This is based (loosely) on the character from Chinese literature called the Monkey King. He is one of the Immortals made famous in the great series the Journey To The West (which I have read). He is a mischievous soul always getting into trouble.
The story starts off with a young man Jason Tripitakas (Michael Angarano), waking up from a dream in which he saw the Monkey King(Jet Li) fighting a bunch of soldiers and going to the palace of the Jade Emperor who takes a liking to him. When the Jade Emperor leaves on a 500 year meditation the Jade Warlord(Collin Chou) tricks the Monkey King and turns him into a stone statue. But not before the Monkey King throws away his staff. It is then said that a traveler will bring back the staff and free him. The young man is a martial arts film fanatic and his room is filled with posters and dvd's.
Jason and the Monkey King
After getting dressed, he makes his way to a thrift store in Boston's China town to buy some new Kung fu DVD's. There, he converses with Hop (a Jackie Chan), the shop's eldery owner, and, while thumbing through some DVD's, he is drawn to room full of antiques and notices a golden staff. Hop tells him that the staff is to be delivered to its rightful owner and then closes the door. On his way back home, Jason is attacked by a group of bullies who force him to take them to the store so they can steal some money from the old man. Feeling betrayed, Hop tries to attack the thieves with the staff, but is shot. He tells Jason that he must deliver the staff to its rightful owner. Jason takes the staff and runs from the thieves. On top of a building, he is surrounded by the bullies and suddenly he is pulled off the roof by the staff and travels back through time.
There he meets
Drunken Immortal, Lu Yan (Jackie Chan)
Golden Sparrow (Liu Yi Fei)
Silent Monk (Jet Li).
The four of them join together to return the staff to the Five Elements Mountain and free the Monkey King.
The Jade Warlord enlists the aid of his bounty hunter, the white-haired assassin Ni-Chang (Li Bingbing) to stop them.
After a long journey they reach the mountain and after a fierce fight return the staff to the Monkey King restoring him to life. The Jade Emperor returns and sends Jason back to Boston where he fights and defeats the gang and saves the old man. He also meets a young girl who looks like the Golden Sparrow who walks away and enters a shop with the same name.
Now I just gave you a short version of the movie because I did not want to spoil some of the things that happen during it.
I like the movie, it was nice to see the two great martial artists working together. It was flmed in China and the scenery was amazing. The fight scenes are great and there is a running gag during the movie about Jackie Chan's character always being drunk. The thing that was annoying to me was the American actor. He seemed out of place and his character whined a lot. I think they would have ben better served if they had a young Chinese actor in his role and maybe started the movie in Hong Kong. But all in all it is a fun movie to see and I highly recommend it.
Some shots of the actors during the filming:
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