The Forbidden Kingdom stars action legends Jackie Chan (who plays Lu Yan) and Jet Li (tplaying the Monkey King and The Silent Monk) along with Michael Angarano, Yifei Liu (played Sparrow) and Collin Chou playing the Jade Warlord.
Well the main plot of The Forbidden Kingdom starts off with the Monkey King (Jet Li) causing mischief against the Jade Warlord, andThe Jade warlord challenges the Monkey King to a duel. During the duel the Jade Warlord (Collin Chou) turns the Monkey King into stone just after the Monkey King casts his staff away.
Switch to sort of present day and we see Jason (played by Michael Angarano). He get out of bed and goes to a store in China town to buy some kung fu movies (this is were we see Jackie Chan playing the shop owner). Afterwards he gets chased after by as group of bullies and Jason is ends up inside The Forbidden Kingdom. Here he first meets Lu Yan (Jackie Chan) and they start a journey to help return the staff to his rightful owner. On the way they meet Sparrow (Yifei Liu) and the Silent Monk (played by Jet Li).
As being a big Jackie Chan Fan some could thing that this is a no brain of which way I might swing, but I much say that I did enjoy it but there are some issues I had with the movie. Although overall did I enjoyed The Forbidden Kingdom very much. Throughout the movie I was smiling from ear to ear in amazement.
First the good. Over and over, film after film Woo-ping Yuen always delivers when It comes to the choreography. Jackie Chan and Jet Li both are excellent during there selection of fight scenes with the best of course being when the two fought each other. I thought a lot of the scenes were really funny from when both Chan and Li were teaching Jason some kung fu, and even the "rain"scene put halfway into the movie. I also like Jet Li's version of the Monkey King I thought he was hilarious at some of the scenes, and really entertaining to watch.
As for what I disliked about the movie was a couple things. First I thought the direction could have been done a little better. Also in the beginning the actors that were picking on the main character couldn't act worth a damn, and I thought that the kid Michael Angarano was iffy, nothing that great. Shadowed by the real stars of the show Jet Li and Jackie Chan. Another think I must note is that I thought that the romance scenes really didn't need to be there. I don't understand why there always has to be at least some of a romance plot in movie that it obviously bogs down the rest of the story.
The Forbidden Kingdom was a wonderful movie I enjoyed very much. To see Jet Li and Jackie Chan attack each other with different style was very exciting, and could be one of funniest and entertaining fight scene for awhile. I would Strongly Recommend The Forbidden Kingdom.
Showing posts with label Jet Li. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jet Li. Show all posts
Friday, April 18, 2008
Friday, January 04, 2008
DVD: War
War stars Jet Li and Jason Statham and is directed by Philip G. Atwell.
During a mission two FBI agents Jack Crawford (Jason Statham) and his partner Tom Lone (played by Terry Chen) are attacked by Rouge (Jet Li), an assassin/hit man. Rouge eventually escapes from the two, which later leads to Rouge getting revenge and killing Tom Lone and his wife and child. Three years later, while Rouge has been off the grid he appears again this time he has killed some Yakuza's, the gang he was working for before. Jack Crawford and his team break up the San Fransisco polices investigation and puts his priorities on finding the man who killed his partner, Rogue. We find out that Rouge, who now has the name Victor Shaw has switched sides and joined the Triad boss Chang (John Lone). Victor Shaw skillfully kills of Chang's most loyal man Wu Ti's ( Mark Cheng) brother Joey Ti (played by Johnson Phan) and make it look like the Yakuzas did it. As Jack Crawford puts it best, "Lets get ready for a war." A war is now enviable between the Triads and the Yakuzas. Wu Ti and some of his men are first to strike and attack some Yakuzas at a tea restaurant. As the story unfolds we learn why Victor Shaw is making this war happen and is attacking on both sides of the war, all awhile Jack Crawford get closer and closer to take down Victor Shaw.
From the start of War I was really interested with the movie. I've always thought that this was a great casting one side of it you have Jet Li from some great martial arts movies like Once Upon A Time In China, and the most recent Fearless and Warlords and on the other side Jason Statham who has some great fight scenes in his other movies like the Transporter and the Transporter 2. I was really looking forward to be seeing the two of them fight like crazy throughout this movie. Yet I found myself quite disappointed with that because the two of them actually fought only one time and that was nearing the end of the movie and only for a brief time.
Aside from those two from fighting you have the plot. For me the plot I felt was sort of predictable, much like any other revenge movie that involves one of the main character that's a cop, or in this case an FBI special agent. Its basically the bad guy kills the good guys partner so the good guy wants to get revenge throughout the movie. Even at the end I thought was very predictable.
The action through War, even though its mostly put in towards the end was good. I would have liked to see more martial arts scenes from Jet Li. The action choreographer was Cory Yuen who has choreographed a lot of Jet Li's movie as well has done the action direction for Jason Statham's movie both The Transporter and The Transporter 2. He has done many more too. With War I was not disappointed, he did a great job and the action was very entertaining.
War, while I'm not recommending it does have its moments. Maybe my expectations were to high, because I was wanting awesome fight scenes between the two lead actors Jason Statham and Jet Li. Overall I would say that War is a Skip.
