Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1994)

Title: Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993)

Director: Rob Cohen

Cast: Jason Scott Lee, Lauren Holly

Review:

Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is a biographical film based on the book written by Linda Lee Cadwell, Bruce Lee’s wife. The book was called Bruce Lee: The Man Only I Knew. It’s good to keep that in mind because the film is told mostly from the point of view of Linda Lee; something I rather enjoyed about this movie. It’s a love story, and a very engaging one. Bruce Lee is idolized by millions across the world, he truly is an example of what we can achieve when we commit our minds to achieve a certain goal; for this I’ve always admired Bruce Lee. He was focused, disciplined and determined, something we should all aspire to be in life. That plus he had such charisma, such a glow, it’s no surprise he became the icon that he became. Did this film do justice to the hero?

Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story starts out when Lee was in China, dreaming of coming to America. He gets into a brawl over a girl and ends up having to leave his country in order to escape the authorities, a situation he has no problems with because he loves the American culture, he loves movies and James Dean. After he arrives to America, we see how he goes from dishwasher at a Chinese restaurant to college student, to karate teacher, to becoming a husband and a father and finally, a powerhouse movie star. But one thing is always hounding Bruce Lee and that’s the demon that’s always followed his family. Will he ever confront his own personal demons? Will he always live in fear of them?

The film was directed by Rob Cohen, a director who’s never really wowed me with anything he has done. He’s the guy behind Dragonheart (1996), xXx (2002), Fast and the Furious (2001) and Stealth (2005), not the greatest bunch of films, watchable sure, but good or great, nope. This is why Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is a surprise to me; it is without a doubt Cohen’s finest film. Unfortunately, he’s never truly done anything as good as this. But that’s okay, hey, at least he’s got this one great film on his repertoire, and what a beautiful film it is. It’s purely entertaining, while still managing to tell us Bruce Lee’s story and his fantastic rise to fame. I loved how the film ends up being a film about films, we get to see Lee work his way through all the Hollywood backstabbing. We see his devastation when they give the role that was supposed to be his for the television show Kung Fu, to David Caradine. In retrospective this was probably a good thing, had he ended up as a television star, maybe he wouldn’t have gone on to make the great films he made. And speaking of Lee’s films, on Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story we get to see him on the set of The Big Boss (1971) and Enter the Dragon (1973), which is quite fun, I loved how Rob Cohen played around with these familiar images and situations, especially those scenes that take place in the mirror room on Enter the Dragon. 

The film is told from the point of view of his wife, Linda Lee, the film is after all based on her book. Having Linda Lee give her input to this production is a wonderful asset to the production because she was the closest to him throughout his entire life. She was there through his college years, she was there through the first time he opens his karate schools, she was there when he made his first television show, his first movie. She was always there, so her side of the story is probably the most complete side of the tale. What I also enjoyed was how romantic the whole film is, the way Bruce and Linda fell in love is a beautiful love story that broke through racial barriers, they had to deal with Linda’s parents rejecting Bruce over him being Chinese. I’m so glad that their love for each other was stronger than racism; it was a triumph to humanity. It also helps that Lauren Holly and Jason Scott Lee had wonderful on screen chemistry. 

The role of Bruce Lee was at one point offered to Brandon Lee, Bruce Lee’s son. Unfortunately, Brandon declined to play his father. I wonder how Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story would have turned out had Brandon Lee taken the role because Brandon Lee turned out to be a wonderful actor; he truly blossomed as a performer when he made The Crow (1994), his final film. Not to mention all the input he could have brought to the role, after all, Bruce Lee was his father. It’s interesting to note that had Brandon Lee accepted to play his father, then maybe he wouldn’t have died while making The Crow, since both movies where shot on the same year. Sadly Brandon Lee was accidentally shot while shooting The Crow less than two months before the theatrical release of Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story. This is a tragic real life story; Brandon Lee’s death only adds fuel to that myth about Bruce Lee’s family being cursed, which is just silly non sense. So instead of Brandon Lee, the production ended up using Jason Scott Lee to play the role of Bruce, which was an excellent choice in my book, Jason Scott Lee not only has the look, he also brought that physicality to the role. He captured to perfection the mannerisms, the intensity and the charismatic persona of Bruce Lee.

The only thing I don’t like about the film is that it takes some artistic liberties with Bruce Lee’s life story. The film has many discrepancies with Lee’s real life story. For example, in the film, they lead you to believe that the Chinese are angry that he is teaching Karate to the Americans, so he fights with these Chinese dudes who end up breaking his back. In real life the story is substantially different, this fighting match did take place, but it was in Lee’s own Karate school and not in some temple like in the film. And even worse, Bruce Lee actually won that fight! In the movie they make you believe that he loses this fight and that one of the fighters purposely injures his back. This was not true either; his back was injured not by an angered fighter, but because of a weight lifting incident, so Lee’s back injury was self inflicted! In the film they make you think he actually managed to see his book ‘Tao of Jeet Kune Do’ published, in real life the book was printed posthumously. And speaking of his death, the film leaves it as something of a mystery, when in fact he died because of an allergic reaction to a muscle relaxant called ‘Equagesic’, which apparently worsened a condition he had been suffering from called, cerebral edema, basically, excess fluid in the brain. For the most part the film tells Lee’s story like it is, but it takes artistic liberties to make things more dramatic or visually interesting, which is to be expected on any biographical film.

