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Execproducer

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  1. Well, since this is being cast from the 90's, Bruce Willis is a much more likely Nick Fury.
  2. Clearly someone was trying to avoid a major discrimination lawsuit.
  3. I have two bonus reviews that I don't have the energy to finish tonight, so they'll be up tomorrow. At that point I turn things over to J.T. for a special addition to the proceedings. Once J.T. is finished, there will be two more reviews, one of which he has graciously offered to take on. I want to make sure everyone that submitted a review gets their pick done as well. Not a knock on those that didn't get their reviews completed. It's been a tough year for most of us. In the meantime, enjoy this tribute to the incomparable Yukari Oshima and that baby-faced killer the Mighty Moon Lee.
  4. Film: Iron Monkey Picked by: Execproducer " After a few years believing I had outgrown Kung Fu movies, this was one of the early 90's films that brought me back into the fold. Could have been alternately titled Wong Fei-hung Learns How To Be A Hero. With Donnie Yen as Wong Kei-ying and the underappreciated Yu Rongguang in the titular role of Iron Monkey. " Iron Monkey (1993) Golden Harvest Directed by: Yuen Woo-ping Written by: Tsui Hark Cast: Donnie Yen, Yu Rongguang, Jean Yang, Yuen Shun-yi, Yen Shi-kwan, Hsiao Ho, Angie Tsang. Reviewed by: driver. I remember seeing this in theaters back in '01 and thought it was a great movie. Let's see how well it holds up twenty years later. From the beginning the fight scenes seem to be played more for comedy and ass kicking than plain old ass kicking, and I'm good with that. The bit about the shark fin soup is just as good as I remember. Everything about this movie is gorgeous, from the set designs to the way its shot to the acrobatics and fight scenes. Great movie.
  5. I have one more to post. Probably do it tomorrow and then you have the floor.
  6. That would be great because as it stands right now there is just one review left to post before I give @J.T. the floor. I will stretch it out a bit if you and any of the other three still want to get your reviews to me.
  7. Film: The Night Comes for Us Picked by:J.T. " If anyone hasn't chosen it, my pick is The Night Comes For Us, one of the few movies where Iko Uwais is playing a villain. I figure Raziel will appreciate it the most. " The Night Comes for Us (2018) Infinite Framework Studios/Screenplay Infinite Films /XYZ Films Written & Directed by: Timo Tjahjanto Cast: Joe Taslim, Iko Uwais, Julie Estelle, Sunny Pang Reviewed by: Execproducer The Night Comes for Us follows in the tradition of other films where a 'bad' character goes on the run to protect a child. