THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM (12A)

4:05pm Wednesday 9th July 2008

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THIS film, based on the Chinese legend of the Monkey King, the founder of kung fu principles, becomes effortlessly legendary due to the pairing of its stars. In this West meets East bash-about it joins for the first time martial arts aficionados Jackie Chan and Jet Li.

Boston lad Jason (Michael Angarano) is mad about every aspect of kung fu. On his way home one day he is set upon by some thugs who force him to get them into his aged friend Old Hop's (Jackie Chan) pawnshop.

Once inside he grabs an antique fighting weapon to swipe at the thugs and unexpectedly finds himself transported back to ancient China, landing inside the hut of a Chinese family.

This all happens as the army of the Jade Warlord (Collin Chou) is attacking the village. Jason's kung fu classes had not equipped him adequately for the real thing but as luck would have it he runs into an old drunk called Lu Yan (also Chan), who just happens to be an immortal kung fu master.

Lu Yan explains to Jason that the evil Jade Warlord had tricked the immortal Monkey King (Jet Li) out of the antique fighting weapon Jason had picked up, and as a result for the past 500 years was now imprisoned in stone. So Jason and Lu Yan are joined by an enigmatic Silent Monk (also Li), and the vengeful Golden Sparrow (Crystal Liu Yi Fei) on their quest to return the staff to its rightful owner.

The plot is so convoluted it is frankly incomprehensible, though gorgeous looking, and the battling sequences are stunning. But with stunt and fight coordinator Woo-Ping Yuen in charge of the action it is hardly surprising. He was also responsible for the choreography in The Matrix's trilogy and the two Kill Bill films.

Chan in two roles is amazingly agile for a man of 55, and along with the fantastic energy of Mick Jagger who at 65 has been seen prancing about in this year's Shine a Light, they are giving hope to many past their prime. Li also in two roles has a lot of fun as the Monkey King, but is more in his comfort zone as the Silent Monk.

Unfortunately Angarano plays Jason as a total idiot, so as China's liberator he isn't exactly the ideal choice.

Needless to say martial arts lovers will enjoy it, but in many ways this is also a good introduction to first timers to this kind of film; as it is good all-round family entertainment which fits in comfortably somewhere between Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The Karate Kid.

6/10