Why So Lazy? My Thoughts On The Dark Knight Rises' Fight Choreography

Earlier today I had the pleasure of seeing The Dark Knight Rises. The epic conclusion to Christopher Nolan's unique take on the mythology of the masked vigilante The Batman. Everybody is busy giving their thoughts about the film, whether it's the acting, the thematic elements of the film's story or the big action set pieces but I'm not here to talk about that today not the for the entirety of this article anyway. You see, when I was watching it I couldn't help but notice something that kept nagging the hell out of me. I tried to ignore it and pay attention to Tom Hardy's brilliant portrayal of Bane or Anne Hathaway's gorgeous eyes on the big screen but no matter how hard I tried it just kept throwing it's way into the forefront of my mind. Now what was it that bugged me? Was it's Bale's silly Batman voice? Hardy's even sillier Bane voice? The fact I was watching Matthew Modine on the big screen? It was neither of those things.

It was the fight scenes.

Yep, something so simple that should have easily been handled was what bugged me the most. Having been a fan of martial arts cinema for a number of years you can not help but get used to seeing action choreographed, shot and edited in a certain way. You get so used to it in fact that when you see a bad fight scene it gets to you more then it really should but that's not a bad thing because it then allows us to look at certain movies in a more fair and objective way. I know the risks I'm probably taking by posting this. I've seen the horror stories of critics receiving death threats for anyone who says anything remotely negative about Nolan and his Batman films. I for one I'm not afraid of these people. They're simply cowards and if anyone reading this feels compelled to threaten my life for sharing my thoughts then by all means.

That aside, I'm hoping this article will allow me to articulate my issues with the film's fight scenes.

From day one when Nolan signed on to direct Batman Begins he was determined to tell the story in a less fantastical and more grounded way. He wasn't interested in any of the overt theatrics the character had been subject to in the previous cinematic versions. Whether or not Nolan achieved that is ultimately up to the viewer but I for one liked Nolan's take on the whole mythology. He made it accessible, he made it different and more importantly he made it successful which is quite an achievement given where Batman had been left with the last film Batman & Robin directed by Joel Schumacher. He made Batman a viable and profitable brand again. Bale brought some much needed humanity to the role of Bruce Wayne and you can see this is a role that's important to him through out the three films. This fell perfectly in tune with Nolan's determination to tell a realistic Batman story which is odd as each film have hugely dramatic action set pieces to give it that extra Summer Blockbuster edge.

Now, you see, that's all well and good but there was always one aspect of the films I never warmed to. The fight scenes. Batman Begins had fights which were horribly shot and badly edited so it was difficult to see what was happening. I've had many people (Some well meaning but others very condescending) tell me that it looks more real. No, it shows a director who lacks imagination on how to shoot it so does in a way that's basically a cheat. Now from what I could see the fight choreography itself wasn't too bad especially when you consider the fact they had three different people working on them. That seems excessive but for a Hollywood movie where time is money I can understand the need for more people to handle it.

Now with The Dark Knight we didn't get much in terms of hand to hand fighting but it was filmed a little better but this is when the choreography started to work against the tone of the films. The fighting method used is the Keysi Fighting Method. A style of fighting that utilizes elbow strikes, close range grappling and striking. In the first two films of the series this style works because the action is filmed in such a choppy and awkward fashion. You see Batman throw an elbow, you see the bad guy go down. Now when we enter The Dark Knight Rises, things don't look as effective anymore. The first thing you'll notice is that it's actually shot and edited in a competent way. You can see everyone perform their techniques clearly and you see the impact, or lack there of, for the most part and it's here that the Keysi Fight Method no longer works at all.

When you pull the camera back and you show just how the Keysi Fighting Method is used in a fight, it looks weak and ineffective. I'm not saying in a real situation it wouldn't be. The method had some nasty techniques so I imagine it would be quite the opposite. From a film making perspective though, shooting it in such a way loses some of the style's ferocity and impact which I admit the fights in the previous films did have in spite of how they were filmed and edited. I feel with Nolan shooting in this new way should have made him realise that re-examining Batman's fighting style would have worked in his favor.

The fights should portray Batman as the ultimate fighter that he is. A man who is versed in so many fighting styles that he can easily and effectively take down his opponents in a single move but in the finished product it looks exactly like what it is. An actor in a costume awkwardly throwing elbows because the suit doesn't give him full flexibility. He barely even throws a good looking kick. While that may not be part of the core style, throwing a few side kicks and even a flying kick would have looked great and would have fit right in with Nolan's cinematic vision. Tom Hardy fairs a little bit better. His fighting style is more down and dirty and relies heavily on brutal head butts and vicious punching combinations. I was excited when it came for both Bane and The Caped Crusader to duke it out for the first time but the end result just came off so weak and I hate to use this word but..well...lazy.

I know in film's like this time is always a factor but I felt the people involved should have come up with something better then Batman trying to throw a few limp punches and Bane tossing him around. There's even a key moment lifted directly from the comic books that should have been a big dramatic moment but what we end up with just for me didn't work. The fights lacked any kind of drama or impact. Bane is a violent, sadistic, cruel character and while some of that sadism and cruelty did come through in Tom Hardy's acting, The violent nature of the character sadly did not. People were concerned that Tom would never be able to top Heath Ledger's performance of The Joker. I don't want to compare them because their respective characters are completely different but after The Dark Knight Rises, Ledger is still the top villain in my book.

Toward the end we get to see our two adversaries clash once more. A large portion of the run time builds this up as something that's going to be incredibly, epic, violent and hugely dramatic but their fight is just as pathetic and lazy as what's come before. I found it frustrating and disappointing as being such a huge fan of the character, I feel he deserves better then this. One thing I will say however is Anne Hathaway's fight scenes as Catwoman are treated much better except it seems she inherited The Dark Knight's terrible filming and editing problems. Also she didn't get enough to do in terms of fighting. Her moves were great and very much in keeping with how Catwoman fights in the comic books but you can have an amazing fight scene on your hands with perfect choreography but if you don't know how to film it then you're gonna screw yourself one way or the other.

The Dark Knight Rises is a film that gets so many things right that something as fundamental as fight choreography should have been a no brainer but it seems even an auteur like Christopher Nolan struggles to grasp what makes a good fight scene. Soon we'll be seeing a new version of The World's Greatest Detective and I hope that when we do, they hire an action director who can create some breath taking action scenes that do the character justice. Until then, I'll stick with the animated series from the 90's.

The Dynamite Brothers (1974)

Larry Chin (Alan Tang) arrives in San Francisco looking for his estranged brother. While there he is apprehended by corrupt police detective Burke (Aldo Ray) who also has small-time crook Stud Brown (Timothy Brown) with him. Both Larry and Stud manage to escape and head to Los Angeles. Stud agrees to help find a criminal called Tuen (James Hong) who knows the whereabouts of his brother.