In the end, the film ends up being very inspirational. It’s one of those movies that makes you want to do something with your life after seeing it. It makes you want to believe in yourself, it sends out that idea that if you put your mind to it, you truly can accomplish anything. Linda Lee says she’d rather remember her husband for the way he lived his life, than for his death and I have to say I agree, the guy lived an amazing life overcoming racism, personal fears and demons. The whole demon part of the story is where the film kind of dives into the fantastic because we actually get to see him fighting against this giant Samurai demon. This is yet another scene in which the film takes artistic liberties, but I didn’t mind because it is all kinds of cool to see Bruce Lee fighting a giant Samurai demon, plus it’s just so symbolic of all the struggles he went through to get to where he got. I guess life is like that, you always feel like there’s something hounding you, trying to stop you from achieving your goals, but Lee fought those and won in my opinion, the guy went on to become a legend in life and death. Bruce Lee remains one of my personal heroes, he exceled at what he did and always aimed higher, trying to be all that he could be.

Rating: 5 out of 5     

    

The Last Dragon (1985)

Title: The Last Dragon (1985)

Director: Michael Schultz

Cast: Taimak, Vanity, Julius J. Carry III, Faith Prince, Leo O’Brien

Review:

Back in 1984, John G. Avildsen’s The Karate Kid (1984) was a huge success in theaters; it told the story of Daniel LaRusso, an American kid who has trouble adjusting to his new neighborhood. His school mates make fun of him, bullies have a field day kicking his ass around. Fortunately, Daniel befriends the magical Mr. Miyagi, a Japanese old man who teaches Daniel the ways of Karate and how to confront his own demons. The Karate Kid was such a hit that it spawned three other sequels after it. It also inspired producer Berry Gordy to make an all black version of The Karate Kid, which turned out to be the very eclectic, funny and entertaining flick called The Last Dragon. Both films share similarities, both are about young dudes trying to harness the powers of Karate, both have old oriental guys teaching these youngsters martial arts, but while The Karate Kid is more of a drama, The Last Dragon differs in that it’s not trying to be a serious film at all, The Last Dragon actually embraces it’s ‘cheesetastic’ roots and swims in them effortlessly.  

Here’s a film that mixes Kung Fu Masters, Television Dance Shows, Vanity, Music Videos, Disco Dancing, Pizza Parlor’s, Gangsters, Music Producers, Piranha’s and Break Dancing! Oh and let’s not forget the wonderful world of fortune cookie making! So as you can see, The Last Dragon is very different in tone to The Karate Kid. Yet at the same time, it delivers that “believe in yourself” message that’s so popular in cinema; the idea that once you start believing in yourself you can achieve anything. In contrast with The Karate Kid, The Last Dragon sends its message in a more lighthearted manner, with characters that don’t take themselves too seriously, hell, the movie doesn’t take itself too seriously, everything unfolds in a goofy, fun vibe. Michael Schultz, the films director (a.k.a. the guy who directed Krush Groove (1985)) mentions in the dvd commentary that he wanted the film to be cartoony, which is pretty obvious when we take one look at the films main characters for example, one of the villains is this guy who walks around with football gear, and calls himself “The Shogun of Harlem”! So don’t expect a serious drama, in fact, expect the complete opposite, a cartoonish homage to Shaw Bros. Kung Fu movies. For example, the film opens up with Taimak in a dojo, throwing some Kung Fu moves, which is the traditional way in which many Shaw Bros. film started out, with a Kung Fu master displaying some moves as the credits roll on screen. Also, the whole thing with the glowing hands comes straight out of The Five Fingers of Death (1972). There's also direct homages to Bruce Lee films, so while it's a parody, the film knows exactly where its coming from. 

Taimak, the twenty something actor who starred as Bruce Leroy, had never done a film before this one; he basically learned how to act while making this film. He was obviously chosen because of his martial arts abilities more than his acting abilities, yet, that raw, rookie naiveté that Taimak exudes through his performance is exactly what was needed for the character of Bruce Leroy, a nerdy kung fu freak who is obsessed with all things Bruce Lee, so much so that he dresses in Chinese clothing and eats his pop corn with chop sticks while watching Enter the Dragon (1973) at the local theater. Yet, even though the guy is extremely skilled in martial arts, he’s not very skilled with the ladies. Leroy doesn’t even know how to make a move on ‘Laura’, the television host of a dance show called ‘7^th Heaven’.  Laura was played by 80’s pop star ‘Vanity’, whom some of you might remember from her role in the over the top action film ActionJackson (1988), where she starred alongside Carl Weather’s as a junky looking to get rehabilitated. On The Last Dragon she plays the role of a VJ who gets muscled around by a music producer who wants to make her play one of the music videos he produced. If she doesn’t play his video, she dies!

