Stock up on a whole packet of salt — you'll need it to savour The Forbidden Kingdom. This first screen pairing of Jackie Chan and Jet Li is a happy-go-chop suey of cheese, gongfu and a half-baked storyline.

Geeky-teen Jason (Michael Angarano) is a Karate Kid wannabe who inherits a mysterious staff and is magically whisked away to ancient China — take your first pinch of salt — where he meets an assortment of characters from Chinese myths, legends and wuxia films. There's the drunken immortal (Chan), the silent monk (Li), and the white-haired assassin (Li Bing Bing) who cracks her whip like a manga-inspired dominatrix.

The plot — take your second pinch of salt — involves Jason learning martial arts in order to return the staff to the Monkey God (Jet Li again) who was turned into stone by an evil warlord. Strangely, the characters switch between English and Mandarin as though bilingualism was already an educational requirement. - TODAY/sh