Hack movie critic time: Here are some other possible titles for "The Forbidden Kingdom": "Lord of the Mings" or "The Dragon of Oz". Basically, this film follows the "quest" blueprint of those films and has many common themes. Of course, the source material for this movie comes from Chinese folklore and probably pre-dates either of those films or the books they were based on. "The Forbidden Kingdom" unites Jackin Chan and Jet Li for the first time on film. While they come from very different martial art film backgrounds (Chan is usually in lighter, fun martial arts film, while Li leans toward more darker fare), the collaboration works very well. The film begins with the story of Jason Tripitikas (Michael Angarano), a boy in South Boston obsessed with kung fu movies, who finds himself forced by neighborhood thugs to help them rob a Chinese pawn shop he frequents. During the robbery, he is given an ancient staff by the store owner (Jackie Chan) and told to return it to its rightful owner. He finds himself transported to China many years in the past (the exact time period is unclear), where he meets a drunken master (Jackie Chan), who will assist him in his quest. The "rightful owner" of the staff is the Monkey King (Jet Li), who is being held after being transformed to stone. Along the way, they meet The Silent Monk (Jet Li) and Golden Sparrow (Yifei Liu), who also agree to assist them on their mission. Along the way, they are met with many obstacles and good old-fashioned adventure as Jason is taught the ways of "gung-fu". This is a very fun adventure film and I was actually very impressed with the performances of Jackie Chan and Jet Li. They really complemented each other perfectly in this film and their differing styles meshed very well. As far as the films referenced earlier, this is a little darker in tone than "The Wizard of Oz" and not quite as dark as "The Lord of the Rings". This movie is a fun adventure story where you actually get to learn a little bit about some of the characters that make up Chinese folklore.Grade: B-
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