This whole element about a music producer trying to muscle his star into fame is the part of the film that some people felt got in the way of the film. Some feel the movie might have been just fine had it just been about Bruce Leroy looking for his inner glow. The whole musical thing is probably there because this film is produced by Berry Gordy, a Motown producer who sometimes produced films as well. Actually, the official title of the film is Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon, so it’s his film. By the way, I think this might be the only time where the producers name is placed on the screen as part of the films title. Gordy also produced The Wiz (1978), the all black cast version of The Wizard of Oz. But most of the time, Berry Gordy would produce these awesome Motown songs that got used in film soundtracks all the time. Speaking of film soundtracks, the one for The Last Dragon is extremely 80’s! I mean, it doesn’t get more 80’s than DeBarge singing “Rhythm of the Night” now does it? Well, if that doesn’t get your nostalgic juices flowing, how about kung fu masters who busts into movie theaters carrying boom boxes and spontaneously break dancing? Ha! The movie also has its own theme song called ‘The Last Dragon’, by the way, this song was nominated for worst song of the year at the Razzies, but damn, I haven’t been able to take it out of my head for the past few days! Vanity sings a tune called '7th Heaven' but by god it's terrible! It was also nominated for worst song of the year at the Razzies.Still, I gotta be honest, for the few minutes that Vanity is on screen performing this song, I couldn't take my eyes off the screen, I watched the whole thing with morbid glee. So expect a movie with a super 80’s vibe and a soundtrack filled with hits from that era, and one or two songs made specifically for the movie.

One of the more entertaining aspects of  The Last Dragon is its main villain, Sho Nuff, The Shogun of Harlem, played by Julius J. Carry III. The guy looks like a clone made out of Busta Rhymes and Samuel L. Jackson’s dna. In fact, Busta Rhymes actually dressed like The Shogun of Harlem in the music video for his  song ‘Dangerous’. At one point in the video Busta actually quotes this film! And even more of a concidence is the fact that Samuel L. Jackson was actually going to play this character in a remake of The Last Dragon that was in the works, but nothing ever came of that remake, I guess it stayed in development hell. Sho Nuff almost steals the film from Taimak, if Taimak’s character didn’t eventually find his glow and become “The Master”, which is a pretty cool scene in my book. The climactic battle was what I loved the most about the film when I watched it as a kid because both the villain and the hero start glowing as they fight, and their punches create these sparks! It made for a cool visual; by today’s standards these visual effects are tame, but for me, the idea, and the visual still retains its charm. Bottom line with The Last Dragon is that, yeah it’s silly, yeah it’s cheesy, but it’s fun cheese, recommend it for that.

Rating: 3 out of 5  

Big Trouble in Little China (1986)

Title: Big Trouble in Little China (1986)

Director: John Carpenter

Cast: Kurt Russell, Kim Cattrall, Dennis Dun, James Wong, Victor Wong

Review:

You guys ever seen The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai (1984)? That’s the one in which Peter Weller discovers a way to go to other dimensions by traveling through solid matter? Well, anyways, at the ending of that film, a sequel entitled: Buckaroo Banzai vs. The World Crime League was promised. Unfortunately, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai didn’t make much money at the box office, so that sequel never came to be. But there’s this myth amongst hard core Buckaroo fans that says that Big Trouble in Little China is actually the unofficial sequel to The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai. How did this rumor come about? Well, I didn’t know this until the other day when I reviewed The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai and one of my readers pointed this fact out to me, but W.D. Richter, the guy who wrote The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai also wrote Big Trouble in Little China. That’s right my friends, these two nutty, misunderstood films come from the same brilliant mind. Kind of makes sense don’t it?

 For those not in the know, Big Trouble in Little China is a ghost story about Lo Pan, an ancient Chinese emperor who died centuries ago but is now looking for a way to become flesh again. Problem is he has to marry a girl with green eyes in order to do so. Enter Wang Chi and Jack Burton, two buddies who are on their way to the airport to pick up Wang’s girlfriend ‘Miao Yin’, a Chinese girl who’s coming from China to reunite with Wang, her fiancé. Unfortunately, before Wang and Miao Yin can reunite she is kidnapped by a group of thugs who work for Lo Pan, the ghost who wants to be a man. Apparently Miao Yin is the girl who can fit his bill. She does have green eyes after all! Will Wang and Jack have what it takes to infiltrate Lo Pan’s temple and rescue Miao Yin before she marries Lo Pan? Will Jack ever get his truck back?  

All he wants is his truck back

I started my review for Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai by comparing both of these films, and I didn’t even know they were related in this way! My brain somehow connected both of these films in the same review, which I think is really weird. So anyhow, in my review for Buckaroo I compared the two because both of these films are so offbeat and bizarre that the studios that produced them just didn’t know how to market them to the masses. These movies are what are known in the film industry as a “tough sell” something that Hollywood doesn’t like at all, they like their films to be easily marketable, with an easily identifiable target audience. Who do you sell a movie like Big Trouble in Little China to? If you ask me I would’ve just sold it as a modern day Kung Fu flick, which it essentially is, but apparently the marketing department at 20^th Century Fox didn’t know what the hell to do with this movie, so they invested very little into promoting it. Another film lost millions because studios couldn’t make heads or tails of the film. Strange how easily a studio can get cold feet with a production because they think it’s too weird and it won’t make any money. But time always proves all these silly producers wrong, and so Big Trouble in Little China has become a solid cult favorite. The people who love this movie, really love this movie. This proves once again that studio heads know jack, they’ll market the hell out of Transformers 2, a terrible film in my opinion, but won’t market Big Trouble in Little China, which was very obviously a good movie.

Truth is, Big Trouble in Little China is an easy movie to love. I’m a huge fan so excuse me if I gush about it for the next few paragraphs.  It has so many fun characters, they can’t seem to ever stop yapping, and the stuff they talk about is just hilarious. I mean, seriously, how many of you folks out there agree that Big Trouble in Little China is one of the most quotable films ever? I know right? In the dvd commentary for this film Carpenter and Russell call Jack Burton’s dialog ‘Burtonisms’ which are basically little golden nuggets of wisdom that the character of Jack Burton spews throughout the whole movie. I’m talking about thought provoking stuff like:  “It’s all in the reflexes” and “You’d have to be some kind of a fool to think we’re all alone in this universe!” Trust me, there’s more where those came from, and if I’m not back in ten minutes “call the president!”  So yeah folks, what we have here is one of those extremely quotable films. I haven’t been quoting this movie all my life for nothing!

