The plot, such as it is that a wealthy businessman becomes interested in a young woman who kept him from being lost at sea by Emil Chau (bad guy?) He gets Brad Allen, an American Martial Arts champion to fight C.N. with the intention of humiliating C.N. who hasn't been in the gym much and not in fighting form. What takes place next is one the most unrealistic fights I have seen in a Jackie Chan movie. Things are polite. Brad comes prepared for everything and different weight gloves. And tunes. When Jackie falls down and just stays there Brad leaves and Emil is sad rather than gloating. Emil does not work as a bad guy. Jackie wants a rematch with Allen and starts to work out again, often with the help of Ah Bu.

Of course there needs to be another fight between Jackie and Brad. It's difficult to see many shots of Jackie because he is wearing all white and every thing in the room is white too. Rather blinding. I won't spoil the outcome of the fight nor the repercussions so I'll shift to this movie apparently has had all the specials removed.

The movie itself is 120 minutes and is not a great film. Jackie seemed to be having a lot of fun when talking during interviews. He had one of his best friends act as the most useless bad guy along with a stunt team member to have pretend fights with. The only thing I have heard about this movie that is so special is that Jackie finally has a romantic kiss. Well the kiss is in the special features so no one will see it now anyway, and Jackie has kissed women before in movies like "Red Bronx" ("Rumble In The Bronx"). Jackie seemed very happy during the interview segment but this reviewer did not share in his elation. This movie did not deliver as advertised. Pretty fluff and everyone's happy does not necessarily a good movie make.

The movie started off good. I mean, Sho and some idiot assassinating some Arabs, which turns out to be a training sequence? It was lovely. Then from there on out it's completely sucky. This is probably the most crappy and inconsistent film ever made, and I'm talking bad. It's like the evil step brother of "Plan 9 From Outer Space". The storytelling is so incoherent, it was almost impossible to sit through and follow. I got the premise that is about some terrorist group lead by a Nazi cripple with a pet monkey and some soul chick who calls herself Colonel Honey Hump that takes hostages so they can free some 7-foot wacko--but the storytelling is horrid.

"9 Deaths" does have its comical moments, I think. I'm not even sure as to whether the comedy was intentional or not. The comedy moments were shit, like when Sho fights some midgets dressed up Michael Jackson (or gangsters or whatever). Errr...that's about it.

One thing that did make me laugh so loud that I puked out my lungs was the credits at the beginning. As the title credits ensue, you'll see Sho perform his ninjitsu in a sexually suggestive form while some love song is playing. Then these ballerina dancers start prancing about (dis)gracefully. Oh my god, I wanted to die.

The action in this film wasn't any good either. It's like "Revenge Of The Ninja", only abate times 1,000,000,000,000,001. It was sloppier than hell and (by far) doesn't make up for this film's crappiness.

Another example of the film's absurdity (in a bad way) is Sho dressing up like an old man for no apparent reason as he beats up some guys. WHAT THE FUCK IS IT ALL ABOUT!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!?

You know what, scratch the suicide thing. All I have to do is watch it again and I'll get some sort of telepathic infliction which will exert a brain tumor, followed by encephalitis, then my head will explode. There we go, that outta' bring the religious nut-jobs to help with banning this ass soup.

I'm usually quick to criticize wire-fu choreography, but some of the scenes in "Iron Monkey" were amazing. I still think that some parts were a bit excessive, but the choreography from Yuen Wo Ping, Yuen Cheung Yan, and Yuen Shun Yee was, for the most part, incredible! Donnie Yen was tremendous in his role as Wong Kei-Ying and really showed his great fighting abilities. Even Yu Rong Guang was convincing as the Iron Monkey, handling his duties admirably. Tsang Sze man was also impressive as a young Wong Fei-Hung, especially since the character was played by a girl.

It's a shame that "Iron Monkey" was a box office flop because it is certainly one of the best martial arts films of the 1990's. With that said, "Iron Monkey" has thankfully gone on to receive the respect and admiration that it deserves, even becoming well known in the West.

If one wanted to sample a wire-fu film for the first time, there is no better place to start than "Iron Monkey".

Highly recommended!

The Japanese actor in question here is Sessue Hayakawa, who is going under the name of Chen Lee here. Hayakawa/Lee plays Chin Ho, a Chinese man who travels to Texas in the late 1800's with dreams of becoming a cowboy. As you might expect, the local rednecks don't cotton to the "chinaman", and so Chin must beat down the racists with his fists of fury. This attracts the attention of a land baron named Spencer, who sees Chin as a threat to his lucrative trade of selling Mexicans into indentured slavery. On the run with a huge price on his head, Chin must try to stay one step ahead of Spencer while at the same time freeing the captive Mexicans.

