• Genre: Action/Adventure
  • Release Date: 04/18/2008
  • Running Time: 113 mins
  • Director: Rob Minkoff
  • Cast: Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Michael Angarano, Collin Chou, Yifei Liu, Bingbing Li
  • Producer: Ryan Kavanaugh, Casey Silver
  • Writer: John Fusco, Ch'eng-En Wu
  • Distributor: Lionsgate
  • Offical Site: Click Here
  • Watch Trailer
  • Buy Tickets

Box Office

  1. Four Christmases, 31.7 million, 46.7 million
  2. The Dark Knight, 26.1 million, 441.6 million
  3. Bolt, 26.6 million, 66.9 million
  4. Pineapple Express, 23.2 million, 41.3 million
  5. Twilight, 26.4 million, 119.7 million
  6. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, 16.5 million, 71.0 million
  7. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, 10.7 million, 19.6 million
  8. Quantum of Solace, 19.5 million, 142.1 million
  9. Step Brothers, 9.1 million, 81.1 million
  10. Australia, 14.8 million, 20.0 million
  11. Mamma Mia!, 8.2 million, 104.1 million
  12. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, 14.5 million, 159.5 million
  13. Journey to the Center of the Earth, 4.9 million, 81.8 million
  14. Transporter 3, 12.3 million, 18.5 million
  15. Role Models, 5.3 million, 57.9 million
  16. Hancock, 3.3 million, 221.7 million
  17. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, 1.7 million, 5.2 million
  18. WALL-E, 3.1 million, 210.2 million
  19. Milk, 1.4 million, 1.9 million
  20. Swing Vote, 3.1 million, 12.0 million
Movie Title, Weekly Earnings, Total Earnings

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

Search by...

Movie Keyword

Movie Title

—OR—

Neighborhood

About Us | Work for Dallas Observer | Esubscribe | Free Dallas Classifieds | National Advertising | Privacy Policy | Problem With the Site? | RSS | Site Map
© 2008 Village Voice Media All rights reserved.

Advanced Archive Search >>

Dallas Observer Insiders

  • Local food, music and news blasts
  • Free Stuff
Backpage.com
Free Classifieds Dallas, TX
clubzone

Now Click This

Backpage.com