Going back to the whole thing about Big Trouble in Little China being an unofficial sequel to Buckaroo Banzai, the real dirt on the story is this:  the film had originally been written as a western by two guys: Gary Goldman (this is one of the guys who wrote the script for Total Recall (1989)) and David Z. Weinstein.  Apparently this version of the film was going to prove to be too expensive! In that script they didn’t steal Jacks truck, they stole his horse! So anyhow, thing is the studio thought it was going to be a tough movie to produce so they brought in W. D. Richter to rewrite the thing, they wanted him to set the story in a contemporary setting, so that audiences could identify better with it; funny how they still managed to produce a film that didn’t connect with audiences! But anyways, W. D. Richter took the opportunity to inject elements into the Big Trouble in Little China script that were meant for the unproduced Buckaroo Banzai sequel! Knowing  this takes my enjoyment of the film to a whole different level! Now I’m always going to see Burton as the truck driving version of Buckaroo Banzai! 

Aside from all these Buckaroo Banzai connections, Big Trouble in Little China is an extremely entertaining movie on its own. What I personally enjoy about it is how crazy it gets. We’re talking about a Chinese ghost that wants to be flesh again so he can rule the universe from beyond the grave, or check into a psycho ward, whichever comes first! We’re talking about a movie where characters can have sword battles in mid air and ancient sorcerers have huge magic battles! This is a film in which we can see flying eye monsters that have telepathic abilities! A film with characters that can manipulate lightning and air! I mean, here’s a film with a ten foot tall ghost who shoots light out his eyes for crying out loud! This my friends, was John Carpenter’s version of a Shaw Bros. Fantasy/ Kung Fu movie and I loved every second of it. There’s no denying it’s an offbeat film, but that’s what I love about it. Even Russell himself was afraid of making it because he was afraid it’d be too weird. You see, Kurt Russell had done a series of box office bombs before Big Trouble in Little China (for example Carpenter’s own The Thing (1982)) and he didn’t want to make another one. Yet, he committed to the film anyways because Carpenter and Russell are not just co-workers, these guys are friends, they’ve been making films since Escape from New York (1981)! Russell and Carpenter understand each other, it’s something that’s quite obvious when you hear the dvd commentary for Big Trouble In Little China. According to both Russell and Carpenter’s commentary, the film was getting great results with tests audiences, so much so that they both thought it was going to be a hit! Unfortunately, thanks to 20^th Century Fox’s botched marketing techniques, no one knew about the film when it was released and so kaput, it died.

But a movie flopping in theaters does not equal a bad film, in rare occasions it’s quite the opposite, the film simply slipped by the public’s consciousness. It’s not our fault that the studio didn’t sell it to us properly, something that’s supposed to be their forte. So anyways, even though Big Trouble in Little China was a huge money looser for the studio, I The Film Connoisseur, guarantee you’ll have a good time with it. Think about this: in what other film are you going to see a underground Chinese temple with glowing neon nights? Or people who become Kung Fu Masters by drinking out of a seven demon bag? Nowhere but in Big Trouble in Little China that’s where! This is a film that openly embraces its fantasy roots and asks no questions about it. We have monsters, magic, and Kung Fu in this movie, what’s not to like? James Wong is great as Lo Pan; a brilliant performance in what in my opinion is the best role of his life. Russell, Cattrall, both of the Wongs and Dunn, they all make for a Motley Crue of crazy, funny, people who all act like they are high on coke, they reminded me of Buckaroo’s group of sidekicks, “ The Hong Kong Cavaliers”, aha! If you ask me, this is one of Carpenter’s best films; production values, visual effects and script wise, this movie is top notch every step of the way. At the very least it’s on my list of top five John Carpenter films.  It shouldn’t have bombed the way it did. But it’s all cool; we now have it on dvd and Blue Ray and it’s legions of fans grow every day. Oh and there’s a possible remake on the horizon! If it doesn’t work, just remember what Jack Burton always says at a time like this. Old Jack always says: “What the hell!”  

Rating:  5 out of 5  

The Man with the Iron Fists (2012)

Title: The Man with The Iron Fists (2012)

Director: The RZA

Cast: Russell Crowe, Lucy Liu, RZA, Byron Mann, Rick Yune, David Bautista, Pam Grier, Gordon Liu

The RZA’s love for Kung Fu movies can be traced all the way back to his beginnings as a musician in the Wu-Tang clan, where the famous rap group would conceptualize whole albums based on Kung Fu movies like The 36^thChamber of Shaolin (1978). RZA also scored the music to Tarantino’s Kill Bill movies,   Afro Samurai (2007) and its sequel Afro Samurai Resurrection (2009). So it’s safe to say that RZA’s love for Kung Fu films has always been there. In a featurette RZA did for the Afro Samurai dvd, his genuine love and appreciation for these films was evident; so the fact that he directed, wrote, starred and scored The Man With the Iron Fists doesn’t surprise me the least, in fact, it makes all the sense in the world. Here’s a guy who’s seen thousands of Kung Fu movies. He understands and obviously loves the genre; this isn’t some ignorant poser trying to make a Kung Fu film, this is a connoisseur. With The Man with the Iron Fists he meant to unleash all that Kung Fu knowledge onto the silver screen as a love letter to genre. Problem is, this is his first film ever, so a lot was depending on him pulling it off, and pulling it off well. So, the question remained: would the RZA be able to do it? Could he pull off this ambitious project on his first time out?

