The Bottom Line

The Forbidden Kingdom

Directed by: Rob Minkoff
Starring: Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Michael Angarano, Collin Chou, Yifei Liu
Rated: PG-13 for sequences of martial arts action and some violence.
Parental Notes: Parents of impressionable children should note that this film is packed with martial arts stunts. Children who are likely to attempt to imitate these stunts without the safety precautions used by the actors (harnesses, wires, etc) should probably be left at home.

"The Forbidden Kingdom" is made up almost entirely of homages, references, and cliches. There's the young American hero, transported to a mystical land where he saves the world; the silent monk, master of the martial arts; the drunken beggar who is not what he seems; the magical weapons; the orphan girl out for revenge. None of it is new. But it doesn't matter. The folks who go see this movie aren't going because of the story elements. People are going because it's the first movie to star both Jackie Chan and Jet Li. The promise of these two masters of martial arts cinema facing off on the big screen is alluring enough to trump even the dustiest storyline.

The hero of the tale is one Jason Tripitikas (Michael Angarano, "Snow Angels"). He's something of an outcast, picked on by bullies. But he loves martial arts films. He's friends with an old pawnbroker, Hop (Jackie Chan in the first of his two roles), who sells him DVDs on the cheap. One day Jason discovers an old, ornate staff in the back of the shop. Hop tells him it was left by someone many years ago, and is waiting to be reclaimed and returned to its rightful owner. Jason winds up being chosen to do just that when the staff transports him to the ancient China of his beloved movies.

Jason is rescued from soldiers by a drunken gung-fu master, Lu Yan (Chan, in his other role), who tells him about a prophecy that...

Wait, didn't I already say the story doesn't matter? What does matter is that Lu Yan is always drunk, so Chan can show off his drunken style of fighting from the successful "Drunken Master" series. Jet Li appears as both the Monkey King (rightful owner of the staff, imprisoned by the Jade Warlord when... nevermind) and the Silent Monk, whose fighting is precise and to the point, exactly the opposite of Yan's. The two fight over everything, giving plenty of opportunities to enjoy both the actors' immense skill as martial artists and entertainers, and their deadpan sense of humor.

Chan and Li are consummate masters of this sort of film, and watching them stroll through the script is like watching an old, familiar lion tamer go through a routine with an old, familiar lion. Both have the sharp awareness that comes from doing dangerous stunts for a living, but they also have the self-assurance in their roles that comes from decades of experience. It's a pleasure watching them work. The fights are choreographed by Woo-ping Yuen, who also masterminded the battles in the "Kill Bill" and "Matrix" movies, so you can imagine the gorgeous, wire-work-filled, stylish duels that populate the film.

Angarano has little hope of being anything but overshadowed by the two greats, but he holds up his end well, being the butt of plenty of jokes and enduring the training montages necessary for the young hero to learn gung-fu so he can save the world.

There are references aplenty to fantastical and martial-arts films from both East and West, so fans of either should enjoy themselves quite a bit. This is an escapist movie, a slice of summer come early. If the idea of Chan and Li in the same film excites you, don't miss it -- but if you don't care, and aren't a kung-fu movie fan, "The Forbidden Kingdom" is not for you.

Leatherheads

Directed By: George Clooney
Starring: George Clooney, Renee Zellweger, John Krasinski, Jonathan Pryce, Stephen Root
Rated: PG-13 for brief strong language.
Parental Notes: There's some kissing, some swearing, and that's about it. Unless you don't want your kids hearing some salty language and seeing some fistfights played largely for laughs, this is probably a safe bet.

The main action of "Leatherheads" opens with a joke involving a cow and a football which should set to rest any doubts folks in the audience might have as to Clooney's ability to act, direct, and maintain his comic timing all at once. The man is a apparently talented multitasker, and "Leatherheads" is a charming picture which doesn't take itself too seriously. Sure, if you look below the surface there's some criticism of one or two tendencies in American culture, but there's also a great deal of affection for old Hollywood tropes and a day out watching (or better yet, playing) a game of football.

The film is set in 1925: professional football is struggling to get off the ground, the real aficionados of the game pay attention to college ball, and it's widely assumed at after school, football heroes have to get a real job because pro ball is a joke. Sure, the pros don't have much in the way of rules, and play for the fun of it, but the small group of fans who love the down and dirty style aren't enough to pay for the teams.

