film and Literature Classification.

Not one to set the world on fire by any stretch but Forbidden Kingdom presents a reliable story coupled with some pleasing action.

6.5 out of 10

| IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

Printer-friendly view of this topic

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.