I saw the trailer for THE MONKEY KING on videocassette three years ago and have been meaning to rent this movie ever since. Though the first ten minutes reveal an interesting concept, the next thirty minutes or so are terrible, at which point you are free to hit the stop button. I was planning to write about the TV-Esq low quality production of this movie, but once realizing that this was originally for TV, I thought of something else to talk about. No, even if I found this "film" on TV, I would definitely not tune in for another episode.After watching the trailer, which is of course all in voice-over narration, I had assumed that THE MONKEY KING was an extravagant high-wire Hong Kong circus act. Popping in the DVD, I was hoping to see extravagantly costumed characters flying through the air and doing wild martial arts. "Maybe it's like an extremely silly Once Upon a Time in China," I thought, "where the Monkey King spits streams of blood and the pig man makes a million golden rings appear out of nowhere!"I was heartbroken when the Monkey King, played by Russel Wong, appears on screen and speaks perfect taxi-driver English. Nope, the whole movie is in English, there's not a trace of any Asian language or authentic culture, and obviously no one from the Hong Kong movie industry was involved in this production. It's more a parody of Asian folklore than anything else, and all the props are made of cardboard. The martial arts and dialog are both ridiculous (there are more moves and more coherent dialog in a Jane Fonda aerobics video), and I couldn't help from cutting THE MONKEY KING halfway short. It was unbearable.I think the movie was originally aiming at a Neverending Story type fantasy, where all the Chinese stuff would add "extra value" to the fantasy -- kind of like a paper umbrella or a fortune cookie. The production for this movie is at the same abysmal level as those bleak British dramas broadcast on PBS. The MONKEY KING's sets, special effects, costumes, and dialog would make for a very nice Sunday flea market but definitely not a two hour production. Instead of watching THE MONKEY KING, I highly recommend searching for a four hour made-for-TV Alice in Wonderland which featured Sammy Davis Junior as the Catepillar and Scott Baio as a cat, as well as a myriad other 80's TV stars. That was cheap production, but it was cheap production done well with care. I don't know if it's on DVD, but I highly recommend that if you're looking for fantasy with lots of color.Oh, and if you're looking for cool martial arts, you're better off visiting your local day care center when the kids miss nap-time.Avoid the MONKEY KING at all costs. It really shouldn't be commercially available and is only a sneaky, albeit clever, ploy to lure video rental customers who are into the Hong Kong high-wire genre.JYJimboduck-dot-com

Yes, the weaknesses of this movie are numerous. The acting is, for the most part, horribly wooden, particularly with the lesser supporting characters. The real-world history is way off (among other flaws already pointed out in other reviews, "Journey to the West" is, according to what I've read at least, closer to 400 years old than 500, and the official objection to the manuscript was its nontraditional form rather than its content). Some of the characters, particularly four of the Five Traditional Masters, are way underdeveloped. Portraying Confucius as a self-serving sycophant is just *wrong.*If you're already familiar with the original story of "Journey to the West" and can't bear to see it butchered -- which is exactly what happens here -- then follow the one-star ratings given here and avoid this movie like the plague.For anyone else, this is a fun piece of work. It was hardly Emmy-worthy in any category (with the possible exception of Bai Ling's impassioned performance as the Goddess of Mercy) and has numerous plot holes not worthy of David Huang, but the story travels on well with only a couple of relatively minor diversions (well, I guess NBC wanted to make sure they had a good two-part miniseries), one can really care about those characters that do receive proper development, and can wonder and worry about the story's outcome.

The Lost Empire, or The Monkey King, as it was called when I saw it on the Hallmark Network, is a silly film, but a very enjoyable one. It attempts to put a new spin on the Chinese classic, Journey to the West, which tells the story of how a monk went on an epic journey to recover some sacred scriptures, aided by the mischievous Monkey King, the gluttonous Pigsy and the sombre Sandy.In this modern version the companions are the same, but the monk is replaced by a modern American sinologist, and the "scripture" is the original manuscript of Journey to the West itself, which is about to be destroyed by the "five traditional masters", who represent the forces of conservatism. Confused? It gets worse; if the book is destroyed, all the human progress that has taken place since the book was written will be reversed and the world will revert to feudalism. To cap it all, the Jade Emperor, Confucius and Kuan Yin, the goddess of compassion, are all weighing in.With a scenario like this, the film cannot help but being absurd in places, but the absurdity, intentional or otherwise, is part of the fun, as it was in the original Journey to the West, which is a comedy as well as an analogy of the spiritual journey. Viewers who have read Journey to the West will enjoy the references to it; others can sit back and enjoy the visual richness, which as well as some spectacular scenes and SFX, includes Bai Ling as Kuan Yin, looking far more sexy than a goddess of compassion ought to (but then that's one of the twists in this tale as well).

Well, this mini-series was the straw that broke the back for producer Robert Halmi with NBC. The faults of his previous rating disaster, "The 10th Kingdom" have not been heeded in this production. The screenplay is overloaded with over the top characters and situations that never let up. But, to me, the failure of "The Lost Empire" falls in three categories. The total miscasting of Thomas Gibson, who gives a tired and stiff performance. Gibson seems to barely be able to walk, much less perform martial arts, and his delivery is unbelievably stilted. The music score is among the worst I've heard in a production like this. There is little thematic melody and even less of the score reflects the rich culture depicted in the story. Third, the director chose to shoot most of the frequent martial arts action from the waist up, so much of the visual impact of those scenes is lost. Indeed, only Bai Ling retains her dignity in the production. The only other redeeming feature is, that the film did cause me to look into the classic book, "Journey to the West."