Genre: Action/Adventure
Release Date: 4/18/2008
Running Time: 113 mins
Director: Rob Minkoff
Cast: Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Michael Angarano, Collin Chou, Yifei Liu and Bingbing Li
Producer: Ryan Kavanaugh and Casey Silver
Writer: Ch'eng-En Wu and John Fusco
Distributor: Lionsgate
Official Site: Click Here
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The Forbidden Kingdom
The plot is pure choose-your-own-adventure: A bullied wuxia fanboy from South Boston (Michael Angarano) is teleported back into a LARP fantasia of feudal China, where he’s singled out as the long-anticipated “Chosen One” prophesied to topple the despotic warlord. Our nominal hero then recedes behind the two Mr. Miyagis who adopt him: a Lisa Bonet–bewigged Jackie Chan and warrior-monk Jet Li (English line readings: 75 percent intelligible). This is the first collaboration between kung fu’s Astaire and Kelly, and, as that, it disappoints. Like so much here, the fight arrangements by choreographer Yuen Woo-ping aren’t so much bad as undistinguished: The camera placement is off, the tempo unvaried, and Chan’s movements are obscured by his piled-on robes. The cinematography lacks storybook indelibility; Collin Chou’s Jade Emperor is a stock archvillain (though Li Bingbing’s bullwhip-toting “White Haired Demoness,” announced with apocalyptic reverb, is lovely) . . . and then there’s the scene where Li actually pisses in Chan’s face—a degradation familiar to viewers incensed by the demographic-outreach casting of white-dude Angarano. Taken as a whole, though, it’s an amiable lost-and-found of epic-adventure tropes. As I still illogically treasure Willow, many a 10-year-old who sees Forbidden Kingdom will remember it fondly in spite of its flaws. - Nick Pinkerton
Theaters showing The Forbidden Kingdom
(Click on a showtime to purchase tickets)
Watson Rd & S Sappington Rd
Crestwood, MO 63126
314-968-8500
10465 Olive Blvd.
Creve Coeur, MO 63141
314-542-4262
Special Engagement 1:50 PM, 4:35 PM, 7:15 PM, 9:45 PM
6706 Clayton Rd.
Richmond Heights, MO 63117
314-542-4262
12657 Olive Blvd.
Creve Coeur, MO 63141
314-542-4262
1522 Parkway West
Festus, MO 63028
(636)933-4033
1900 Phoenix Center Drive
Washington, MO 63090
(636)239-5056
Saint Louis Galleria
Richmond Heights, MO 63117
314-725-0808
5 Prairie Dell Plaza
Union, MO 63084
(636)583-8889
900 Caledonia Drive
O'Fallon, MO 63368
(636)300-9900
838 Valley Creek
Farmington, MO 63640
(573)756-4114
5555 St. Louis Mills Blvd.
Hazelwood, MO 63042
(314)227-5503
3001 North Service Road West
Sullivan, MO 63080
(573)860-7469
4:10 PM, 6:30 PM
1912 Richardson Road
Arnold, MO 63010
(314)822-2463
12701 Manchester Rd
Des Peres, MO 63131
314-822-4903
209 Jamestown Mall
Florissant, MO 63034
(314)822-2463
1220 Mid Rivers Mall Dr.
St. Peters, MO 63376
314-822-2463
South Lindbergh & Baptist Church Road
Saint Louis, MO 63126
(314)822-CINE
1830 First Capitol Drive South
St. Charles, MO 63303
(314)822-CINE
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