The Forbidden Kingdom

Family friendly entertainment (2009-01-02) Rating: 5/5
This is a fun teen-age martial arts wish fulfillment movie.

The production values are wonderful, the acting and direction are excellent, and the plot line is well developed and takes you to a good wrapup of all the plotlines.

There is good character development as the kid discovers strength inside himself and becomes a hero (that's the wish fulfillment part).

In all, a nifty movie, and one for the whole family.
Despite the flaws highly entertaining (2009-01-02) Rating: 4/5
The Forbidden Kingdom marks the very first time in the Iconic careers of Jet Li and Jackie Chan that they have worked together; fans of both these superstars are bound to have high expectations, but keep in mind this is an American production and in general Li and Chan, while making some good movies in the States they don't hold a candle to their Hong Kong flicks. But despite any flaws The Forbidden Kingdom makes a solid flick for these two Icons to team up together. Who knew it would take this long? One would have figured by this point in their careers some filmmaker would have tried to cash in far earlier.

The Forbidden Kingdom may not be a Martial Arts flick for the ages, but I have to say I really enjoyed this one. The movie is just so much fun that any flaws that can be found are quite easy to overlook. This isn't gonna go down in history as one of the greats, but due to the first teaming of Li and Chan it will go down for that. This may not be Fist of Legend, but this is as fun of a movie you'll come across.

Writer John Fusco (Young Guns & Young Guns II) does a fairly good ob with the script. This may not be one of the all time great screenplays, but it works well and is highly entertaining. I've seen a few movies written by Fusco I find his work entertaining. With The Forbidden Kingdom the script isn't perfect, but has a good mix of light drama and good comedy as well as in my opinion very likeable and fun characters.

Who knew the director of such movies as The Lion King and Stuart Little could make such an entertaining action flick. Going into The Forbidden Kingdom I wasn't sure what to expect with Rob Minkoff directing. This is very far removed from what he's known for and again I really didn't know what to expect. But I have to give Rob Minkoff credit he actually does an excellent job. The pacing is solid and never lags at all; each scene is as entertaining as the last and while Minkoff doesn't make a perfect film he does make a very fun film. The action scenes are solid and overall Rob Minkoff makes one of the better American action movies the past few years.

When you have Woo-ping Yuen doing the fight scenes you know right off the bat no matter how the movie is overall the fight scenes will be good. Woo-ping Yuen has been involved in some of the greatest action movies ever made and while The Forbidden Kingdom may not be his most impressive work in his career, but it's still better than most of what we see in Hollywood. The fight scenes are excellent, but not quite on par with Yuen's other movies, but the fight scenes are fun and the viewer should enjoy it.

Obviously the highlight of the movie is the fight scene with Jet Li and Jackie Chan; fans of these two are bound to love that and it runs at a good length and granted it may not be their strongest work, but it still gets the job done and is bound to put a smile on the faces of the viewer.

The performances are strong for the most part and Jet Li & Jackie Chan are fun to watch and both seem to be enjoying themselves with their roles. Yifei Liu, Li Bing Bing and Michael Angarano provide solid performances and are able to hold their own along side Li and Chan.

The Forbidden Kingdom is by no means one of the great Martial Arts flicks, but for what it's worth it is one of the most fun times you'll have. Despite any flaws The Forbidden Kingdom is highly enjoyable.

The Blu-ray looks simply amazing! The picture is crystal clear and it really enhances the movie watching it on Blu-ray. I'm still new to Blu-ray, but The Forbidden Kingdom will be tough to top.
Amazing! (2008-12-30) Rating: 5/5
What a fabulous film - stunts and scenes were something else. A must see film.
Amand.
Good action movie (2008-12-30) Rating: 4/5
One of my favorite movies that I watched in 2008. It was unique enough that I bought the DVD for it, I am huge fan of martial arts/action movies and this one has a lot of it.
fine (2008-12-22) Rating: 3/5
The disc was disconnected from the case when I received it. I had to open the dvd (It was a gift for someone else) to reset it in place. There were fine scratches on the disc from being shakes around during the shipping process.