Many Asian film-makers were quite influenced by the classic US western films and directors, probably most notably John Ford's oeuvre. This becomes clear with releases like Yojimbo, which itself became a linchpin for Italian directors like Sergio Leone, who did his own tribute to the film with Fistful of Dollars. Despite this fairly straight-forward lineage, for the most part, Asian characters in these movies (when they were present) were often regulated to small supporting roles, with productions like this one, where an Asian character is the lead, being notable exceptions.

The end result, at least here, is surprisingly fun. Sure, when you boil things down, the whole "Asian in the Old West" thing is just a gimmick that films before and since have tried to pull off and failed. But it works here, mostly because Chin Ho actually ends up becoming a fairly well-rounded and developed character. Chen Lee isn't the greatest actor, but he manages to infuse Chin Ho with things like a sense of humor and compassion, which goes a long way into making the viewer develop some interest for what happens to him. Combined with strong supporting work from other members of the cast, including the deliciously over-the-top Klaus Kinski, and action scenes that have more than their fair share of severed limbs, My Name is Shanghai Joe is definitely worth watching, especially if you want to check out a different take on the martial arts genre.

First of all, the plot sucks. Basically, a village chick named Bobo (Nora Miao) has just arrived in Shanghai. She comes across a gang fight and notices that one of the dudes involved is an old childhood friend of hers. She remembers him as Silly Boy, but he now has a new name: Jaguar.

Warning: Possible spoilers in the next paragraph.

Jaguar explains to her that he is now the right-hand man for some big wig gangster dude. Anyways, they do a little catching up together, f--k and fall in love. The rest of the movie... well... to make a long story short: Jaguar ends up getting set up by his own boss. Eventually, Jaguar ends up partnering up with his jumbo-bow-tied sharp shooter buddy; Jaguar punks him; then we find out the Bobo is actually the daughter of Jaguar’s old boss. Along the way, Jaguar turns into an asshole and then Bruce Lee’s co-star from The Big Boss (Liu Yung) shows up and screws things up for Jaguar even more.

I’m sure the above plot doesn’t sound so bad, but trust me, there are so many twists and turns, that, by the time you’re half way through, you start to not care about the characters, the plot, or the movie.

Even if you’re in it just for the action, there’s not much here to get a kick out of. The choreography is pretty tight for the most part, but nothing really stands out. If you want see some guys beat each other up, I can think of 50 other movies you could watch for that reason alone.

Personally, what attracted me to this movie was the presence of Nora Miao. She’s that Asian chick with white features who co-starred in most of Bruce Lee films. Not only does she get super-fiesty in this flick, but she also gets naked...A LOT! (Okay, obviously it’s a body double, but who cares. It’s still a nude female.)

Also in the mix is Liu Yung (aka Tony "Now You Know. So What? You're headed for the freezer!" Liu), another person who was pretty much in every Bruce Lee flick. So, in a way, "To Kill A Jaguar" is almost a Bruce Lee movie. The only difference is, there’s no Bruce Lee, the movie sucks, and you’re stuck with a guy who has big ass sideburns and a mustache instead.

"To Kill A Jaguar" is a dull feature folks. Even Wang Lung-Wei looks bored in this one. - Mighty Peking Man

Golden Harvest roped in Hark and a bunch of Hollywood effects guys to create this impressive spectacle of a fantasy flick, boasting a great cast and groundbreaking visuals for HK circa 1983. But somewhere between the flying fairies, fireballs, lightsabre duels, and all the other bells and whistles, the story and the characters got lost.

I mean, the actors are fine, and all do a good job--Yuen Biao, Meng Hoi, Moon Lee, etc.--but I feel that they are kinda' pushed into the background by all the special effects stuff, stifling their otherwise fine performances. And the already complicated story drowns in there as well. I've watched this movie a number of times and still have absolutely no idea what it's about. Sure, it keeps throwing crazy, flashy stuff at you, but it doesn't really go anywhere.

For the international version, a whole new plotline, involving Yuen Biao as a modern day fencing champion who goes into a coma and lands in an alternate reality, was shot and tacked on. The original fantasy stuff, being that reality, was recut, and the whole thing was sold as a slightly different movie. The modern day stuff is pretty fun. And I would like to see that full version some day.

I think the movie is a bit of a letdown in the action department as well. It is certainly competent. But I'm just not a big fan of fantastique wire fu. And the fact that there is so much visual effects stuff going on around it also distracts from the physical stuff.

In the end, I can enjoy this film as more of a curiosity than a fully fledged piece of cinema. To me, this is a good example of the dangers of big effects movies: if you lose the story and the characters, then all you are left with is bright lights and big bangs. And that in itself is not filmmaking.

This one doubles as not only my favorite Gordon Liu movie but also as my favorite Shaw Brothers movie. I know there are so many to choose from and you think that one is the best and dude over there is all like "what about the '36th Chamber'?" Well, chill, we're talking about my favorites now, not yours. We talk about your favorites in your review, sucka.