Dodge Connelley (George Clooney, "Michael Clayton"), captain of the Duluth Bulldogs, is in a bind: his team's last ball has been stolen, they've managed to lose their sponsor, and the team has temporarily folded. Dodge has no marketable skills beyond the game, so he casts about and lands on a brilliant notion: recruit college ball sensation and war hero Carter Rutherford (John Krasinski, "License to Wed").

He succeeds, but discovers that Carter comes with baggage: there's a story that the young man intimidated a platoon of Germans into surrendering, and feisty reporter Lexie Littleton (Renee Zellweger, "Miss Potter") is determined to debunk it. Of course, feisty reporters are nothing if not fiendishly attractive to leading men -- which means both Dodge and Carter fall for her.

This wouldn't be a romantic comedy if hilarity didn't ensue, so it does, with plenty of snappy dialog and big laughs. And it wouldn't be a football movie if it didn't all culminate in a big showdown with our leading men on opposing teams, struggling to take each other down. The blend of sports and romance is well done, with plenty of witty repartee and screwballishness thrown in for good measure.

Clooney, Zellweger, and Krasinski all turn in solid performances in their one-dimensional roles. More importantly, they (and the entire supporting cast) manage to fit into the period feel of the picture, both in looks and dialog delivery. "Leatherheads" is a throwback to the heyday of screwball comedy, and while it has a definite hint of modern Hollywood about it, that doesn't mess up the overall flavor of the piece. If anything, it makes it work even better. The entire film refuses to take itself too seriously, and that is what saves it from being a mechanical, uninteresting reworking of the same old stuff and turns it instead into a thoroughly enjoyable two hours at the movies.

21

Directed by: Robert Luketic
Starring: Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey, Aaron Yoo, Liza Lapira, Laurence Fishbourne
Rated: PG-13 for some violence, and sexual content including partial nudity.
Parental Notes: This is a solid PG-13 film. There's some beating of card sharks by Vegas security goons and a sex scene, but neither is as graphic as you'd find in an R-rated film.

Some years back, a team of college students learned to count cards and made millions in casinos from Las Vegas to Paris playing blackjack. Their adventures were written about in the book "Bringing Down the House" and have now inspired a movie, "21." There's been some fuss about the film's changing of the team's racial balance as well as the Hollywoodification of the story, but ultimately the film is pretty much what you'd expect: it takes the basic idea of the real events and turns them into a fun flick. It's not "Citizen Kane," but it's a reasonably entertaining way to spend a couple of hours, especially if you can go along with the flow of a Hollywood formula.

Ben (Jim Sturgess, "The Other Boleyn Girl") is about to graduate from MIT and has been accepted into Harvard Medical School, but there's a problem: he has no money. He tries to get a full-ride scholarship, but is warned that his chances aren't good because he has very little in the way of interesting life experience to set him apart from the other candidates. I guess his robotics project with his two nerdy best friends doesn't count.

Apparently Ben has never heard of student loans (or seen anything about casinos' tendency to break card counters' faces) or other scholarship opportunities, because when he's approached by professor Mickey Rosa (Kevin Spacey, "Fred Claus") to join a card counting team, he overcomes his initial reluctance and says yes, he'll do it just long enough to get the money for med school.

After a couple of montages and a test, Ben is ready to go. During the week, the kids are college students, working on homework and crashing in their dorm rooms. On weekends, they turn into high rollers with new names and backstories, enjoying the good life in casinos and raking in the big bucks with their math skills and teamwork. Even better, Mickey can pull strings to get them out of assignments that might interfere with their gambling (and his cut of their take).

Of course, this wouldn't be a studio picture if there wasn't romance (between Ben and one of his teammates -- the lovely Jill, played by Kate Bosworth) and menace (offered by Laurence Fishbourne as a casino security specialist and by Spacey, whose character is deliciously nasty under his benign exterior). The storyline stretches a bit to work in both elements as well as a subplot about the tension between Ben and his best friends, who must be kept in the dark about his new profession but can see him changing into a different person.

Spacey is overqualified for his role as the friendly-until-you-cross-him professor, and glides through the film with ease and grace. Fishbourne is in the same class, and it's a real shame the two don't have more time together onscreen. The younger actors all hold their own reasonably well, although the parts aren't particularly challenging.

There's nothing terribly ground-breaking here, from the simplistic character development to the double-cross in the final act, but when it comes to escapist entertainment, it's hard to beat a story of a smart kid making big bucks off his math skills and winding up in over his head in the Las Vegas gambling scene.