Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.

Grrrrr... NotShia bad...

Hey y'all. Capone in Chicago here.

So what if this film is about 10 or 15 years too late to truly capitalize on the peak talents of its two stars, Jackie Chan and Jet Li, in a film together for the first time here? That doesn't mean THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM can't be good, right? Right?! So maybe this isn't the ideal vehicle to pair up these two legends, but that doesn't mean this film is a complete disaster. Right off the bat, I thought we were in serious trouble. Young American Jason (Michael Angarano of LORDS OF DOGTOWN and last year's MAN IN THE CHAIR) is obsessed with Hong Kong action films, so much so that he makes regular visits to the Chinese neighborhood of his unnamed city seeking out bootleg/import copies of films that never made it stateside at a shop run by an old Chinese man played by an almost-unrecognizable Chan. He is bullied by psycho fellow students in scenes that seem right out of THE KARATE KID (this film seems like a weird combo of that film and THE WIZARD OF OZ). He is forced to help rob the old Chinese man who is killed during the crime, but before he dies he bestows an ancient staff on the boy and tells him to make sure it gets to its rightful owner. Jason is transported to a mystical, ancient version of China where he meets a kung fu master (Chan out of old-man make-up and with long hair) and a monk, played by Jet Li. Like Chan, Li works double duty, also playing a mystical being known as the Monkey King, a role so bizarre that long-time fans of his probably owe it to themselves to check out the film just to watch Li's spirited performance.

As the group (which eventually includes a beautiful young love interest for Jason) travels across China to return the staff to its unknown owner, Chan and Li teach Jason the true meaning of kung fu, and in a short time, make him something of a master at it, as white teens are inclined to do. Since the martial arts choreography is handed by Woo Ping Yuen (KILL BILL; THE MATRIX trilogy; CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON; the DRUNKEN MASTER films), you at least know the fight scenes are going to be pretty great, and they are. But it made me a bit sad to think that it took an American-made, English-language film to bring these two martial arts masters together for the first time. Director Rob Minkoff (THE LION KING; STUART LITTLE; THE HAUNTED MANSION) clearly has a great love for the old-school chop-socky movies, and he does his best to mimic their style, especially when it comes to the over-the-top villains on display. Maybe it's my own bias against the idea of this film to begin with that made me resistant to it from the beginning. That being said, it did grow on me thanks to some killer fight sequences and the film's many references to kung fu films of the past. And as much as this is the story of a white boy in China, Minkoff keeps the sassy, fish-out-of-water dialogue to a minimum. I'm guessing that if I saw the film again, I'd be able to enjoy myself a lot more. THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM is not the appalling, slap-in-the-face insult to martial arts films that I thought it would be, but it's far from high art. I found myself having fun at times, but I also grew rapidly impatient when there was no fighting on the screen. Derive from that description and your own personal love of martial arts movies whatever you can. I don't think I can quite recommend this, but those of you who don't consider yourselves purists might enjoy this one.

Capone