Lau Kar Leung crafts this movie and its fight scenes with inspired perfection. Gordon Liu dishes out the goods with the jack-of-all trades fu by demonstrating that old school multiple proficiency that pretty much died in the 90's when everyone could just have a single gimmick and still get by. This movie is not only arguably Gordon Liu's best martial arts performance but also Yasuaki Kurata's as well. You have to wait all the way to the end to see Yasuaki finally get down; but when he does, HOLY SHIT, he's a fuckin' smokin' now! (Maybe, just maybe, there is one "Family Guy" fan out there who got that reference. Probably not.)

Anyhow, this film has got one of the best complilations of variety in martial arts styles and weapons put to use. The Japanese performers and characters are all straight-up bad-asses, and really Japanese, unlike many other Chinese films that used Chinese actors and portrayed the Japanese as bitch-made predatory miscreants. I'm not judging, I'm just sayin'. Well, I guess to truly complete a review for this movie I got to give up my favorite fight. Damn, there are so many to choose from, but if I had to pick one favorite I would cheat and say the entire end fight with Gordon and Yasuaki, which is basically like 3-4 fights in one. I don't mean to beat a dying horse (unless it's called for or I'm bored or something), but Mr. Kurata is so frickin' slick it's unreal. The man handles a ninja-to like he was born holding one, and his crab style is one of the dopest, slickest and most creative things I have ever seen. This movie has everything for martial arts lovers including a tough chick.

I also got to say Buddha bless Dragon Dynasty for releasing these perfectly digitally remastered fu classics with the original subtitles and dubbings while including all kinds of sweet bonuses like interviews with the legends that made these movies possible. Make sure this is in your collection. Essential and severely enjoyable.

This film deserves a tiny fraction of credibility due to one man who died after the making of this bigoted, unethical piece of Nazi trash, and that is Raul Julia. Damn, his superb acting just consummately overshadows this film's abysmal structure of stupidity. Too bad really, his very existence almost makes up for this...this ASS, but it's not enough.

Where "Street Fighter" ('94) ultimately fails is in just about everything, from its horrible action, its ridiculous pacing, suck ass acting (except Raul Julia and, for some weird reason, the Russian guy called Zangief--dude, he was funny), poor and ignorant casting--for example the casting of a Samoan to play a Japanese sumo wrestler (E. Honda is not a Samoan name, f@#$ers)--and so forth. And the list perpetuates until my head explodes.

The success of this film is the chick who played Chun Li. UGH SHE'S HOT! And that's about it.

I hate this movie and yet I continue to watch it over and over again. KILL ME, NOW!!!!!!! :)

"Crime Story" was also Chan's first film based on a true story and one of his first major dramatic roles. The action was also pretty good as Chan took more of a streetfighting approach and showed no sign of his normal lighthearted sense of humor which is probably why some fans do not like this film. There was a lot of intensity in the fighting and Chan and his stunt team took many nasty falls. The explosions and fires were also well done as the old Kowloon walled city was burned and leveled.

The acting throughout the film was very good as Jackie Chan more than proved he can pull off this type of role. Kent Chang was great as always as police inspector/kidnapper Hung. It was also amazing how actor Law Kar Ying and actress Au-Yeung Pooi San looked like the real Teddy and Nina Wang.

I think this is a good film that allowed Jackie Chan to take on a new and challenging role that could be used as an example to critics who think Chan cannot act or take dramatic roles as he progresses in age.

Maybe it's me--maybe I just get sick of new movies being cranked out the butthole to only reveal the same old shit. The stories and conceptions for today's kung fu films are soooooo worn out that this could have been an unintentional remake of a movie from the 70's or 80's; but who knows, really. To be perfectly honest, I think you're just looking for any excuse to give films like this any credibility when in truth you are in a state of denial.

The kung fu action was okay. JUST OKAY! I'll always have issues with wirework unless it fits with a film's level of insanity and/or absurdity, like "Tai Chi Master" or "Iron Monkey". But with a film like "Fearless" that's supposed to be consistent and well told (HA!), no wirework is required. It does not work. As far as the movements of the actors go, it feels a bit sloppy, but overall it's...eh, nice.

Probably the main reason why I didn't like this film is because of Jet Li. He is just not a convincing bad-ass. His martial art skills are 99% consummate but his screen presence is just weak. He's just a sissy Mary. The only films I've ever liked with him were "Tai Chi Master", "Fist Of Legend", "Martial Arts Of Shaolin", and for some odd reason "My Father Is A Hero". And perhaps "Once Upon A Time In China" 1-3, only because I like Tsui Hark films.

If you liked this film, fine. I don't care. But in the words of a great reviewer: "Nothing special here." It's just another everyday ordinary kung fu movie. Whoopee-do. Now I await your inflictions with elation.

AND THE ACTING WAS HORRIBLE!!!!!