Story is all about this peace loving blacksmith (RZA) who hates making weapons and would much rather spend his time making toys for kids. But, as fate would have it, he ends up having to make weapons anyway so he can save enough money to escape with the woman he loves. He makes weapons for two gangs that are fighting each other over a shipment of gold, and the control of the town. You see one greedy bastard known as ‘Silver Lion’ killed his own master ‘Golden Lion’ just so he could take over the clan; problem is that while Golden Lion wanted peace, Silver Lion wants war and The Blacksmith is caught in the middle of it all. Will The Blacksmith ever find the peace and love he yearns, or will death, carnage and revenge force him to turn into a stone cold killer?

The Man with the Iron Fists was obviously a labor of love for the RZA who basically took all the things he loves about Kung Fu movies, put them all in a blender and called it The Man with the Iron Fists. It’s got elements from recent Kung Fu films like True Legend (2010), a little bit of Afro Samurai (2007) and a whole lot of Shaw Brothers. The thing with The Man with the Iron Fists is that if you’re a lover of Kung Fu movies (like I am) you will immediately identify the films where RZA got his inspiration from. It kind of reminds of what happens when you watch a Tarantino film. The film has that repetitive storyline that a lot of Kung Fu movies have where the hero gets all banged up by the bad guys, goes through a recuperation/training process and by the ending of the film, he ends up kicking everyone’s collective asses to kingdom come. The difference between a Tarantino film and The Man with the Iron Fists is that while Tarantino takes the genre he is paying homage to and re-invents it, brings something new to the table, makes it better somehow, The Man with the Iron Fists hardly re-invents the Kung Fu genre, or brings anything new to the table. It’s quite simply a homage that walks on tired ground. Still, that being said, the film is an extremely entertaining affair; I was not bored for a moment.

And here’s the part where I start talking about all the cool stuff this movie has going for it. First off, the production values are top notch. The art direction, the wardrobes, the weapons and the look of the film were all great. I’m thinking that the production benefited a whole lot from shooting on location in china, which is a great surprise; I love it when a film shoots on location. The Kung Fu action is excellent and very well shot. I’ve read some reviewers complaint about them not being able to comprehend what’s going on in the fights, I don’t get where they are coming from, I could see perfectly well what was happening during the fight choreography, which was quite good in my book. Characters have all sorts of cool weapons that I had not seen on any movie before; like for example there’s these two sword fighters,  each has a sword that when united with the other, creates a ying and yang symbol that allows them to kick some serious ass together.  The gore was plentiful as well, which caught me completely off guard! Since Hollywood’s so shy with blood and guts these days, I was expecting a tame film in this regard, but I was wrong. There’s all sorts of over the top death sequences; which were gruesomely entertaining; a kung fu fan should be pleased with all the blood spraying on this movie.

I won’t lie, the film does have a few flaws here and there, most of them related to this being the RZA’s first film. For instance, I don’t think it was a smart choice on the RZA’s part to juggle so many production responsibilities. He directs, writes, scores and on top of all that, acts in the film! The RZA plays the titular ‘Man with the Iron Fists’ and his performance is quite subdued. The Blacksmith is a very quiet, laid back kind of character, it felt to me like this pivotal character should have been played a bit more intensely by an actor with experience.  I don’t think it’s the worst performance ever, but the part called for someone who could display more emotion,  plus to be honest, I don’t think RZA’s much of an actor. As a director? Sure, he did a decent job, but acting is definitely not his forte.  Also, somewhere near the end, the film feels a bit rushed. This could also have something to do with the fact that the original cut of the film was four hours long and the RZA had to compromise and cut it down to the usual hour and a half; this is his first film after all. I’m looking forward to a director’s cut of the film where hopefully we’ll get more character development and story. I hear RZA is pushing for a director’s cut for the dvd release, which would be awesome in my book. Since this film only cost 20 million dollars to make (a modest budget by Hollywood standards) I think it will be successful enough to make its money back, and hopefully bring on a sequel. I wouldn’t mind getting a second dose of Kung Fu awesomeness from RZA, because this movie satisfies in that department.

My final word on this one is that it’s not a perfect movie, but it is fun enough for you to forget all about the flaws and just enjoy the damn thing. The violence is so cartoonish and over the top that people laugh after some of the deaths, which I think is a perfectly normal reaction to all the mayhem that happens on screen. The idea of this character having Iron Fists is freaking awesome and him battling this other dude with metal skin? Sweeeet. The RZA as the Black Smith was the weak link of the show, but then we have Russell Crow chewing up scenes and having a blast with Lucy Liu who plays the lady who runs the local whore house. Fun times are to be had, if you love your Kung Fu mixed with some hip hop tunes; this is the place to go. I wonder if what RZA was really trying to prove with this film is that he could be the one to direct the Afro Samurai movie? Now there’s an idea!

