The Forbidden Kingdom (DVD, 2008, Full Screen;Widescreen)

The director and screenwriters have taken every possible cliché of Chinese-American kick-[...]good-guy vs. bad-guy films and packed it into a single movie. Among other things is the '500 years meditation', the 'special-rod-that-must-be-taken-to-its-owner' to the 'elixer of immortality', and the roles of all the characters. Even worse, they stripped Jet Li and Jackie Chan of their dignity by giving them these some-what ridiculous roles. I died a little when I saw that Jet Li had forced himself to be the monkey king but I was a good sport about it and took it for what it was worth.

In The Forbidden Kingdom, Jason Tripitikas, a teenage kid from Boston, is obsessed with Chinese kung-fu movies, which he rents from the local pawnshop run by a mystical, bearded, oriental man. Jason is generally a nerdy weakling who gets harassed by a gang of big, mean street punks. He eventually comes upon a mysterious, Chinese staff in the back of the pawn shop (own by Jackie Chan) and is magically transported to ancient China, where he is destined to reunite the staff with the legendary Monkey King.

In the journey, Jason allies himself with the goofy Jackie Chan, who also played the Drunken Warrior, and the serious Jet Li, who also plays the Silent Monk. He also is joined by "Golden Sparrow," a beautiful and exotic but deadly Chinese girl, obsessed with avenging her father's murder.

By now, you should know if this movie is for you or not. The above plot description either made you nod and exclaim "oh yea," or it made you gag and say "kill me now." Although I'm among the latter, I still found the movie generally entertaining. The movie is competent in delivering all the eye candy and cinematography one would expect in a Chinese epic, such as flowing robes, lush bamboo forests, and misty mountain tops.The much anticipated battle between Chan and Li is entertaining, but anyone who has seen more than a handful of either of their movies will have to admit that the choreography is nothing new and is in fact quite unremarkable. If you haven't seen many martial arts movies, then expect to be impressed.

Overall, most audience members should find The Forbidden Kingdom to be a fun, family friendly, action packed, beautiful, and educational tale of West meets East.