Popcorn & Coffee: Enter The Warriors Gate Blu-ray Review

Lionsgate; PG-13; 105 minutes

Now available on Blu-ray + Digital HD from Lionsgate Home Entertainment is the Chinese-French action-fantasy-adventure film Enter The Warriors Gate. Directed by Matthias Hoene the film stars Mark Chao, Ni Ni, Uriah Shelton, Dave Bautista, Francis Ng, Sienna Guillory, Ron Smorrenburg, and Dakota Daulby.

Enter The Warriors Gate (also known just as The Warriors Gate) centers on a bullied teen gamer Jack (played by Uriah Shelton), who's accidentally mistaken as a warrior when a Zhao (played by Mark Chao) travels to our world through a magical wooden chest. Believing Jack is a hero, Zhao assigns him the task of protecting Princess Su Lin. Not having any other choice, Jack agrees to protect (or more like babysitting) the princess.

After giving the princess a brief tour of our world, evil warriors travel through the chest and kidnaps the princess for their barbarian king, Arun the Cruel (played by Dave Bautista). Of course, young Jack chases the bad guys back through the chest and travels to an ancient empire. Jack teams up with Zaho and a weird wizard (played by Francis Ng) in the hopes or rescuing the princess before she is forced to marry Arun the Cruel.

Uriah Shelton ("Jack") and Su Lin ("Ni Ni") star in Lionsgate Home Entertainment's ENTER THE WARRIOR'S GATE.

Dave Bautista ("Arun") stars in Lionsgate Home Entertainment's ENTER THE WARRIOR'S GATE.

Special Features on the Blu-ray are:

Audio Commentary with Director Marthias Hoene

Beyond the Gate: Making Enter the Warriors Gate

The Journey East: Bridging the Cultural Divide

Deleted Scene

Final Thoughts: I'm guessing that I'm not the only one who has never even heard of Enter The Warriors Gate before it arrived on Blu-ray this week. The movie was released in China last year, where it flopped with moviegoers. The plot involving a bullied teenager traveling to an ancient Chinese world might sound a bit familiar, as it's the exact same plot of the 2008 film Forbidden Kingdom starring Jackie Chan and Jet Li.

With a screenplay written by Luc Besson and Robert Kamen, the film is a bit silly with campy dialogue, juvenile humor, and a lot of overacting from the cast. I would say the latter was done on purpose as a homage to the old martial art films (the ridiculous ones).

Overall, despite a few plot holes, Enter The Warriors Gate is a fun, mindless entertainment that is neither good or bad. The humor might appeal to the younger crowd, but adults will be rolling their eyes at how silly it is at times. However, there are a few decent martial arts action sequences that are a bit fun to watch.