Rating: 4 out of 5

The Avenging Eagle (1978)

Title: The Avenging Eagle (1978)

Director: Chung Sun

Cast: Sheng Fu, Lung Ti, Feng Ku

Review:

I love me a good Kung Fu flick, for the longest time, the problem for me with these old kung fu movies was getting a hold of them. They simply weren’t available on any format! Also, so many of these films have been produced, that sometimes they get lost in the shuffle; case in point, The Avenging Eagle; a Kung Fu movie that I’d never heard about, yet ended up loving the hell out of. I guess that’s okay, especially when we take in consideration that many of these Kung Fu movies received a theatrical released way back in the 70’s and then were never seen again. But now, thanks to the folks at Celestial Pictures I have been getting up to date with a lot of these old Kung Fu Flicks. The Weinstein Company has unearthed them through their ‘Dragon Dynasty’ label. I have to thank these guys for that. They’ve been releasing these old Kung Fu movies in pristine condition, re-mastered and looking grand spanking new. If it wasn’t for these guys I would have never seen films like The One Armed Swordsman (1967) and Return of the One Armed Swordsman (1969) or the awesome Kung Fu classic King Boxer (1972), so this is a good label to look into my friends, they got some really interesting films on their roster.

But today I will be talking about The Avenging Eagle (1978) which is a film about this man who is running from a group of outlaws who call themselves ‘The 13 Eagles’. The groups leader is a man who calls himself ‘King Eagle’; what this King Eagle does is he takes children and trains them in the deadly ways of kung fu, then he brainwashes them into believing that they have to follow his every whim and desire; which they do. He sends them to steal gold and to kill his own personal enemies, they do it blindly, because its all they’ve ever known. After a while, our protagonist decides he wants out of the ’13 Eagles’ which of course upsets ‘King Eagle’ who sends the remaining 12 to hunt down and kill the traitor. Will he escape the claws of his past?

This Kung Fu classic has many great things going for it, chief amongst them is the fact that it is never for a minute boring. Since we have 12 deadly assassins chasing after the hero of the film, we have to see him defeat all 12 of them through out the course of the film. This of course means that every five minutes, two new Eagles appear to fight against our hero. Coolest part of it all is that every fight is just a bit different then the other because each eagle specializes in a different fighting technique and weapon. So we have the dude who fights well with axes, the guy who fights with swords, the guy who fights with his pipe (true!) but trust me, the weapons get cooler and cooler as the film moves along. This is something that distinguishes Kung Fu films, the variety of weapons that the characters use, and this film has some awesome ones. We get everything from wrist blades to Iron Claws.

The fights all build up to the amazing climactic fight with the leader of The Eagle Gang, King Eagle. Now this is one amazing Kung Fu duel! First the good guys have to dispatch of a couple of lower class kung fu mothers, but the final confrontation between the good guys and King Eagle is awesome one to behold, coolest part? It’s a lengthy fight that goes on and on, like I said, the film is never boring. The production also has good art direction, special care was taken to make this one look just a bit different, the sets and location give it a unique look that makes it stand out from other Shaw Brothers productions. For example, the lair of the 13 Eagles is this awesome, spacious set that looks like the interior of a boat, whit a giant golden eagle hanging in the background. Same as Hammer Films did, The Shaw Brothers had a roster of directors that commonly made films for them. The most renowned were Chang Cheh who made The Five Deadly Venoms (1978) and Chia Liang Liu who made The 36^thChambers of Shaolin (1978). The Avenging Eagle was directed by Chung Sun a director who wasn’t as renowned as the others, but from what I gather, he put his name on the map with The Avenging Eagle. The film balances great fighting sequences, with an involving revenge story that has more then a couple of surprises in store for the audience. The director chooses to tell his tale through a series of flashbacks, each more revealing then the next until it all hooks up to the amazing finale, which is worth the wait. Highly recommend this one if your looking for a night of awesome Kung Fu action.

Rating: 5 out of  5  

The Flying Guillotine (1975)

Title: The Flying Guillotine (1975)

Director: Meng Hua Ho

Review:

In the world of Kung Fu movies, there is no more infamous a weapon than the deadly Flying Guillotine. For those who don’t know what the hell a Flying Guillotine is, it is this ancient Chinese weapon that you throw through the air like a Frisbee; it falls over your victims head like a hat, then you pull the chain and the blades inside of the contraption decapitate your opponent. When you pull the chain towards you, it brings back your enemies head inside. The interesting thing about the Flying Guillotine is that its origins are firmly rooted in reality! I always thought that the Flying Guillotine was a made up weapon for the movies, but no, as it turns out this weapon was used by a Chinese emperor called Yongzheng during the Qing Dynasty. There are no pictures or artistic representations of the weapon, but the weapon is described in ancient manuscripts, and from these descriptions comes the weapon we see in the film, which has gone on to become one of the most recognizable weapons in the Kung Fu Movie world. The Flying Guillotine was the first film to bring this ancient weapon to life. How was it?

On this film we meet Emperor Yung Cheng, a political leader who is systematically eliminating any one who opposes the government. You don’t like what the government is doing? You think they are abusing the people? Stealing money from them? Well, if you say even one word against the Emperor, he will have you killed. That’s how he rolls. But he is presented by a conundrum: won’t the government look bad if everyone knows that they are killing people left and right? Shouldn’t these killings be done in a more discreet manner? So in order to avoid being seen in a bad light by his people, the Emperor decides he will instead send assassins to kill the opposing rebels. He has one of his men design a new weapon for the assassins to use called The Flying Guillotine! With it, you can decapitate an enemy from 100 feet away! But learning how to master this new weapon takes time, so the Emperor has 12 of his best men trained in the use of the Flying Guillotine. He wants them to master the weapon so they can serve as assassins for him. Will they go forward with the Emperors wishes of killing innocent people simply because they think differently than he does?