This is going to be a tough one to review. The reason being despite having just finished watching the movie moments before writing this review, I'm actually struggling to really put down my thoughts in any lengthy way. This is mostly due to the fact that The Dynamite Brothers is such a completely bland film to really go into anything in any detail would be a waste of my time. Still, I'll try my best to present an honest critique of this rather plain but some some small ways curious piece of 70's Blaxploitation Kung Fu Cinema.

First of all, let's discuss the man who directed this picture; Al Adamson. For those who may be unfamiliar, Al Adamson was a low budget exploitation film maker who was more known for making horror then action movies. Having directed films with titles such as Blood of Dracula's Castle and Satan's Sadists it seemed that he tried to cash in on the trend of martial arts and Black cinema in the 1970s by coming up with his own take on the genre.

He also directed a couple other Blaxploitation martial arts films later on; Black Samurai and Death Dimension, both starring Jim Kelly. It wasn't until gathering information on this film that I realised I own both those films so they may end up being reviewed here some time in the future. Getting back to The Dynamite Brothers, it seems Adamson was a director who worked with noticeably low budgets but seemed at least creative enough to make good use of it. While his films may have looked cheap compared to some of the other films Hollywood studios may have been doing at the time, nevertheless he seemed to be able to spend money wisely on his productions.

He even had the incredible foresight to import a Hong Kong stunt team to take charge of the action as well. Lam Ching-Ying was the action director and he brought with him some familiar faces such as Peter Chan, Philip Ko, Mars and Billy Chan. Seeing this group of people in a predominantly American production during this time is very impressive so I have to at least give Adamson credit for getting these guys on board. The late Alan Tang plays one of the co-leads. He had already established himself as a major star in Taiwan and Hong Kong during this time, having made a number of films which made him very popular with local Audiences. He gives a pretty decent performance and handles himself pretty well during the many fight scenes. The odd thing is, for the majority of his dialogue even though he can be seen speaking English, his voice is dubbed yet there are a couple scenes when it is apparent you can hear his own voice and his English was perfect. Why they felt his voice needed to be re-dubbed in his other scenes seems like an odd decision.

Starring opposite Tang is Timothy Brown in the role of Stud Brown. A former NFL star who played for the Green Bay Packers, Philadelphia Eagles and Baltimore Colts. He's also probably best known for playing the role of Capt. Oliver Jones in the immensely popular TV series M*A*S*H. He does well enough here, shows a little bit of charisma and shares some amount of chemistry with Tang. James Hong plays the main villain. Hong is arguably one of the most recognizable actors to have ever worked in the motion picture and television industry. With an incredible 367 acting credits he's appeared in hundreds of films and television series. By this point in his career he had already appeared in a large number of television series and The Dynamite Brothers is one of his earliest film appearances. He plays the typical bad guy character, letting his henchmen do all the work while he sits around and pulls mean faces.

The rest of the cast however are bad. Really bad. Some of them are bad in a way that it becomes comical. Especially Don Oliver in the role of Smiling Man. A gang boss who talks smack and has an army of gun totting canon fodder ready whenever anyone decides to bomb his club.

As mentioned earlier Lam Chin-Ying was in charge of the martial arts action. It's evident from the very first fight scene that while it was choreographed well enough, it was filmed really badly. Adamson may have wanted the fighting to have a Hong Kong flavour to it but it seems they didn't have enough time to do proper camera set ups and as a result the fight scenes do suffer. Lam's choreography is good. Not the best that was around at the time but good enough for a production like The Dynamite Brothers. His style of action seems to concentrate on using kicks with a few fist techniques thrown in. Tang makes for a convincing on-screen fighter. He has several fight scenes and comes off looking like a legitimate tough guy through out all of them.

There's a good fight between him and Peter Chan. Both use kicking techniques and they have some good exchanges. I would have liked it to have been longer and also to have had a more satisfying ending but the way it does end is typical of Adamson's style as it seemed he was iching to get some blood in there. Brown partakes in a few fights but seeing as he's not a martial artist nor is the character he's playing he just throws John Wayne style punches and pushes a few of the stunt men around. If you're wondering if James Hong gets in on any of the action, I'm sorry to inform you that he doesn't. Instead we get a vehicle chase scene which features a rather hairy looking stunt when someone jumps from a motorcycle onto a moving car. It may seem like a simple stunt but if that had been miscalculated by even the slightest inch it could have had a fatal ending.

The Dynamite Brothers isn't a particularly good film, even when compared to other well known Blaxploitation movies of this era but it is on reflection a curious piece of the genre's history given the fact it features Hong Kong talent. If you like Grindhouse style movies and are looking for something to watch then I'd probably recommend it but don't go rushing to see it as you're not missing much.

Jetruary #5: The Master (1992)

It's now time for my final review for this year's Jetruary. To conclude the theme of Jet's earlier career I'll be looking at a film he made before he was launched into super stardom with the Once Upon A Time In China series, The Master. Directed by Tsui Hark and filmed entirely on location in Los Angeles Jet stars in what is essentially a prototype movie for the afore mentioned film series.

Jet plays Jet. Hong Kong films of this era sometimes didn't go the trouble of giving their stars character names. A young martial artist arriving in LA to help with his master's  medicine shop only to find he's been the victim of a brutal assault at the hands of a violent gang of fighter led by the psychotically violent Johnny. Jet attempts to re-establish his master's livelihood while fending off attacks from the gang looking to end their lives.

As I said before this film could be viewed as a prototype to the Once Upon A Time In China series. First of all the Cantonese title is Wong Fei-Hung '92. Jet strikes the trademark Wong Sifu fighting stance throughout the film and the name of his master's clinic is called Po Chi Lum. Named after the clinic run by the Wong Fei-Hung. It's possible Tsui Hark was experimenting to see how Jet could play the role of the famous martial arts master and he must have been satisfied with the result because Jet would go on to depict Wong Sifu in 5 different movies. What makes this film different is the way the story plays out and how the characters interact with each other.

Jet displays a more quick-tempered and lively personality. More in tune with how he acted in Shaolin Temple and Swordsman II. He does display the very familiar mannerisms he would show in his later films and it's here that he truly establishes his on-screen persona. While he would play Wong Fei-Hung more seriously, His youthfulness and energy would show themselves in the delightfully mad Fong Sai-Yuk films. He gives a good performance here and really does come across as the righteous hero type audiences would come to know him as. 

Jet also gets to work with a fairly decent supporting cast. Yuen Wah plays his master, Uncle Tak and it's funny seeing him donning make-up to appear older then he was at the time. I had no problems with his acting as I always thought he did fairly well whenever he was given dramatic material to work with. Crystal Kwok, who also appeared in the rather thankless role of Jackie Chan's secretary in Dragons Forever, plays the love interest but much like Nina Li in Dragon Fight, Jet never really displays any romantic feelings toward her throughout the film. Given that this was filmed on location a number of non-Asian actors appear. Anne Rickets plays a young woman who helps Uncle Tak back to health. She appears in a number of scenes but oddly enough her character was never all that integral to the plot but she does well enough for someone on a film where the crew could barely speak English.

