It's taken a long time for Jackie Chan and Jet Li to appear together, so it's a pity that Rob Minkoff's film is so perfunctory and silly. But Chan in particular, who has always had a modest charm that belies his worldwide fame, does his best to make it work and the more taciturn Li turns on appropriately swirling kung fu action for the legendary choreographer Yuen Woo-Ping.
Michael Angarano plays Jason, a modern teen and kung fu enthusiast who is transported to a mythical China when he gets hold of a magical fighting staff. He must deliver it to the Monkey King, who has been turned into stone by an evil warlord (Collin Chou). But first Chan, who plays an alcoholic kung fu master, has to teach him the rules of the game, with Li's silent monk in attendance.
The whole farrago is a kind of Westernised Shaw Brothers epic without much conviction. If you cast two of the greatest of chopsocky stars, you ought to be a bit ashamed to give them so little to do other than indulge in fight scenes we've seen hundreds of times before.
The Forbidden Kingdom
Cert: 12A