Interesting thing about this movie is that even though it was the first Flying Guillotine movie, it is not as well known as others that came after it, like Master of the Flying Guillotine (1976) for example, which is a more renowned film. I guess the limited availability on DVD is what hindered folks from knowing more about the first Flying Guillotine film. But, anyways, thanks to the folks at Celestial Films and their “Dragon Dynasty” label, we are finally getting all these old Kung Fu movies on dvd and I’m having a blast finally getting to see all these Shaw Bros. Kung Fu Classics. The cool thing about this film is that it presents us with the origin of the weapon. We get to see how it was conceived by its creator, how he came up with the idea. We see the weapons first prototype, and we see the first batch of soldiers that were especially trained to become masters of this weapon. I thought this was the most interesting aspect of the film because in other movies, they don’t show any of this, the weapon simply exists and that’s it, but not on this one.

By the way, this movie is very much centered on the weapon itself; you kind of get the feeling that the weapon is the star of the show, almost like a character!  In fact, this film is a little different than most Shaw Brothers Kung Fu Films because it doesn’t focus so much on elaborately choreographed Kung Fu fights, in fact, the fights are rather slow when compared to other Shaw Brothers Kung Fu flicks. Though we do get a couple of Kung Fu fights on this film, they don’t take center stage, which is left for the Flying Guillotine and its wielders. Whenever this film is on, it’s because somebody is decapitating somebody with the Flying Guillotine, these are the scenes that really make this film special. I mean, I kept rewinding the film whenever there was some Flying Guillotine action going on! So just be ready for a film that isn’t as action packed as other Shaw Bros. movies; you won’t see that many Kung Fu fights, instead the film focuses more on character development and story, which was actually interesting.  

Speaking of the films themes, this one was very subversive, as are many Chinese period films. The Emperor creates a small army of soldiers who become masters of the flying guillotine, but they don’t exactly know why they are being trained. They simply know they must master this weapon because the Emperor commands it. But when they receive their first mission, and they see that they were trained to become killers for the Emperor, some of them confront an emotional conundrum. Should we kill innocents for the government? I thought this was so interesting, because I ask myself the same questions whenever I see brainwashed cops hitting university students. Don’t these cops have any humanity in them? I’m sure they question themselves and the orders they are given, but they simply ignore these thoughts, because they are programmed to do so. And so, this is where our rebel hero emerges in The Flying Guillotine. The hero of the film has to deal with this moral dilemma, yet decides he wants out! So then the film turns into the government hunting down Ma Teng, the rebel. It reminded me in some ways of Shogun Assassin (1980) because that one is also about a soldier of the government who is deemed too dangerous to let live. It also reminded me of Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven (1992) and even The Return of the One Armed Swordsman (1969), both films about ex gunslingers/sword masters that decide to retire so they can live the quiet, simple life in the country; only to be asked to use their abilities one last time. On The Flying Guillotine the hero has to turn his back on the country life and his family so he can face the evil Emperor and his gang of assassins.

All in all, I’d say that The Flying Guillotine is a well made film. It has one really good thing about it, many of the scenes where shot in actual locations. In other words: fake looking claustrophobic sets where kept to a minimum. This is something I greatly appreciated because if there is something I absolutely hate about some Shaw Brothers movies is seeing that fake sky in the background, which is obviously a painting. But not on The Flying Guillotine, which as it turns out is one of the most beautifully shot Shaw Brothers movies, at least in my opinion. It isn’t as action packed and it’s a film that is more story oriented than most Kung Fu flicks, but it more than makes up for it whenever the flying guillotine comes into play! A total of 25 heads are decapitated on this film alone! The last 20 minutes of this film are pure DYNO-mite! After having seen this one, I have to say that Jimmy Wang’s Master of the Flying Guillotine (1976) is still my favorite of these Flying Guillotine movies simply because it has a bit more entertainment value. I’m looking forward to seeing The Flying Guillotine II (1978) from what I hear about that one, it’s supposed to be more action packed then the first one. Expect a review for that one soon!

Rating: 4 out of 5   

Shaolin (2011)

Title: Shaolin (2011)

Director: Benny Chan

Cast: Andy Lau, Jackie Chan

Review:

Ever seen one of those really cheep Kung Fu movies? I mean ultra cheap stuff like The Crippled Masters (1979)? Those movies can be a hell of a lot fun to watch, but their budgetary restraints betray them sometimes. These movies are filled with good Kung Fu action, but are also usually accompanied by bad acting, cheap sets and fake backgrounds. Shaolin, the film I’ll be reviewing today, is the complete opposite of that; its one big, expensive, epic Kung Fu movie! Last time I saw an Asian movie of this magnitude was The Curse of the Golden Flower (2006), one of my favorite Chinese movies ever. It’s just so damn epic and beautiful to look at; to top things off, Chow Yun Fat steals the show as Emperor Ping! Highly recommend that one if you haven’t already seen it. But back to the topic at hand, Shaolin (a.k.a. The New Shaolin Temple) is somewhere along the lines of Curse of the Golden Flower in terms of quality and scale. It’s big, it’s epic, and it’s emotional, and has awesome Kung Fu action!  

