Seen The Forbidden Kingdom as yet? Or have Iron Man, Khuda ke Liye and Race overwhelmed the once raging appetite for Kung-fu flicks. Speaking of which, where have all the Kung-fu lovers gone? Times were when Star Movies ran a series called Friday Fury telecasting the grand works of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. Now that’s been reduced to a once-in-a-couple-of-years Chan release or (horror of horrors) dubbed versions on Filmy.

Cadet Larvell Jones of Police Academy was an expert at imitating all sorts of noises and one of the series had him do a routine of the typical Hollywood-dubbed Chopsuey flick, delivering chop-chops and complete with un-lip-synced psuedo-Eastern wisdom like,

The snake does not bend its neck. The mongoose will still catch it!

(….or something like that)

Jackie Chan brought in an element of fun to the funeral-sombre legacy of Bruce Lee. The edited shots shown after Rush Hour caught him starting a Hiiiiiiaaaaaa chop and changing mid-way into a lively gig, hands flailing in mid-air and wide grin plastered on his face. I love that man, don’t you just love that man? (Chan, not Lee)

That’s the only reason I agreed to watch ‘The Forbidden Kingdom’. My sole thought during the movie was, “Lord of the Rings goes to China!”. Here we have the central character, quite useless in himself and existing only to showcase the talents of the other characters in saving him from the dangers he keeps falling into. Add one eccentric mentor/guide a la Gandalf. Throw in some contenders to that title and some politics. Enter the intense, brooding and powerful female character (Arwen). Not forgetting the Mordor-like imagery or the dark riders (White riders?).

Good fun, chopstick slapstick, no?

And now that I’ve done being silly, go read a more dignified (and correct) account at Meetu’s place.

Well I am of the opinion that there is no such thing as a “bad horror film” simply because no matter how cheesy the film’s story-line is, it still manages to give you the “kicks” – be it the entire 90 minutes or every now and then or at times, just for those few spilt seconds.

Frankly speaking, I went for The Grudge 2 without much expectation since the first installment of this series had failed to make an impression on me. However to my surprise (or horror), I found The Grudge 2 to be far more entertaining than its predecessor. Obviously you cannot compare it to the likes of The Ring and countless other Japanese horror remakes but it is also not that lame as stated by most Movie Critics.

The Grudge 2 consists of three separated but not completely cut off stories, each featuring a cast of characters and their personal encounters with Kayako (the dead Japanese Chick with long Black hair). And it has it all, the haunted Tokyo house, the eerie “croaking” sound, the freaky gray kid, the dead black cat and the works.

At certain points the film does get a bit confusing, I mean it is not really a walk in the park, running parallel stories at a same pace however, horror-geniuses (like yours truly) would be able to fit in the blocks in no time. On the down-side, director Takashi Shimizu seriously needs to look at more “refreshing” horror scares – I mean, the scares are all used up by now (if you count Part 1 as well) because at the end of it all we only 2 ghosts and they keep doing the same thing over and over . For example, they show up in reflective surfaces or under the covers & bathrooms and frighten people who then die – therefore it does get boring at times.

On the other hand, those who haven’t seen experienced the first part are bound to enjoy The Grudge 2 a wee-bit more than the others. If cheap thrills (and short school skirts) gets your fancy, then Grudge part 2 would be a decent outing at the cinemas for you.