The Gene Generation (product link) Girls With Guns / Science Fiction Has potential, but falls short. Cool special effects and feel. Bai Ling looks great throughout the movie.
Painted Skin [2008] (product link) Ghost / Drama A nifty movie, drama-driven and not many fight scenes. The story has similarities to "Bride With White Hair", but not it's as good. Doesn't hurt to watch but not a priority.
Ong-Bak 2 (product link) Martial Arts / Action/Adventure Again, Tony Jaa hits us full force with awesome action. Tony Jaa utilizes a variety of Shaolin animal styles, three-section staff, rope dart, and tai chi sword. He was able to execute these with tradition and of course with the Tony Jaa flare. A must-see for any Tony Jaa fan.
Tokyo Gore Police (product link) Action/Adventure / Horror A must-see for any "Riki-oh" fans. This movie has sooo much blood, you'll be seeing red when you close your eyes. The gore effects are the good old school prosthetics, make-up and bags of blood. The mutated characters are imaginative and disturbing. Some very memorable scenes that must be seen to believed, but no spoilers here. The story works for this kind of movie, so don't expect anything groundbreaking. Not for the squeamish.
The Rebel (product link) Martial Arts / Drama A very good first Vietnamese production. It's great to see Dustin Nguyen ("21 Jump Street") in a completely badass role. Nice cinematography. The lead female actress does a great job for only having two months of martial arts training. The fight choreography is decent, but is a little repetitive. The reason I'm giving this film only 3 stars is because the story tries to be epic, but is very mediocre. This in turn made the fight scenes feel too separated apart. Again, a good start for an up and coming young director.
Ip Man (product link) Martial Arts / Action/Adventure Great movie. Donnie Yen makes Wing Chun so brutal in this movie. Story is well written and amazing fight choreography. A must-buy for any Donnie Yen fan.
Immortal [2008] (product link) Martial Arts / Thriller Again, the Stunt People are one of my favorite stunt teams, so seeing early works and supporting them is what I like to do. I liked the choreography better in this than "Bound By Blood", another earlier film from the SP. The story is like "Highlander", but is pretty confusing to follow. Basically the film plays like a bunch of practice fight scenes that are pretty good, with some intermittent plot that is fast-forwardable.
An Empress And The Warriors (product link) Martial Arts / Drama I liked this movie. It has a solid story and acting. Not really a full out martial arts movie. More like a love story with fighting elements. The character development was pretty good too.
Bound By Blood (product link) Martial Arts / Action/Adventure It's nice to see the earlier works from the Stunt People. BBB is very much a low quality B-movie. The camera is very shakey, acting is eh, and some of the camera angles in some of the fight scenes were rough. It's funny to see all the recognizable SP members all of a sudden show up in the last fight scene, which was the redeeming quality of the film. A start for the SP.
Black Belt (product link) Martial Arts / Drama Simple and straight to the point fighting. This movie displays fame and true tradition well. A must-see for any martial arts fan.
Wheels On Meals (product link) Martial Arts / Comedy Hmmm...I first saw this movie many years ago and remembered it to be much better than what I saw now. The story is fun and Jackie, Yuen Biao and Sammo are at their best in their crackpot comedy. But, this time around, I just wasn't impressed with the fight scenes. Jackie and Benny the Jet's fight scene was sub par in comparison to "Dragons Forever". Still a fun movie to watch.
The Warlords (product link) Action/Adventure / War Amazing movie. To me this was the "Braveheart" of Chinese period films. The story was engaging and the characters all performed wonderfully. You can feel their individual torment. I thought that Jet Li had one of his best acting roles in this movie. Do not watch this movie as a martial arts movie, but as a war movie. The use of martial arts were extremely effective and were just enough for you to say ouch.
The Restless (product link) Action/Adventure / Fantasy Very neat story. There is a lot that is crammed into it, so some areas feel vague. Nice use of CGI. Cool WuXai style fight scenes. The story kinda' has that "City of Angels" feel, just not as sad. :)
Kampfansage: Der Letzte Schüler (product link) Martial Arts / Fantasy Pretty good movie. Story has a similarity to "Fist of the North Star" with Gary Daniels. The fight scenes were cool, but certain fights were too noticeably sped up. The fighting style was unique, it reminded me of a mix of Hapkido and certain elements of Tony Jaa's Muay Thai forms. My main gripe would be that the last fast scene was anticlimatic. There were progressive fights throughout the movie, but the last one just was sub par.
Martial Arts Of Shaolin (product link) Martial Arts / Action/Adventure Actually came across this Jet Li movie on the whim. Typical Shaolin story. Training and fighting scenes were good, but pretty much the same as what you would find in other early Jet Li movies.
Drunken Master 2 (product link) Martial Arts / Action/Adventure The all-time Jackie Chan classic. Non-stop fight scenes that just get better throughout the movie. Many, many, many years ago I was introduced to this movie and was then hooked on anything Jackie Chan. Must-buy for any Jackie Chan fan, or martial arts enthusiast. Get the uncut version!
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READER COMMENTS
AUTHOR
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Excellent cinematography, choreography, direction, story, and sets. Excellent movie!
Chocolate [2008] (product link) Martial Arts / Action/Adventure Wow! "Chocolate" was amazing. A female Tony Jaa. The action was great with some new variations in what you would usually see Tony Jaa do. Jeeja Yanin did a great job in portraying autism. Of course, her martial arts skills were amazing. I liked how her fighting ability increased throughout the movie. I really enjoyed the story as well.
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