I live in a small town and for whatever reason it looks like we do not have too many movie goers in our area. I remember when I went for “Return of Spidy” the movie hall was about half full, same was for the last Harry Potter Movie. Well, for “The Forbidden Kingdom” there were hardly 30 people in Cinema 8 movie theater! But, less people means less talk and least noise! So, we had great time watching the movie.

Rob Minkoff directed the film “The Forbidden Kingdom“. Rob Minkoff is not only a superb director, he is also a producer, an actor, a writer and more. “The Lion King”, “Stuart Little”, were produced under his direction. Check the IMDB portfolio of the director to know him better.

Well, lets get back to the story now.

Jason (Michael Angarano) is a American Teenager. He is obsessed with martial arts and watch those movies all day and night. He even keep the TV running at night! He gets all his kung-fu classic films from a local movie shop own by a Chinese person (Jackie Chan) . Accidentally he found an antique stick that belongs to legendary Monkey King (Jet Li) in that shop. While holding the legendary weapon in his hand Jason is taken to ancient china by some super natural force. He wake up and find himself in a land he has never been, not even in his dream. However, the people of that far land seems to recognize the stick he is carrying and start questioning about it. Some even tries to rob his stick. While he is being chased by a group of warriors riding horse, a drunk person comes. He is pathetic and could not even stand properly. Jason hits the drunk man. He smiles and then shows amazing kung-fu to beat the nasty warriors. He is Lu Yan (Jackie Chan) - the drunken Kung-Fu Master! Jason and Jackie Chan become friends and while having their lunch at some restaurant they meet vengeance-bent kung fu beauty - Golden Sparrow (Crystal Liu Yi Fei).

Monkey King has been imprisoned in stone by the evil Jade Warlord (Collin Chou) for five hundred years. Warlord could never possibly beat the monkey king and used deception to turn the monkey king into stone. But there was a prophecy that someone will come to return the “Staff (the stick Jason carrying)” to the stoned Monkey King which will release his imprisonment. The evil Warlord also killed Golden Sparrow’s parents. So, now Jason, Jackie Chan and Crystal Liu become friends! They were walking the path toward the mansion of Warlord while the “Staff” is robbed by a white monk in horse. Jackie Chan goes to recover the “Staff” from the thief monk and found that the monk is also in a mission to find out the person who is supposed to return the “Staff” to Monkey King. Guess what? The white monk is also Jet Li!

So, we have both Jackie Chan and Jet Li in Double Role!

Well there are multiple opponents that Jason has to overcome to reach Warlord and he did that with support from Jackie Chan and Jet Li.

The film is enormously funny, as always with any Jackie Chan Movies. Both Jackie Chan and Jet Li look old but still they are extremely brilliant in the action sequences. I sometimes felt that some of the action sequences could have been little bit more longer (probably because I love action) specially the “Drunken Kung Fu” sequence by Jackie Chan and the final fight of Jet Li with Warlord.

I heard that it took almost 100 days to shoot the film. It is a great pleasure to my eyes watching beautiful China. I highly recommend everybody to watch the film.
Jason learns a lot along the journey through the “forbidden kingdom”.

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