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The traditional violence of martial-arts films has been toned way down for the family film The Forbidden Kingdom, starring Jackie Chan and Jet Li. Critics are expressing mixed reaction about the results. Kyle Smith in the New York Post says that the film amounts to "chop-socky bordering on chop-schlocky, but it's good-natured myth-making cut into kid-size pieces." Most other critics have a similar take. "The story is thin as a bamboo reed, but it works," writes Rafer Guzmán in Newsday. A.O. Scott in the New York Times offers this lukewarm recommendation: "If you've never seen a movie like this, it might satisfy your curiosity." "Kung fu light," is the way Kenneth Turan describes it in the Los Angeles Times, concluding, "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."

I enjoyed this movie - by adding the element of fantasy I was no longer bothered by all the lines pulling characters into impossible martial arts kicks and dodges. However, during the times the the martial arts experts, Jackie Chan and Jet Li teach the young and inexperienced hero I observed their true discipline and training. Another nice aspect to this feel good film was seeing Jet Li break a smile as the character the Monkey King.