DVD review: Forbidden Kingdom

 Silent Monk (Jet Li), Lu Yan (Jackie Chan), Jason Tripitikas (Michael A. Angarano) and Golden Sparrow (Crystal Liu) in “The Forbidden Kingdom.”

From Friday’s The Oklahoman:

A dream team of martial arts stars are on display in “Forbidden Kingdom,” which mixes “The Never-Ending Story” with “The Karate Kid” in a fun film for all ages. The story begins with a scene of the Monkey King (Jet Li), fighting on a mountaintop in the clouds. As the viewers are thinking the scene doesn’t seem quite real, it’s revealed that it’s not — it’s a dream of Jason (Michael Angarano). Jason’s a teenage kung-fu cinephile from Boston. He buys his films from Hop (Jackie Chan), an old man who owns a Chinatown pawn shop. When some young toughs seek to rob Hop, Jason is knocked out — and transported to ancient China.

An ancient staff from the pawnshop seems to be the key to Jason’s situation — he’s thought to be the one prophesied to return the Monkey King’s staff, and end the Jade Warlord’s rule of the kingdom. He’s befriended by a drunken master (Jackie Chan), and later aided by a warrior monk (Jet Li). The master and the monk, of course, first have a misunderstanding, which leads to the Li vs. Chan fight everybody bought their tickets to see. While Chan, 54, doesn’t show the same eye-popping stunts of his younger days, the showdown is still worth the price of admission. A girl bent on revenge, Sparrow (Crystal Liu Yifei) completes the fellowship seeking to dethrone the warlord.