DVD
The DVD of War has two different Commentaries, one by the Director Phillip G. Atwell and the other by the Writers Lee Anthony Smith and Gregory Bradley along with a featurette on the Scoring of War (the music) and Deleted/Extended Scenes, Gag Reel and a Trivia Track and lastly "The Action Of War' - 9 Behind-The-Scenes Vignettes.
The only thing on this DVD that is remotely interesting would be "The Action of War" Featurettes which clocks in around 70 plus minutes long and it talks about certain scenes through the film from the action, editing and scoring. The Gag Reel too was funny, but overall I would have to say that the movie is a Rent.
During a mission two FBI agents Jack Crawford (Jason Statham) and his partner Tom Lone (played by Terry Chen) are attacked by Rouge (Jet Li), an assassin/hit man. Rouge eventually escapes from the two, which later leads to Rouge getting revenge and killing Tom Lone and his wife and child. Three years later, while Rouge has been off the grid he appears again this time he has killed some Yakuza's, the gang he was working for before. Jack Crawford and his team break up the San Fransisco polices investigation and puts his priorities on finding the man who killed his partner, Rogue. We find out that Rouge, who now has the name Victor Shaw has switched sides and joined the Triad boss Chang (John Lone). Victor Shaw skillfully kills of Chang's most loyal man Wu Ti's ( Mark Cheng) brother Joey Ti (played by Johnson Phan) and make it look like the Yakuzas did it. As Jack Crawford puts it best, "Lets get ready for a war." A war is now enviable between the Triads and the Yakuzas. Wu Ti and some of his men are first to strike and attack some Yakuzas at a tea restaurant. As the story unfolds we learn why Victor Shaw is making this war happen and is attacking on both sides of the war, all awhile Jack Crawford get closer and closer to take down Victor Shaw.
From the start of War I was really interested with the movie. I've always thought that this was a great casting one side of it you have Jet Li from some great martial arts movies like Once Upon A Time In China, and the most recent Fearless and Warlords and on the other side Jason Statham who has some great fight scenes in his other movies like the Transporter and the Transporter 2. I was really looking forward to be seeing the two of them fight like crazy throughout this movie. Yet I found myself quite disappointed with that because the two of them actually fought only one time and that was nearing the end of the movie and only for a brief time.
Aside from those two from fighting you have the plot. For me the plot I felt was sort of predictable, much like any other revenge movie that involves one of the main character that's a cop, or in this case an FBI special agent. Its basically the bad guy kills the good guys partner so the good guy wants to get revenge throughout the movie. Even at the end I thought was very predictable.
The action through War, even though its mostly put in towards the end was good. I would have liked to see more martial arts scenes from Jet Li. The action choreographer was Cory Yuen who has choreographed a lot of Jet Li's movie as well has done the action direction for Jason Statham's movie both The Transporter and The Transporter 2. He has done many more too. With War I was not disappointed, he did a great job and the action was very entertaining.
War, while I'm not recommending it does have its moments. Maybe my expectations were to high, because I was wanting awesome fight scenes between the two lead actors Jason Statham and Jet Li. Overall I would say that War is a Skip.
DVD
The DVD of War has two different Commentaries, one by the Director Phillip G. Atwell and the other by the Writers Lee Anthony Smith and Gregory Bradley along with a featurette on the Scoring of War (the music) and Deleted/Extended Scenes, Gag Reel and a Trivia Track and lastly "The Action Of War' - 9 Behind-The-Scenes Vignettes.
The only thing on this DVD that is remotely interesting would be "The Action of War" Featurettes which clocks in around 70 plus minutes long and it talks about certain scenes through the film from the action, editing and scoring. The Gag Reel too was funny, but overall I would have to say that the movie is a Rent.
Friday, September 22, 2006
MOVIE: Jet Li's Fearless
Fearless is Jet Li last martial Arts Epic, and boy did he go out on a great note. Just like Hero, which came out in 2005, the look and feel is basically the same. Fearless is a story about a man who would note let his nation be the laughing stock of the would, while the nations from the west came into China and was destroying all the fighters that were there at the time and his journey to show his people can fight too.Right off at the bat Fearless wastes no time at bring the action to the audience, With mere seconds you are engulfed into a brawls which is very nicely put together, As a matter of fact all the fights were really well done, well done Yuen Wo-Ping, who is if you done know one of the greatest Choreographer anyone as ever seen in the movies. His credits range from: Unleashed, Kung Fu Hustle, All three Matrix's, Revolution, and Reloaded, to Kill Bill Vols. 1 and 2.
Jet Li play a man named Huo Yuanjia, who is the son of one of the great fighter in China, match after match Huo gets himself such a large following that he his know throughout the lands of Tianjin. As his popularity expands and grows so does Huo head, which later lands him in a self discovery on who he was and as he develops he create a Federation to stand up against these people from the west.
Jet Li is a great actor, but he also isn't the only great actor that is in this film there is Collin Chou, who for the most part played Seraph in Matrix's Revolutions and Reload, in those two film he had a great fight scene with Neos character. There is also Masato Harada who is a actor who played in the Last Samurai with Tom Cruse, He is also a wonderful Writer and Directer I will recommend any of his film.
Fearless is a great film overall but I do know there are many people who don't like the Subtitle part, most likely on the DVD release in America it will come with a English Audio Track inside with the original language. Even if you don't like to read Subtitles while you are watching a film I would still recommend this film to you, basically because of the action is so amazing that you'll know exactly whats happening by both the fighting styles and the actors emotion in each scene.
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