There's a few other actors but the only one really worth mentioning is Jerry Trimble. A former world kickboxing champion and Tae Kwon Do expert, Jerry got his start in the industry working on the film King of the Kickboxers. He made another film afterwards, Fist of Fire. Which starred a teenaged Jonathan Ke Quan. Here he really gets to break out and show what he can do in the numerous fight sequences he gets to partake in. Acting wise he just gets to pull angry faces and make threats but he does look magnificent when throwing a kick. Jerry is still very much involed in the industry. Most recently in the Hollywood adaptation of the television/radio series The Green Hornet.

Despite the film's story not being particularly memorable, a lot of martial arts action is thrown in to keep your interest through out. Choreographed by Yuen Wah and gentleman by the name of Brandy Yuen. Their style of screen fighting isn't particularly intricate or flashy. They seem to focus more on power moves, limb locks and takes downs. Practical is a word I would definitely use to describe the fighting. Which works as this is meant to be a realistic and grounded street movie as opposed to a hyped up almost comic style adventure film. Having said that. Jet and Jerry do get to show their full repertoire of moves. When you have two people like that working on a film like this it would be foolish not to. The opening fight between Yuen Wah and Jerry is very good. It establishes right off the bat the type of action we're going to see. Much like Trimble's contemporary Loren Avedon, he has a penchant for fancy kicks. That's natural given his chosen style of fighting but he is a joy to watch and it's amazing to see him really get to gripes of Hong Kong style fight choreography as many western practitioners seem to really struggle with the style.

Fortunately we don't get that with Jerry and when you see him and Jet face each other in the final reel they seem to click very well. Much like his earlier films Jet gets to do more realistic and ground based martial arts. This the style I prefer to see Jet perform as he just looks absolutely astounding. Stunt man/author/fight choreographer John Kreng, who worked on the film, recounted in an interview on the DVD that when he worked with Jet he would hit extremely hard and he was every bit as fast, if not faster then how he was depicted on screen. He also told a story how during production Jet broke his arm and was forced to film with a cast and during a fight scene John had to attack and recalls how the subsequent blocking technique coupled with the cast on Jet's arm felt like he was being hit the arm with a rock.

This was young Jet in his prime and like I said in the review for Born to Defend he's very rarely ever looked better then during this period in his career. Even in his later classics like Fist of Legend or Fearless, you always got the sense he was putting the brakes on and never really pushing to his full potential. Maybe this was the spare any of the stunt men he worked with any due pain or to avoid any further injuries upon his own person. For whatever the reason. This was the last time, in my view, we would ever get to see full on Jet Li.

That's an excellent way to describe his fighting in here. Full on. His final bout with Jerry is absolutely fantastic. They really hit it off, for want of a better a phrase, during this scene and you can see both men are really trying to best each other. With Jet's low and painful punching combinations and Jerry's stiff and painful looking kicks both their respective styles mesh complimented by Yuen Wah's more practical fight choreography. It's a great fight and should be viewed by anyone who has yet to see it.

So that is the end of Jetruary for this year. If I'm still doing the blog next February (Which is likely) then you can rest assured that Jetruary will return. Thank so much for everyone who has taken the time to read my reviews. I hope you enjoyed them all. Be back next week for what will be the start of the Mao March Marathon!

Showdown (1993)

Ken Marks (Kenn Scott) arrives at his new school and quickly makes enemies of Tom (Ken Mcleod) who not only happens to be the toughest bully in school but a top underground fighting champion. One day Ken is saved from a beating by the school janitor Billy Grant (Billy Blanks) and he decides to train Ken so he can defend himself. As it turns out Tom's martial arts teacher is a man called Lee (Patrick Kilpatrick) who is out to take revenge on Billy for being the man responsible for his brother's death.

Right, this is going to be a tough one to review because having just finished watching this only ten minutes before I started writing this review, I'm actually struggling to remember everything that happened. Not because the plot was dense or that the story moved at a lightening pace but because Showdown is so bland and unoriginal, there's not a single original idea in the whole thing. As you can tell from the plot outline, it's Karate Kid all over again but what makes this one different to other Karate Kid clones like No Retreat, No Surrender, is that particular movie has a lot going for it.

Showdown does not. The film was released in 1993 among the huge glut of martial arts movies that followed the release of the Van Damme movie Kickboxer. Film makers all over Hollywood were looking for the next big action star and what followed was awful, derivative crap that was released quickly to video and took up valuable shelf space in video rental stores. There were a few exceptions here and there but you would have to wade through lots of terrible movies to find them.

As for as the cast goes. They're okay for the most part. Kenn Scott, who played Raphael in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II isn't a great actor by any stretch but he does okay in most of the fight scenes he's given. The most hilarious thing about him though is that they try and hide the fact that he has an athletic physic for most of the film to create the illusion he's a skinny loser so when later on when he's being trained by Billy, we're meant to buy the fact he did a few press ups to get some muscle. It's silly but very funny at the same time. Blanks gives his usual calibur of acting. Being one of the few black action stars of the 90's he gets the better fights in the film and he has talent but very few of the movies he made actually knew how to tap into it. 

Since Ken attends one of the most cliched high schools in movie history, he inevitably gets the goofy best friend played by John Asher. Surprisingly John gives what is probably one of the better performances as he doesn't go too over the top with it and shows that he can be funny, only he didn't get good material to work with so his talent is somewhat hampered by the clunky dialogue. One definite thing that surprised me was the actress who played Julie, Ken's love interest. Why was it surprising? because she is played by Christine Taylor. That's right, Ben Stiller's wife is in this god awful movie. Of course this was very early in her career and she does fulfill the role well enough but you get the feeling she's bored throughout the whole thing.

That leaves us to talk about the villains of the movie. Firstly, Tom played by Ken Mcleod. If high school movies taught us anything, it's that school bullies are complete psychopaths and Tom doesn't do anything to buck the trend. Whenever he sees Ken talk to Julie he goes into a complete psychotic rage and tries to beat the crap out of him, how someone like this is able to attend high school is very strange but then again, this is the world of movies so stupid things that defy logic always happen. He's a very angry character and is essentially there to earn the audience's scorn, which he does. So mission accomplished I guess.

Rounding off our comic book villains is Patrick Kilpatrick as the big bad Lee. Another familiar face who has appeared in a huge number of movies and TV shows. You thought Tom was a whack job? just wait till you see Lee in action. His personality makes Kreese from Karate Kid look like a boy scout leader. He delights in hurting his students and expects them to show no mercy to their opponents, even going so far as to endorse them fighting to the death. Why people would want this man to be their martial arts teacher is beyond me but you can see the actor playing him is having fun. 

