Yeehaw – martial arts and movie legends Jet Li and Jackie Chan, together at last in the same film: THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM!Coming this April, it’s the story of a young guy who’s obsessed with Kung Fu movies from the South Bronx who, after finding a mysterious stick fighting weapon in a pawn shop, suddenly finds himself in an ancient Chinese kingdom, discovered by two martial arts fighters who need to turn him into one of the band if they’re to succeed in freeing the legendary Monkey King, sage and warrior (and original owner of the famed fighting stick) from the Jade Warlord.

I don’t know about you, but I’m ever so glad Jet and Jackie have forgotten about their “retirements” from martial arts films, especially if it meant they did one together!! I’ve always wanted to see them play off each other and now I’ll finally have the chance.

I could do without Jackie Chan’s dreadlocks, though, and too bad they shaved Jet Li’s beautiful hair off for this one, but from the previews, everything else looks great! It’s amazing to watch the two fight, each with their own styles, fast, furious, deadly and graceful, in their own ways. It looks like Jet Li will be playing “straight man” to Jackie’s usual humor, but with only about a minute and a half of preview so far, hard to tell.

The previews of THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM made me think of THE MUMMY with Brendan Fraser, Arnold Vosloo & Oded Fehr – adventure, humor, fighting, dashing heroes, and a hypnotic evil villain. We’ll see how it stacks up. Again, here’s another movie coming out this year that looks like a winner to me.

Technorati Tags: Action, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Martial Arts, MOVIES, Previews

Not only is another BATMAN movie coming out this year (RIP Heath Ledger!) along with the long-awaited INDIANA JONES 4, but they’ve even managed to come up with the third installment in THE MUMMY series (aka THE MUMMY 3: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR.) 2008 – definitely the year of the sequel!

Coming Aug 2008, TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR takes the story to Asia this time around and brings back Brendan Fraser as Rick O’Connell, wisecracking world-traveling adventurer extraordinaire, along with his wife Evie (now played by Maria Bello due to Rachel Weis’s supposed artistic differences with the script), their grown-up son Alex (newcomer Luke Ford), Evie’s brother Jonathan (ably played as always by John Hannah) and a whole new villain, 2000 year-old Emperor Han, brought to life by none other than Jet Li. They’ve also brought in another martial arts great and super actress, Michelle Yeoh, to play an evil sorceress. If I can’t have another original MUMMY aka Arnold-Vosloo-in-a-small-loincloth fix, a Brendan Fraser-Jet Li matchup is the next best thing. (LOL)

Here’s another movie I can’t wait to see over and over (and will no doubt add to my permanent DVD collection as soon as it’s available!)

There’s no official website yet as far as I can tell, but the director has a great site with behind-the-scenes pictures and interviews: Rob Cohen THE MUMMY

Technorati Tags: Action, Brendan Fraser, Jet Li, John Hannah, Michelle Yeoh, MOVIES, Sequels, THE MUMMY

Ah, that hat, that whip, that music – theeeey’re back!  INDIANA JONES 4 aka INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL finished principal photography back in Oct 2007 and they now have a fully fledged website in action, with all sorts of great trailers, making-of videos, interviews with the actors and more being added all the time.

This is one movie I’ve literally been waiting a very, very long time to see. I don’t care how many years have passed – classy guys like Harrison Ford never get old, only better – cliched but true. Add Shia LeBeouf, Cate Blanchett, Ray Winstone, Jim Broadbent – some of my very favorites – plus bring back Karen Allen, and I think this one will give RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK a run for its money! (ANYTHING has to be better than #2 – TEMPLE OF DOOM! LOL INDY #3 was definitely better than #2 so by now they should have it down pat…)

Opening May 22, 2008 – 3 1/2 months and counting!

Technorati Tags: Action, Harrison Ford, Indiana Jones, MOVIES, Shia LeBeouf