By Linda Winsh-Bolard
Jason Tripitikas (Michael Angarano) loves watching kung fu. He gets his rare finds from an elderly Chinese pawnbroker. One day Jason gets caught by West Side styled gangsters who make him to take them to the pawnbroker’s shop. They shoot the pawnbroker while looking for cash. Before they can get to Jason, he grasps an old staff and is magically transported from his South Boston neighborhood to distant Chinese past.
China is, at the time of his arrival, ruled by Jade Warlord and his soldiers, who are unpleasantly cruel rulers. A legend says that Warlord got the kingdom after he tricked the Monkey God into giving up his weapon (the staff in question). The Monkey God was imprisoned in stone while his weapon disappeared, but one day a Seeker will come and return it to its rightful owner.
Jason is the Seeker. It surprises Lu Yan (Jackie Chan) a wandering, begging, drunk scholar with astounding fighting skills. Not as much as it surprises The Silent Monk (Jet Li) when they attempt to teach Jason some the ancient fighting art of kung fu along with the philosophy behind it.
The fights and battles were choreographed by a master of this genre, Yuen Wo Ping, and will satisfy those who came to see them.
The film was shot on locations and in studios in China, it certainly makes for an apolitical story, but it also attempts to get in some Chinese traditions. Those are, for many westerners, lavish picture and obscure twists and mythology mixed with bloodshed in the story. The dialog, while meant to be funny, is most of the time wooden, and sometimes truly odd. Of course nearly everyone in ancient China speak serviceable English.
Ni Chang (Li Bing Bing) is the most interesting to observe because her endless whip, waved with amazing skill, is complemented by equally useful mane of white hair. I wished she would stop making that “claw like” hand gesture that reminded me of angry little girls.
Jack Chan is pleasure to watch; he is so at ease wit his character, his movements, his simply being the best and having nothing to prove. Jet Li does much better as the Monkey God than as the Silent Monk with chip on his shoulder. Liu Yifei and Collin Chou are stuck. It is not entirely their fault; their characters are so flat, so one dimensional that there is little they can do to make them appear alive, much less actually realistic.
Michael Angarano is painful to watch because he doesn’t fit the part. He might be goofy enough nerd, but he is not smart nerd; he might be big mouth but then he is not a smart aleck; and when he becomes trained warrior, he lacks credibility despite developed muscles. He acts and the acting is visible through out the film. It should not be.
As I said before, it is lavish and therefore the interiors and exteriors are most of the time pretty, sometimes beautiful and occasionally spectacular. The costumes are so lavish that they obscure the actor’s body movements (that might be for the best). Lighting and camera are quite nice as well.
With all that, unless you are kung fu fan, it is too long and too artificial to make a lasting impression.
LionsgateThe Weinstein Co., Relativity Media, Casey Silver Prods.
Credits:
Director: Rob Minkoff
Screenwriter: John Fusco, Director of photography: Peter Pau, Production designer: Bill Brzeski
Music: David Buckley, Producer: Casey Silver, Raffaella De Laurentiis, Editor: Eric Strand
Executive producers: Ryan Kavanaugh, Woo-Ping Yuen, Wang Zhongjun, Jon Feltheimer, Raffaella De
Cast:
Old Hop/Lu Yan: Jackie Chan
The Monkey King/The Silent Monk: Jet Li
Jason Tripitikas: Michael Angarano
Golden Sparrow: Liu Yifei
Jade Warlord: Collin Chou
Ni Chang: Li Bing Bing
Jade Emperor: Wang De Shun
Lupo: Morgan Benoit
Running time -- 105 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13