Which leaves us to talk about the action. Now given the involvement of Blanks and it being primarily a US production, I knew what to expect. Flashy round house kicks and telegraphed punches. I was right. For the most part at least. Stunt legend Jeff Imada was behind the choreography and this is one of his weaker efforts. The man is capable of doing stellar work. Just look at the man's IMDb page and you'll see what I'm talking about. The one thing that always disliked about most of 90's American martial arts movies is that the stars never really get to show off their full move set. Scott, Blanks and Mcleod are all impressive practitioners but it seems that most of the director's they worked with refused to really let them cut loose during the fight scenes.

Which is odd when you consider that the film was directed by Robert Radler. The man who directed Best of the Best and Best of the Best 2. Two examples of some of the better action movies of that era. I get the feeling they were working to an incredibly tight schedule and as a result the quality of the action suffered. There's a nice sequence in which Billy fights two hit men sent by Lee. It starts out pretty bad with horrible camera work but it's when Billy goes against Hollywood stunt man James Lew that it actually becomes much better, there's a particularly painful moment when Billy throw a knee in Lew's face. That kind of down and out brutality would have been most welcome in the other action scenes.

This being a Karate Kid rip-off it wouldn't be complete without the obligatory training montages. These are actually my favourite moments from these movies. It's hilarious seeing our hero training hardcore, all the while listening to some cheesy late 80's rock ballad play over the top. It's a shame this is a convention that is mostly ignored by modern movies these days. Thing is though, the reason it isn't used is because it has become so cliched that the only time you're likely to see it is when it's being played for laughs in a show like South Park. Not that I'm condemning that sort of thing. Far from it. I just think it would be so good to see taken seriously again. Imagine a scene in The Bourne Identity in which we see Matt Damon throwing kicks to Paul Stanley's Live To Win. Not only does it create excitement but is just prime piss-take material.

After these scenes we're then treated to the finale. Ken gets tired of Tom's mentally unstable behavior and challenges him to a fight. Meeting in an underground fighting arena they decide to finally resolve their issues. Using their fists. This was where things picked up slightly. You can tell Imada and his crew had a little bit more time to work on the fighting. Both Scott and Mcleod get to show off a little bit more of their repertoire and while the end result isn't spectacular it's still satisfying to have these two finally get to stretch their legs considering they've been forced to hold back the entire time they've been fighting in the movie.

So the fight ends just as you'd expect but rather ending right away with the crowd raising Ken on their shoulders. Lee goes into a crazed rampage and tries to kill Tom for failing. Billy intervenes and we get trained martial artist vs trained actor. While Kilpatrick is most definitely a good bad guy, he's not very impressive as a screen fighter. Imada obviously tried to hide this by having him not do any kicks but instead concentrate in punching and throws. This is actually a good idea as it's a good contrast to Blanks' exaggerated kicking style. Kilpatrick goes in for close up back fists and hip-throws complimented with head stomps and gut kicks. Imada does know, like most choreographers are supposed to, how to play to the actor's strengths.

Like I mentioned earlier this where the fights get amped up a little. Toward the end Billy unleashes a series of palm strikes to Lee's abdomen followed by a swift kick. It was extremely impressive and is just disappointing that kind of choreography was not utilized for the rest of the flick. Blanks is an impressive screen fighter and he really deserved the chance to really go all out and show his audience what he can do. He got to do that in a couple other of his films but sadly, what could have been added to that extremely short list, Showdown falls into the other category of forgettable, unoriginal and bland.

I can not recommend you watch Showdown. Not unless you're a junkie of 90's martial arts movies or a serious Billy Blanks fan. You may wish to avoid this one as there are tons of other movies out there that are actually entertaining, if not on a purely leave your brain at the door kind of way. So, join me next time folks where I'll be posting the first entry in a new series I will be calling Jeturary!

The Warrior's Way (2010)

In the late 19th Century an assassin Yang (Jang Dong Gun) is ordered to take the life of the last member of a rival clan. Only when Yang discovers that the last member is still a baby he flees to the American west with the child in hopes of creating a new life in the town of Lode. Only his new found life to disturbed when a disfigured criminal who calls himself The Colonel (Danny Huston) returns to terrorize the townsfolk. To make matters worse Yang's former clan appear in an attempt to rectify Yang's betrayal.

Having seen this film it has been quite a struggle to put into words just how exactly I feel about. However having thought about it for a couple of days now I feel confident enough to put my thoughts in the written word. Here we have a film which is attempting to meld spaghetti western films with Asian martial arts movies. Something we've already seen before in films such as Shanghai Noon and The Stranger And The Gun Fighter. Two films which knew when to play to it's strengths. Sadly that is not the case with The Warrior's Way. As someone who thoroughly enjoys both genre of film, the idea of putting the two together makes complete sense as they compliment each other very well. What the film fails to take into account is that in order to make it work you need a very strong cast, a decent enough story and a director who can bring it all together. 

You would be forgiven in thinking the film has those qualities when you watch the trailer or see the poster. However it is just such an underwhelming experience that I felt nothing but disappointment when the end credits began to roll. First of the all the cast just seem to have zero chemistry. Lead actor Jang Dong-Gun has and I'm not making this up, at least a dozen lines of dialogue throughout the whole movie. Instead choosing to communicate his feelings to the audience with confused looks and ever so subtle smirks which is a shame when you realise this is an actor who has appeared in such Korean cinematic classics Nowhere To Hide, Friend and Taegukgi.

Kate Bosworth plays the love interest Lynne and while I'll give the actress credit for trying her damnedest to look convincing during some action scenes and trying to salvage some kind of connection with her co-star. Sadly not even she can save what was already an underwhelming mess of a film.

Two actors which look like they seem to be enjoying themselves as Geoffrey Rush and Danny Huston. Rush plays the Ron, the town drunkard with a murky past. The character is completely stock but Rush at least looks like he cares about being in the movie as opposed to Bosworth who looks incredibly frustrated for the most part. Like most actors in Hollywood movies, Huston seems to be having a complete ball as The Colonel and had he been in it a little more may have been the only thing to single-handedly save the entire film. Sadly he isn't given enough screen time to do that. Also the film has one of the most surprising casting choices ever.

Ti Lung.

Yes, that one!

He appears in the film as the head of the Ninja clan which Yang had fled. Oh don't worry, the film makers weren't smart enough to give him lots of screen time and well written dialogue. No, they did what any disrespecting Hollywood film would do. Have him appear in short scenes that add sod all to the film's narrative and have a horribly choreographed sword fight with the hero. That's how Hollywood treats legends folks. Kicking him in the balls and having him dance to Justin Beiber while wearing a mankini would have been more dignified.

One can't help but think this film could have been saved if it had been given to a much better director. Sngmoo Lee shows that while he can create a mostly visually pleasing film he can not seem to get good performances from his lead actors or create a film with a tight, well-paced narrative. Speaking of the film's visuals. It seems that the entire thing was shot on a sound stage and uses CGI backgrounds akin to the live-action Sin City which does seem to work more in it's favor as it gives the film an appropriate comic book/anime vibe.

