The logic of the plot, however, is a bit suspect. He quickly finds the magic portal is not two-way, that the wizard has not yet built a return route, and that Zhao expects his help to rescue the princess from her upcoming forced marriage to barbarian warlord Arun the Cruel (Bautista). But then villains come through as well, make off with the princess, and Jack follows them into their world. At first, this results in the princess Su Lin (Ni Ni) and her sword-happy bodyguard Zhao (Mark Chao) coming through to modern times, with Jack having to play impromptu babysitter for Su Lin Bill and Ted-style shenanigans at the local mall ensue (seriously, there are still decent malls?). But he got confused by the future, thought that the Black Knight in an online, Warcraft-like video game was real, and summons the player instead: teenager Jack (Uriah Shelton), who can't even stand up to his school bullies. In short order, we find out that a very confused wizard (Francis Ng) who can see across time, was trying to summon a great warrior to protect his princess. But they're influences rather than references mercifully, nobody actually name-drops those films or anything about them. If you're thinking Tron, Gremlins, The Neverending Story, The Last Starfighter, and even The Karate Kid.well, so are Besson and Hoene. Dig: this is the story of a high-schooler who's great at playing video games and BMX biking, who also works at an antique store for a wise old Asian man who gives him a strange jar as a gift, and one night, medieval martial arts warriors emerge from the jar, to be followed by our protagonist into a magical fantasy version of Imperial China. And that other decade would have been the '80s, from where all the obvious influences in Besson's script (directorial duties are handled by Cockneys vs. In another decade, this is a movie that would not only have been theatrical, but even a hit. And it's a better movie than its domestic direct-to-video dump might suggest. It was called The Warrior's Gate for marketing reasons unknown, it is now Enter the Warrior's Gate. Nobody's talking about the $48 million movie they made together, and that's because it's bypassing theaters domestically, arriving on Blu-ray this coming Tuesday, June 6th, after having grossed $3.2 million in China.
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