Shiv379's profile

Shiv379


Favourite actor:	Steve Buscemi
Favourite director:	Takashi Miike
Favourite film:	One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

URL:	http://www.lovefilm.com/profile/Shiv379

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Recent collections

Apocalypse Cinema (22)
"Since the dawn of movies, and of literature in general, we have been exploring the concept of global..."
29/02/2008

80% from 3 members

Entertainment Weekly - The Cult 25: The Essential Left-Field Movie Hits Since '83 (22)
"Based on the Entertainment Weekly list viewable here: http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20221982,00.h..."
05/08/2009

Existential Cinema (9)
"Movies that deal with the questions of existence and perception"
22/02/2008

70% from 2 members

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Recent review

Unnecessarily Westernisation Kills This Film , 21 October 2009

The Forbidden Kingdom on DVD (2008)
Starring: Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Michael Angarano
Director: Rob Minkoff
Certificate:
Watch now: £2.49
This could have been one of the greatest remakes of the modern era - taking the Chinese legend of Monkey and the Immortals, and pretty much remaking the popular TV series. Looking at the cast, and having Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Peter Pau and Woo-Ping Yuen involved. They must've put a LOT of effort into getting this so wrong. Great story, amazing cast ... bad movie.

Having said that, all four of the above - and many of the other Chinese cast - make the film as barable as possible. Chan is charming, Li is graceful, the scenery is astonishing and the action is brilliantly choreographed.

What's the problem? Well, Michael Angarano is completely unneeded in every formart in this film. His character is useless, annoying and it's just bewildering why he's there in the first place. His part of the film is banal and ruinus: a bad idea by the American team behind it thinking their Western audiance needs a 'way in', a relatable character involved. It doesn't, and this movie would be wonderful with out him. His character is a misguided version of the Karate Kid. Useless.

If you do rent this, skip bits set in America, or with the Karate Kid speaking and go straight for the fights. Wonderful fights, shame about the film.

It's also very noticable how they don't mention Michael Angarano in the promo of the film at all - is he even in the trailers?

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