However polishing a turd will only get you so far and not even the martial arts action can help matters. This has to be one of the most lazily choreographed action scenes I've seen this year. Even abominations like Ten Dead Men and Tekken had the decency to have good action. Here we have dull sword play punctuated by slow editing, annoying slow motion and completely devoid of any tension or drama.

If you should ever see a film which sees a popular Asian actor star along side a Hollywood star all the while having a good old adventure fighting dastardly villains and creating a film which is silly overall but incredibly enjoyable then don't watch The Warrior's Way. Instead go watch The Stranger And The Gun Fighter.

King of the Kickboxers (1990)

So this here will be my final review in my month long retrospective of the cult favourite that is the No Retreat, No Surrender series. Last week I posted a somewhat underwhelming review of No Retreat, No Surrender 3. That's because with each movie they become harder to endure due to the diminishing quality of each entry. It is hard to get through a movie some times that has absolutely horrendous acting and even worse plot lines but I've endured this long simply to share my views on the martial arts action and that's what we're all here for right? okay, then!

This week I'm sharing my thoughts on the last of Loren Avedon's entries in the series with King of the Kickboxers and its like that old saying, you always save the best for last. Well, that certainly is the case we have here. The film opens in Thailand where we see a Thai boxing competition, although you wouldn't know it was supposed to be Thai boxing when the fighters are using Tae Kwon Do techniques but hey who can tell the difference right? except maybe Kung Fu Cinephiles like myself and many others who love the genre.

Anyway, one of the fighters is Sean Donahue played by martial artist Michael Depasquale Jr who wins the competition much to the delight of his hyperactive younger brother Jake. On the way back from the arena, I say Arena it was really just one of those sweaty Thai boxing gyms you always see in movies like this, they are attacked by knife wielding thugs. Sean leaps into action with all the precision and grace action director Tony Leung Siu-Hung can muster and before long the movie's main villain, Khan played by Billy Blanks, shows up.

Yes, that Billy Blanks, the creator of the Tai Bo workout technique. Of course this was before he had developed that and was trying to find his feet in the movie industry as an actor. As you'd expect Sean and Khan tangle but Sean is no match for the grimacing warrior and is killed after getting kicked several times in the throat. Jake tries to fight him but hilariously gets his ass whooped and is left traumatized and physically scarred. Cut to ten years later where Jake has transformed into Loren Avedon and is an undercover police officer for the NYPD. Here we see he's the typical renegade cop who does whatever it takes to get the job done and blows his cover during a drug bust. Next we are treated to a very snappy and well paced fight with fellow martial arts movie actor Jerry Trimble. It's always great to see a guy like Trimble in action, such a shame that people like Trimble and Avedon and a few others never get the credit they obviously deserve.

Understandably Jake's boss is pissed but rather then suspend him and recommend him for psychological evaluation like any normal police captain would do after hearing one of his officer's disobeyed orders and brutally assaulted the assailants, he does what movie police captains always do. Ignore the whole thing ever happened and recommend him to Interpol for an operation to take down a snuff film ring that recruits martial artists and murders them on film. At first Jake refuses, as the job involves going to Thailand and the memories of his brother's death are still painful but after viewing some of the tapes, Jake realises the one committing the murders is Khan. So, after letting out an anguished scream which looks like he'd caught his testicles in something, he flies to Thailand undercover.

Upon arrival Jake tries to get noticed by picking on a local Thai boxing school. He beats up a couple of their students only to have one of them retaliate later, telling him that he's not good enough to take Khan. The student then suggests he find a fighter but the name of Prang (Keith Cooke, the guy who shamefully played Sub-Zero in Mortal Kombat Annihilation), the only man to almost beat Khan one on one and get some well needed training. At this point, the whole thing just became one huge rip off of the Van Damme movie Kickboxer. The only thing that really elevates this movie over that Van Damme one would be the action sequences. So, if you've seen Kickboxer then you can probably guess what the rest of the movie is going to be about.

Like the previous film, the action is choreographed by Tony Leung Siu-Hung, only instead of going for the hyper and gritty street fighting style, he's used a more exaggerated style that's very similar to Corey Yuen's work on the previous movies and suits the tone of the whole movie quite well. As I said Leung makes all the actors like fantastic when they start fighting. Avedon has never looked better, with each movie he got better and better as an action star and to this day Kickboxers has remained his magnum opus. To compliment Avedon, Blanks gets to show his stuff in the few fight scenes that he has. The finale set in a bamboo Thunderdome type arena shows two great fighters going against each other and just generally impressing the hell out this reviewer. It's funny, I've seen a couple other movies starring Blanks and Kickboxers is the only one were he's used effectively.

King of the Kickboxers, like the other entries in the series, is not a great movie when you talk about the plotting or the acting. What makes these movies stand out more then most are the fight scenes. Here you have guys like Corey Yuen and Tony Leung giving it their best and you would be hard pressed to find any other American martial arts movie of this period to top them all. If I had to choose one that was the overall best, then I definitely would have to go with number 3; Blood Brothers.

This is simply because I found the fighting to be better paced, tightly choreographed and excellently executed by the cast. So, there you have it, my retrospective is finally over. Now at this point, a few of you who might be reading this might be going "Aren't you missing something?" well, yeah, kind of.

You see, in 1991 a film made by the same crew was released called American Shaolin. Some view it as the fifth entry into the series and while I certainly wouldn't argue with that, I just simply don't have the stomach to watch Shaolin monks sing rock and roll and have the wherewithal to write a decent review about it. I may one day get round to it but for now my self inflicted torture that has been this retrospective will have to end so I can write about other movies, preferably Hong Kong action flicks which I'll be concentrating heavily on over the next few weeks. As well as working on new features for the blog itself, so rather then offer just review after review, I'll have other things on here that might interest my readers.

No Retreat, No Surrender 3: Blood Brothers (1990)

And the hits just keep on coming with part 3 of my retrospective of the cult movie franchise No Retreat, No Surrender. This week I'm reviewing part 3 subtitled Blood Brothers. Loren Avedon returns along side fellow martial artist Keith Vitali as two brothers Will(Avedon) and Casey(Vitali) who just can't seem to get along. Will spends his time teaching Karate and by teaching Karate I mean showing amazing displays of Tae Kwon Do and beating the living snot out of his students in an attempt to teach what it's like "on the streets" and Casey spends his time foiling bank robberies and sleeping with any leggy blonde unfortunate enough to fall into his line of sight. No, Casey isn't a superhero, he works for The Company, otherwise known as the CIA, I guess doing desk work gets dull after a while.

