One of the East/West movies that Hollywood is now churning out to capture the Chinese market, an early one but not the first, but one of the best.
The casting of Jackie Chan and Jet Li was long overdue and welcome, and the rest of casting was excellent as well,
This film has got it all, action, comedy, romance, historical, fantasy, gong fu, it pushes all the buttons, well almost all, it should have been called the Kingdom of the Monkey King though, but that is of little importance, what is important is that Jet Li played the Monkey King and the Monk, and as the Monk was as cool as can be, the Chinese Steve McQueen, Jet is my favourite Martial Arts actor, probably because he really is a.true martial arts champion, and was for several years, so acting the moves comes easy. He plays the straight man to Jackie Chan's comedy action role, playing on his drunken master persona, and like Jet, it comes easy to him.
The story is a good one, a little cliche'd but still good, and of course the action is excellent, the special effects are also good, particularly at the start with the fantasy segment. Its worth watching just for that, but when you have Jet Li and Jackie Chan doing a Gong Fu fight, its a masterclass performance, this should have been given awards for that.
This film is better than its star rating on here, I gave it 9 stars, but it should be 9 1/2.
The casting of Jackie Chan and Jet Li was long overdue and welcome, and the rest of casting was excellent as well,
This film has got it all, action, comedy, romance, historical, fantasy, gong fu, it pushes all the buttons, well almost all, it should have been called the Kingdom of the Monkey King though, but that is of little importance, what is important is that Jet Li played the Monkey King and the Monk, and as the Monk was as cool as can be, the Chinese Steve McQueen, Jet is my favourite Martial Arts actor, probably because he really is a.true martial arts champion, and was for several years, so acting the moves comes easy. He plays the straight man to Jackie Chan's comedy action role, playing on his drunken master persona, and like Jet, it comes easy to him.
The story is a good one, a little cliche'd but still good, and of course the action is excellent, the special effects are also good, particularly at the start with the fantasy segment. Its worth watching just for that, but when you have Jet Li and Jackie Chan doing a Gong Fu fight, its a masterclass performance, this should have been given awards for that.
This film is better than its star rating on here, I gave it 9 stars, but it should be 9 1/2.