FeistyUpper
If you don't like this, we can't be friends.
SpunkySelfTwitter
It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.
Zlatica
One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
Enchorde
Recap: Chinese scholar Nicholas Orton is most unhappy. His wife has left him and he feel like he has betrayed himself by taking a position with a tourism corporate that wish to turn relics into a tourist attraction. But one night he is whisked away by a Chinese goddess. The world is threatened. Oppressive demons are trying to erase the story "The Journey into the West" from history and by doing so erase free will in the human world. Only Nick can save the world by going on a peculiar quest.Comments: A movie made for TV it tries to enter a land of magic and fantasy. However it seems to suffer from a meager budget as the special effects lack in quality. But not enough money can't explain a bad story. I am not familiar with the original story or myth but as it is presented in this movie it is childish, simple-minded and quite boring.The characters are stereotypic, arrogant and also childish in appearance. The monkey king resembles a human, that's true. But Pigsy, however true to the original story, is just too much. A walking, talking pig that can't resist eating all the time. He is worst, but every other character is almost as simple-minded and shallow as him. Or why people keep on driving as they crash through market stands just because the red light disappeared (because no one would ever use the brakes if the traffic lights weren't there? Sigh).Also the story is easily predictable, but not only predictable. Boring. Who will fall in love with whom, what someone will do when he is challenged and so on. When the story is too simple, the effects doesn't support the magic elements in the story and the characters are too shallow, the entire story becomes hard to believe in. Not accept as truth, but to believe in its own context. It doesn't carry it's own weight. It doesn't even seem the characters or actors believe in it.Why it must run then for more than two and a half hour is beyond me. If it can't develop some chemistry in an hour, two doesn't make it better. Only worse.2/10
Bob Dorien
Now I doubt many westerners are familiar with the Chinese novel Journey to the West or with the legendary Chinese character of the Monkey King. So for the uninitiated this might be an interesting story with interesting characters. But despite the fact that they used some Chinese actors and actresses there is a hallow ring to this TV movie. It all seems staged to appeal to Americans and doesn't honestly follow the legends of the original Chinese texts. The casting could have been better. It would have been nice if they picked an actor with more depth than Thomas Gibson for the Nicolas Orton role. The probably chose Gibson for his popularity on network television at the time (in Dharma and Greg) instead of auditioning someone else for the role. Bai Ling is a spectacular woman to look at and a very good actress. She tries her best but she would have been better served if they wrote a better script and gave more emphasis to Chinese authenticity.
tiffmh
This is the lamest movie I have EVER seen. It came with a Jet Li movie I got in a 2 pack. I'm not sure why it was made but it is pathetic! A Bruce Campbell wanna be who is a supposed expert on Chinese culture goes on a journey. He meets up with a hot girl and some ugly friends. The hero of the story is an immature guy that looks like a monkey. His friend is a really ugly greedy pig man. Although I know it is supposed to show the journey of some Chinese literature it speaks about throughout the movie it seems more like an insult than a tribute. Read the other guys post for more detailed information about the literature. Please if you are reading this...Never ever watch this horrible waste of a film...there is my public service for the week.
michalis_j
This movie is an insult to the beautiful historical classic work from Wu Cheng'en. It brutally involves theme's that do not fit at all with the story line. Such as a Caucasian man falling in love the Goddess of Mercy and she falling in love with him. Even though, in order to make one movie out a of a 3 volume work, selecting only parts from the book is necessary. This movie has misunderstood the meaning of the book and used elements to make it a sad abstract of the novel. He has gone past the key element of the book: the enlightenment, the search for the Way from five totally different characters, each representing an element of human nature. The Tang priest, Sun Wukong the monkey, lazy and clumsy Pig, hideous Friar Sand and the Dragon sun, changed into a white horse. It has wiped out every Buddhist element from the story, while that's the backbone of this book. How he ridiculed key figures from Chinese history and culture (Quan Yin, Confucius) and not even in a adult and serious way.This movie does by no means represent the wonderful Chinese Classic `Journey to the West', or literally `Notes of a Journey to the West' and you may have already figured out that I was sadly disappointed with it.
