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The Forbidden Kingdom (2008)
JVJ: Jackie vs. Jet
The two most famous Chinese action stars and martial artists have come a long way. Jackie Chan blended his kung fu skills with humor, as well as performing extremely dangerous stunts, earning him the title as the king of action-comedy. Jet Li, although starring in quite a few comedies himself, entered the Hollywood industry as a quiet, dead-serious martial artist. While Chan entertained a wider audience with his slapstick humor, Li settled for more hard-core action movies. Now it's 2008, both stars are past their prime years, and they finally star in a movie together. What's so interesting is that their first collaboration is a fantasy directed by Rob Minkoff, who helmed "The Lion King," "Stuart Little" films, and "The Haunted Mansion." But indeed Chan's movies tend to be aimed for an audience of all ages, so I tried to remain calm about this new movie.
Some time later I read an article online stating Chan and Li fought for the first time for the movie. Chan stated the fight went smoothly. And the martial arts choreographer was Yuen Woo-Ping. I couldn't wait for the movie to come out.
Then the first teaser trailer came up and I was skeptical. And worried. Most of it featured Michael Angarano, an actor whom I never heard of and unpleasantly reminded me of Shia LaBeouf. Chan and Li were hardly in the trailer! Afterward I read the plot outline, and it seems that the American teenager will be the main character, while Chan and Li will co-star. So, screenplay John Fusco made the two biggest martial artist stars supporting actors. Again, I remained calm, but I was alarmed all the same. Is this what the two get after many years of dominating the action cinema? But the movie turned out great! Chan and Li delivered! As they should. The movie itself played on both serious and humorous notes, and Angarano, whom I was afraid he would act like LaBeouf, surprisingly played his role well and seriously. Actresses Liu Yifei and Li Bing Bing were perfect for their role, even if Liu's third person speech annoyed me at times. Collin Chou was good as the Jade Warlord. But the best part of the entire movie is...you guessed it...the fight between Chan and Li. Yuen Woo-Ping once again is impeccable as the action choreographer. Both Chan and Li played dual roles, which ended up in plot twists at the end of the movie. The plot, though common and predictable, was executed well. Minkoff's first PG-13 movie turned out really well, which I am glad to say. I was intending on enjoying this movie as much as I could and luckily I did.
Bo bui gai wak (2006)
Overdid it
*minor spoilers* Amusing and entertaining at times, 'Rob-B-Hood' was overlong. This was clearly a huge-budget movie extravaganza. It contained all kinds of elements: over-the-top action, complex & dangerous stunts, plots, subplots and more subplots, plenty of secondary characters who really have no point to the story at all, a Chinese all-star cast (Jackie Chan, Louis Koo, Yuen Biao, Michael Hui, Charlene Choi from the singing group "Twins", and more, including cameos), some goofy romantic aspects; all rolled into one, long movie and what do you get? A story about three kind-hearted thieves, two of whom have to baby-sit an infant they kidnapped, who have to battle Triads who also want that baby. The movie was way over two hours, and the uncut version contained at least 30 more minutes of footage.
The fight choreography was fairly good, but it went back to the usual "Jackie Chan defeats them all" formula. Yuen Biao surprisingly returns to team up with Chan. Overall it was a movie aimed for all audiences, even though it contained some really intense scenes. Like all big-budget movie extravaganzas, when there are too much of everything, the basic story lags. Not too bad, though. Recommended for everyone, I guess, especially for those who like Jackie Chan, but to those who do watch it, you're in for a long night.