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The Forbidden Kingdom

2008

Rob Minkoff

Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Michael Angarano, Liu Yifei ...

5.6

8,693

Action. Adventure. Fantasy An American teenager who is obsessed with Hong Kong cinema and kung-fu classics makes an extraordinary discovery in a Chinatown pawnshop: the legendary stick weapon of the Chinese sage and warrior, the Monkey King. With the lost relic in hand, the teenager unexpectedly finds himself traveling back to ancient China to join a crew of warriors from martial arts lore on a dangerous quest to free the imprisoned Monkey King.

	Author	Review
United States	A. O. Scott The New York Times	"A faithful and disarmingly earnest attempt to honor some venerable and popular Chinese cinematic traditions."	POS
United Kingdom	Helen O'Hara Empire	"The missing link between ’00s wushu, ’80s kids’ fantasy and ’70s chop-socky, this manages to be thoroughly entertaining - and the face-off between Chan and Li is worth the entrance price alone. (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Stephen Farber The Hollywood Reporter	"A hodgepodge titled 'The Forbidden Kingdom,' which will please its core audience but won't enthrall anyone over the age of 16."	NEU
United Kingdom	Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"Entertaining if negligible (...) It's more like a TV feature-length pilot (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	NEU
United States	Desson Thomson The Washington Post	"The kung fu is wan and disappointing (...) The story is even worse (...) this phoned-in epic is simply a celebration of the inauthentic."	NEG
United States	Dennis Harvey Variety	"It’s a handsome albeit unexceptional juvenile adventure (...) [The] material — particularly its generic dialogue — doesn’t give the thesps much chance to shine"	NEU

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