The reason these two don't get along is they represent two completely different ideologies of the human condition. Casey is the straight laced conservative fighting for truth, justice and the American way and strives hard to maintain social order in a world on the brink of war between the U.S. and Russia. Casey embodies the liberal spirit of modern society, who has cast off such stifling things as a boring office job and having a mortgage and expresses his freedom by training his body in the ancient form of martial combat. So when these two champions of opposing ideals meet they clash like thunder.

Actually, scratch everything I just wrote, I just added all that stuff and nonsense to make the film appear deep when actually it's less shallow then a half dried puddle. The reason these two whingey little sods don't get along is, well, I suppose it was just to make the movie and the characters more interesting when all it really does is make you want to reach into the screen, smack both of them round the lug hole and tell them to get over themselves. After meeting our fearless heroes we're treated to a scene in which they visit their father John (Joseph Campanella) to celebrate his birthday. Barely five minutes go by and the two brothers are at each other's throats like two hungry dogs fighting over a steak. At this point I didn't find these two characters at all likable. Avedon is certainly the better actor, while Vitali grits his teeth and his eyes bulge out like they're trying to escape his skull in an attempt to make it look like he's doing some serious acting. Yet all this conflict just didn't make them particularly endearing.

After the two storm off, John is left alone. Not long after that the bad guys or as I like to call them the Bad Hair Brigade, as they sport some of the most embarrassing hairstyles in the entire franchise, show up and rather then do the sensible thing and just shoot him in the back of the head, they decide to throw him round the house with some impressive stunt work. When Will and Casey find their deceased father, they decide to go their own way and get revenge on the people who saved John from the torture that is these two arguing.

Yes, I like to think his death is a mercy killing more then anything else. So, will the two of them get the bad guys and also make amends in time for the final reel? if you're really wondering that then I suggest you take your computer monitor (or laptop for those people on the go) and lightly tap the top of your skull no less then seven times, make it eight just to be safe.

NRNS 3 maintains the status quo of thin on plot and thick on action and boy it is thick on action. It's probably the most martial arts heavy of the series so far. After the second movie Corey Yuen moved on and the directing reigns were handed to Lucas Lowe but to maintain the snappy Hong Kong action style fight choreographer Tony Leung Siu-Hung was brought on board. Like it's previous entries the fighting is where the film shines the most. Leung fighting style is quite different to Corey Yuen's. While Yuen often has a fast paced but slightly exaggerated style to his scenes, Leung brings a much more dynamic and hard hitting street style that works in the actor's favours. Loren Avedon spent six hours a day for six months intensively preparing for the movie it really shows. His movements are less stiff and much more fluid and he has a heavier build that makes him look more of a dangerous adversary then he did in the previous movie.

He's paired well with co-star Keith Vitali who had appeared in classics like Revenge of the Ninja and Wheels on Meals by this time in his career, so he was already seasoned in the ways of movie making. Yet unlike Avedon he only spent a month preparing for the movie and ended up injuring his arm for his troubles, so for the whole movie Vitali has his hand in a cast but you barely notice it and it doesn't really effect his fighting. Anyone who may have seen Wheels on Meals may already know how good Vitali is and while NRNS3 doesn't quite show off his flair for screen fighting, it's definitely one of his better films that he made in his short screen career.

As for as the series goes NRNS3 has been the strongest entry thus far, the story is half-way decent but the acting stinks, I've said before Avedon is a decent actor but he over acts just a little bit sometimes and it gets a little grating. The action is by far the best I've seen and is further testament to the work of Tony Leung Siu-Hung, who is probably one of the more underrated action directors to work the action film genre.

So, that's all I've got to say on No Retreat, No Surrender 3, join me next week where I'll be reviewing the next instalment King of the Kickboxers.

No Retreat, No Surrender 2: Raging Thunder (1987)

Welcome to my second week in my retrospective of the No Retreat, No Surrender series. Today I'm reviewing the second entry No Retreat, No Surrender 2: Raging Thunder. After the huge success of the first one Seasonal films were quick to put together a sequel to capitalize on it's huge success. Both stars Kurt Mckinney and Jean-Claude Van Damme had signed on and a script and locations in Thailand had been put together.

Unfortunately days before cameras were set to roll Van-Damme dropped out of the film, feeling it would not further his career and went on to star in Kick Boxer, which propelled the Muscles from Brussels into super stardom. Strangely, Mckinney would soon follow, thus leaving the film without it's principle actors. Producer Roy Horan was then forced to find replacements. German martial artist Matthias Hues took the place of Van-Damme and American Tae Kwon Do expert Loren Avedon was given the leading role.

The film opens in the stormy fields of Vietnam, here we see a group of people tied to posts ready to be executed by the military, here we meet Ty played by none other then Hwang Jang Lee, we can tell he's the bad guy cos 1) his face is partially obscured by shadow and 2) he has a mean looking scar on his face and nothing says evil like a big facial scar. Suddenly he barks an order and they proceed to kill their prisoners, quite why he's executed these people is never made clear but it serves the purpose of just showing just how evil this guy is, I guess a little t-shirt saying "I'm The Bad Guy" would have been a too subtle.

Next we meet Scott Wylde (Avedon), a martial artist who travels to Thailand to visit his college sweet heart Sulin. After a romantic meal consisting of deep fried insects and Tiger testicles he whisks her away to his flop house hotel room for a Bond style love scene, complete with slow motion disrobing and cheesy music. That Scott is a classy guy. Not long after their torrid love making they are attacked by some thugs. Sulin is kidnapped and Scott is arrested by the local police for killing some of the attackers. After an awkward interrogation in which he was told to inexplicably jump or maybe shut up I couldn't tell, Roy Horan shows up and tells him to bugger off to Singapore and never set foot in Thailand again.

As he's about to be shoved into a plane, Scott escapes on a motorcycle which culminates in a jump over a spitfire that would make Evel Kienevel piss himself laughing from beyond the grave. Scott soon finds out Sulin's kidnappers are involved with the Vietnamese army and Russian military, sadly I can't recall why these two armies had joined forces or why they kidnapped her but it's not all that integral to the movie. Scott then enlists the help of wise cracking Vietnam veteran Mac Jarvis (Max Thayer) and the hot tempered fighter Terry (Cynthia Rothrock) to go with him to Cambodia to rescue his girl and take down the bad guys.

So, yeah, the plot is very different to the Karate Kid cloning of the original, it seems that the producers were eager to push the series further and give the audience more bang for their buck. It's also obvious that Rambo II was a huge influence, with it's exotic locations and bombastic action sequences. There's a lot of martial arts action but there's also a few good gun fights thrown in which gives the film a really wild over the top tone. Corey Yuen returned for directing duties so as you'd expect the action is really solid for the most part.

