| Original Score: 2/4 | Nov 24, 2011

One of the more entertaining movies we've seen in recent months.

Full Review | Apr 21, 2008

Every time the focus switches to Michael Angarano channeling his inner Ralph Macchio, The Forbidden Kingdom reminds you that it's primarily an act of occidental tourism.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/6 | Apr 18, 2008

It might take a Zen master to explain exactly what audience this is aimed at.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 18, 2008

It's difficult to resist, especially if you're a 12-year-old boy whose parents won't let you rent Once Upon a Time in China or the Kill Bill movies.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 18, 2008

When Chan and Li match wits, each celebrates the other's presence. This isn't just a martial-arts display; it's generosity and camaraderie in motion.

Full Review | Apr 18, 2008

Thanks to the two stars' disparate styles - the laser-like focus of Li and the whirlwind whimsy of Chan - The Forbidden Kingdom makes up for its flaws with plenty of eye-popping moments.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 18, 2008

Forbidden Kingdom is chop-socky bordering on chop-schlocky, but it's good-natured myth-making cut into kid-size pieces.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 18, 2008

While the script is corny and the direction uneven, [Chan and Li] never falter.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 18, 2008

The filmmakers come off like their protagonist, wide-eyed tourists in an exotic realm. If you've been looking for a martial arts film to take granny and the kids to, this might be the one, but a Jackie Chan-Jet Li collaboration deserves better than that.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Apr 18, 2008

Forbidden Kingdom is a faithful and disarmingly earnest attempt to honor some venerable and popular Chinese cinematic traditions.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 18, 2008

A sufficiently entertaining diversion.

Full Review | Apr 18, 2008

The Forbidden Kingdom...offers the first-ever on-screen pairing of martial-arts legends Jackie Chan and Jet Li, but it's a bit of a bait-and-switch. Both stars get plenty of screen time, yet their fight scenes feel routine.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 18, 2008

If you want to break the kids in easy to the whole martial arts thing, this may be the way to go. After all, clean fu never killed anyone.

| Original Score: B- | Apr 18, 2008

A number of Forbidden Kingdom sequences deliver muscular slaptick. A fight in which Lu Yan uses Jason as one more weapon in his arsenal of defensive moves is vintage Chan.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 18, 2008

It's a long, eye-rolling haul...hampered by lurching exposition and hammy setup.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 18, 2008

Pairing Jackie Chan and Jet Li would seem like a slam dunk, but this big-budget martial arts drama, which borrows liberally from The Wizard of Oz, is something of a disappointment.

| Apr 18, 2008

This is the long-awaited teaming of superstars Jackie Chan and Jet Li, and it's an occasion to applaud for those who like a few yuks with their kicks.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 18, 2008

But from the dorky Lucas-level dialogue to the West Side Story goons trolling the streets of Boston there is just too much wrong here for me to admit to having anything close to a good time.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 18, 2008

It does not take itself too seriously but it does take the action scenes seriously.

| Original Score: B- | Apr 18, 2008