 Shaolin tells the story of an Evil Warlord named General Hou Jie. He is fighting against other warlords in China, taking over lands and all that. He has an enormous army that obeys his every whim and desire. Opposite General Hou are the monks of the Shaolin Temple. If you know anything about Shaolin Monks, then you know that they are all about peace, and helping their fellow man. At heart, Shaolin Monks are portrayed as humanitarians in many films. They also train in martial arts a.k.a. Kung Fu, but this does not mean that they are violent people. They will do everything in their power to avoid violence and fighting. Their purpose in life is to help others, no matter their political or religious background. To the Shaolin Monks, a human is a human, and we should all help each other because it is their belief that all life is sacred. The real problem comes when the Shaolin Monks begin to aid enemies of General Hou Jie, who arrive at the temple looking for a helping hand. General Hou sees this as an act of treason and invades the temple, looking to give the Shaolin Monks a lesson. Will the monks change their ways? Will General Hou ever learn the value of human life?

 So I loved this movie for many reasons, first of which is that it takes the evil Warlord and shows him some humility. Sometimes governments can act cold and cruelly towards their people. Since they are so high up, “the people” are nothing but a workforce to them, a side note in their all important powerful lives. The people are the “little people”. Their pleads, not to be heard. And should anyone oppose, well, they die. But what would happen if the selfish and powerful political leader where to trade places with the people he rules over? What if he was to loose all his power, and taught a thing or two about what it means to work for your food, to suffer poverty, to care for your fellow man? What if they were taught somehow to be humble and caring instead of cold and greedy? These are the questions that this film asks and answers and I loved that about Shaolin. It’s the kind of movie that speaks for the people. It reminded me in many ways of Takashi Miike’s recent 13Assassins (2011), in which the Samurais gang up to bring the evil ruler to his knees. In 13 Assassins the Samurais speak with the tyrant face to face, letting him know all the mistakes his made while in government. In Shaolin, the greedy government is humbled down.

 Aside from that, there’s the Shaolin Temple, which is a wonder all on its own. I’ve always liked the idea of the Shaolin Temple a lot because it’s this magical place where love, humility, respect and selflessness is taught. But the Shaolin Temple does not train cowards; the monks also train in martial arts, for if their peaceful way of life is ever threatened, well then a good ass kicking is on your way. It’s a fantastic idea, the Shaolin Temple is a place where you can live a good, peaceful life, where you can find food and shelter, not unlike some churches of the world. The Shaolin Monks worship their god in peace and care for their fellow man. I respect that. I can see why the government of those days would hate the Shaolin Temple. The Shaolin way of life was always in discordance with the evil Warlords that governed in those days. Those Warlords only cared about conquering, killing and destroying anything in their path. So the monks of the temple and their governments where always in contrast with each other; one side loves and respects life, while the other seeks to destroy it. There are some really tense moments in this movie, when the Warlord invades the temple that are awesome! The monks literally  protect their way life with their advanced Kung-Fu skills! Some of the monks go no their own personal Robin Hood like quest and deside to become bandits in the name of the people. Stealing or “borrowing” from the rich to give to the poor.

The production values for this movie were really good! They didn’t use the real Shaolin Temples because they didn’t want to damage them while making the film so they did the next best thing, they built their own Shaolin Temple! The sets on this movie are pretty impressive; I love it when they go all out like that. Same thing happened with Curse of the Golden Flower where they built these amazingly expensive sets. Chinese filmmakers have that about them; they really go all out with their movies, when they have the funding for it, they really give it their all to make a special film, and this is a fine example of that. Also, they don’t skimp on running time for their films; this is not the first Chinese film I see that lasts more than two hours! But honestly, I didn’t care how long it was because ultimately I was devouring everything I was seeing on screen.  

Jackie Chan makes an appearance in this movie as the cook of the Shaolin Temple, he plays more than just a cameo, but his character was obviously kind of tacked onto the film to attract more people into the seats, the movie could have easily moved on without his character. But, Chan does this a lot, he makes small appearances in films. On Shaolin he plays a cook who’s never left the Shaolin Temple, but has desires to go out and see the world, yet he hesitates in doing it. I liked the idea behind his character. This is a guy who’s been doing the samething all his life, and now he is aching to go out and see the world. This character spoke about breaking with a comfort zone and going out and doing what you’ve always wanted to do with your life, so it’s kind of like a side story, but it’s a good one. Still, Chan has his chance to Kung Fu fight in one sequences that is inventive and entertaining, Chan uses cooking techniques to fight against the invading army!

 This film was a huge money maker all over China, it premiered number one at the box office in Hong Kong and broke box office records in Malaysia. The film was directed by Benny Chan, the same director behind Jackie Chan’s New Police Story (2004), a explosion filled action film that I highly recommend, actually New Police Story has one of the biggest explosions I’ve ever seen on any movie! Ever! Recommend that one if your in the mood for some high octane action. I was not aware of this when I watched it, but Shaolin is a remake of a Jet Li film called The Shaolin Temple (1982), which by the way was Jet Li’s debut role, I’ve never seen that one, but now I’m looking for it. This version stars Andy Lau, one of China’s biggest movie stars in the role of General Hou Jie. Bottom line with Shaolin is that it’s lavish and emotional and action packed: highly recommend this must-see Kun Fu blockbuster!

Rating: 5 out of 5