I mentioned previously he really knows how to make people look good when their fighting, he has this incredible knack for being able to play to the actor's strengths and NRNS2 is a fine example of this. Avedon is a good martial artist, he looks good when he's throwing kicks and he handles himself well in the numerous action scenes he's in, Yuen choreographs his action that plays to Avedon's strengths really well. He's also not that bad an actor, growing up he starred in TV commercials and had a few bit parts in low budget action flicks but NRNS2 was his first full leading role, he may have been a little rough around the edges in the drama department but with a lot more exposure and some sure fire hits under his belt he could well have been a big a star as Van Damme and Seagal. It's just a shame that he never really got the recognition he really deserves.

He plays well off his co-stars Thayer and Rothrock. Thayer plays Mac with just the right level of world weariness that makes him likeable and Rothrock does well enough but it's when she's fighting she shines the most. By this time in her career she'd already made a name for herself in Hong Kong with appearances in Yes, Madam!, The Magic Crystal and Righting Wrongs so it was a natural for her to make the progression to American movies and this wasn't a bad place to start. She shares the distinction of having the one and only fight scene featuring Hwang Jang Lee (I should mention this film contains the only scene were he speaks English in a movie) and while the choreography itself is not as great as you'd expect it to be, it's a good opportunity to see these two action legends go toe to toe.

The finale has Avedon and Hues go at it and it's just as over the top as you'd expect. Matthias Hues is a large man, he towers over Avedon and when you get a heavily built man like Hues doing the action, it can come off as a bit awkward and it does a couple times but Yuen does a good enough job of hiding it and the choreography works in both actors favours. No Retreat, No Surrender 2 is a solid action flick and is definitely worth seeing as it gives a great debut from Avedon and as I said, the rare opportunity to see Rothrock and Lee fight each other.

Tune in next week for my review of Part 3 Blood Brothers!

No Retreat, No Surrender (1986)

In 1984, the seminal coming of age martial arts film The Karate Kid was released and was a huge success, with it's combination of spirituality, nicely choreographed action and memorable performances, the film made over $90 Million worldwide, making it a massive success. Unsurprisingly, film makers were quick to cash in. In 1986 Seasonal Films, mostly known for producing Jackie Chan's Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and Drunken Master, released their own spin on The Karate Kid formula with No Retreat, No Surrender.

Kurt Mckinney plays Jake Stillwell, a Karate practitioner who idolises Bruce Lee and hopes one day to reach the same level as the Martial Arts legend. After his father is injured in a fight with some local criminals, they move to Seattle to start a new life. Jake ends up butting heads with some members of a local Karate Dojo, so he starts training intensively (With the spiritual guidance of Bruce Lee no less) in hopes of becoming a Karate Master.

So, yeah, the film pretty much follows the story of The Karate Kid almost beat for beat, so much so that's kind of distracting as I found myself comparing the two throughout. It goes without saying Karate Kid is definitely the better movie because quite frankly No Retreat, No Surrender is a bad movie, really bad in fact. That mostly has a lot to do with the acting which is just down right awful. This was lead actor's Kurt McKinney's first acting role and it shows, when he gets angry, he gets really angry, he screams and shouts and throws his arms around like a three year old throwing a tantrum and it's just too damn funny most of the time. It's obvious they were trying to go for drama but the awful dialogue and bad acting performances just turn the film into a completely unintentional comedy.

Funny thing is, the movie does try to throw some humour in now and again, this is given to us in the form of Jake's best friend the skateboarding, break dancing, rapping RJ played by played by J.W. Fails and boy does he live up to his name. He comes off as Philip Michael Thomas' talentless, annoying and slightly retarded younger brother who has the strange ability of turning into a short, floppy haired Chinese man whenever he does any acrobatic stunts, you can tell he's having fun being around and making the movie but it doesn't really help his acting ability.

Familiar plot lines and annoying supporting characters aside, the films does offer up some decent action. Directed by Corey Yuen and choreographed by Meng Hoi, the fighting is the typical stylised hyped up kick boxing style that had become popular in Hong Kong action movies of this period. What I love about Corey Yuen as both a director and a choreographer is that he has this natural talent of making anyone look good when they fight on screen. Even someone as stiff as Mckinney, who is an accomplished martial artist, comes off looking like a total bad ass in the finale against a young Jean-Claude Van Damme, who plays the movie's main villain, Russian Kick-boxer Ivan. Rocky IV had been a massive box-office hit the year before and evil Russians had become the stock villain during the 80's due to the cold war so it was an obvious ploy in order to make the film appeal to the audience. I can honestly say I've never seen Van Damme look better when he's fighting. Even in his more well know movies such as Kickboxer and Bloodsport, he's fast, his kicks are solid and accurate and he looks deadly.

Now, let's move onto a section of the film which people often talk about. After having his ass handed to him by another Karate fighter, Jake pleads at the grave of Bruce Lee to help him become a better martial artist. Oddly enough, his prayers are answered when Bruce Lee's ghost appears and helps train Jake. Bruce is played by Kim Tai-Chung, who had portrayed Lee before in Game of Death and Game of Death 2. Kim's performance is decent, he has the mannerisms pretty much down and he looks good when he throws the odd kick but the whole sequence just comes of really odd and maybe just a exploitative of Lee's memory, especially when he's spouting a load of convoluted guff as if he's reciting a really badly put together cliff notes version of Tao of Jeet Kune Do.

No Retreat, No Surrender isn't a great film, what we have is just downright awful but for some really odd reason it was a decent hit at the box office. The film cost $400,000 to produce and would go on to gross $16,500,000 worldwide, so given it's success, a number of sequels would follow. All of which I am going to review over the next few weeks. Why have I decided to submit myself to such cinematic torture? I really don't know but this is first and foremost a martial arts movie blog so I'm willing to subject myself to hackneyed stories, embarrassing acting and cheesy dialogue all for the sake of reporting to you, my faithful readers, the martial arts action contained within.

Now if only I could find a way to get paid for this sort of thing.

Drive (1997)

American martial arts movies very rarely get it right. Uusally the film suffers from poor choreography, uninspired camera work or an absolutely abysmal plot. Yet among all the crap, you will discover a gem that really makes you appreciate the art of martial arts movie making. Drive is one of those films. Released way back in 1997, Drive failed to make any sort of splash at the box office but like all movies of a cult nature Drive has gone on to have an incredibly strong fan following and has enjoyed numerous successful film festival showings as well as bagging some well deserved awards.

The plot revolves around Toby Wong (Mark Dacascos), a soldier on the run from the Red Chinese Army because he has a top secret prototype bio-engine heart that gives him increased speed, strength and agility. Along the way he enlists the help of struggling song writer Malik Brody (Kadeem Hardison) who agrees to help him in exchange for half the money Toby will get upon delivering the bio-engine to an American tech company, meanwhile they are pursued by a violent assassin Vic Madison (John Pyper-Ferguson) and his inept henchman Hedgehog (Tracey Walter)

Despite the plot, it's actually surprisingly well written, the characters all have nicely fleshed out personalities and the dialogue is pretty damn funny at times. It's obvious the cast were having a lot of fun making the movie and it definitely shows in their performances. Mark Dacascos is perfectly cast as Toby Wong. Decascos started learning martial arts at a very early age and got into the movie industry using his talent, he is an absolutely incredible screen fighter and he very rarely gets the opportunity to really show just what he's capable of. His stoic acting style and blistering kicking combinations make a really great mix and it's a shame Mark never really got to capitalize on the cult fame which Drive had given him. He plays off well his co-star Kadeem Hardison who gives a really funny performance. It's interesting as it pre-dates Rush Hour as portraying two minority actors in the leading roles (Dacascos is of Hawaiian/Japanese decent) and Rush Hour director Brett Ratner has gone on record to say if it wasn't for Drive, Rush Hour would never have been made. I don't know if that's true or not but it's a wonderful compliment to the film.

Every action movie needs a good villain and thankfully we're given one with John Pyper-Ferguson as Vic Madison, who chews the scenery with glee as he curses, shouts and shoots his way through the movie, his performance is absolutely hilarious and I've yet to see another movie with him where he's been allowed to really tap into that side of himself.

Yet the glue that really brings this film together is the action. Drive is a prime example of what I like to call kitchen sink film making. It's where the director throws in every idea they can think of and make it work to their advantage. Director Steve Wang really knows how to make a solid action movie, he knows how to film it, he knows how to edit it. It also helps that he has Koichi Sakamoto doing the fight choreography. Sakamoto has been working the movie industry for a number of years, he previously had worked with Wang on Guyver: Dark Hero, which is an excellent American adaptation of the Japanese manga/anime series. With it's combination of outrageous creature effects and intricate choreography, it made sense that these two would end up collaborating on another picture. Much like Yuen Woo-Ping, Sakamoto really knows how to bring out the best in the people he works with. He uses Dacascos to his full potential, allowing to show off his full repertoire of fighting moves.

The fighting itself is absolutely outstanding, you'll be hard pressed to find another American movie made around this time that has the same level of action Drive does. Each fight is expertly put together and each one has a definite Jackie Chan vibe to them with Dacascos leaping off the walls, jumping over tables and using whatever he can get his hands on to take down the bad guys. A real stand out scene happens in a small hotel room when Decascos uses a pair of rubber soled boots to deflect the attacks of electric shock rods and is a great way of showing the creative thinking behind the movie. Now, usually with this type of movie, they save the best for last and Drive is no exception. Taking place in a gaudy night club, the people who are after Toby's bio-engine show up and all hell breaks loose. At first Toby and Malik are trying their best to stop themselves from getting killed but then the rather stupidly named Advanced Model (Masaya Kato) shows up, he is called the advanced model because that's what he is, a faster, stronger, better fighter then Toby. These guys tear each other apart, it's like the finale of Drunken Master 2, it just keeps getting crazier and crazier and fighting just goes from strength to strength, it's one of the few movies outside of Hong Kong that will make make you go "Damn, did you see that!?"

Drive is one of the best martial arts movies to come out America, with it's combination of humour and excellent stunts and fight scenes, it is one of the greatest action movies of the 90's. Fans have been hoping for years that Steve Wang, Mark Dacascos and Kochi Sakamoto will reunite and set fire to the screen once again and it would seem their prayers have been answered with Dacascos making recent comments that he's gearing up to make another movie with him. If you haven't seen Drive yet then what are you doing wasting time reading my rambling excuse for a review for? get the DVD, sit back and enjoy the ride.

The One (2001)

Jet Li. Now there's an action star. Having started a career in the motion picture industry in his native China, Li had become a bankable star to rival even the mighty Jackie Chan himself and like Chan, Li made the leap across the pond to work in Hollywood pictures. Since then they've ranged from pretty darn awful stuff like Cradle 2 The Grave to enjoyable and nicely crafted action films like The One, which I've decided to review today.

The One is essentially Highlander with a Sci-Fi twist. Li plays Gabe Law, a police officer who becomes the target of his doppelgänger Yu Law from another dimension, who is hopping from one reality to the next offing his counterparts in hoping he can become the titular One. A very basic premise but one that makes for quite a fun film and one (I feel I'm going to over-using that word through out this review) which all parties involved should be very proud of. The One doesn't try to be high art, it doesn't try and re-invent the Sci-Fi genre or take itself way too seriously like other hybrid films (See The Matrix trilogy) it's play very much to it's own strengths and those are Jet Li himself and the breezy, easy to watch pace it goes with.

Li has always made for a decent leading man, his straight faced demeanour and blistering martial skill made him a house hold name in his native china with the Once Upon A Time In China series and other films such as Fist of Legend. Here he takes that persona and tweeks it a little bit so to make his character Gabe one which you can root for. He plays well off his co-stars such as Carla Gugino, who plays the role of his wife and two share some nice chemistry (Something Jackie Chan seems to struggle with when he acts opposite a female lead) and I would have liked to have seen that explored more. Besides being the good guy we're also treated to him also playing the film's villain, Li tries his best to look mean and intimidating but his friendly face just makes it difficult to really make it all that convincing, not that he doesn't try of course but I think the writers should have tried a little harder to make the characters of Gabe and Yu complete opposites.

Having said that, it would appear when putting together the action scenes, Corey Yuen came up with the rather clever idea of giving both characters different fighting styles. Rather then giving them both generic martial arts styles, Gabe uses Baguazhang (The Eight Trigram Palms) which uses subtle circular movements while Yu Law chooses Xingyiquan (The Shape-Will Fist) which has more aggressive linear movements. Of course, as you'd expect Li pulls off both styles expertly and you can see he put a lot of effort into trying to separate the two characters, even if it didn't fully pay off. The fight scenes are great certainly not the best he's ever done but a definite step up from the likes of Romeo Must Die. Li makes it all look too easy as he throws kick after punch after kick and Corey Yuen's choreography always has that simplistic yet nicely timed aspect to it that I enjoy thoroughly and is a great addition to the many films he's been involved with. With it being a sci-fi film it does throw in a lot of effects and wire work but adds to the really fun comic book feel the film does really well in conveying.

A lot of people dismiss the film as taking itself way too seriously but it honestly doesn't. You can see director James Wong really wanted to make a kick-ass sci-fi action movie that fans of both genres could enjoy and while it does play a little fast and loose with the sci-fi aspect, that's to be expected as the spectacle of seeing Jet Li go toe to toe with himself is the main draw here. It's evident the cast also got what the movie was all about. Just listen to Jason Statham growl his dialogue and grit his teeth as he plays the hard boiled cop tracking down Yu Law, just watch the finale as both super strong Laws literally tear the house down as they go at it. All these things mix together to make a really underrated and unappreciated film that really deserves more credit then it's been given.

The One will never be held in high regard as Li's other films like Fearless but you know what? I'm totally okay with that . What we've been given is a great sci-fi action film that people should really sit back and enjoy and that's what movies are for, right? I thought so.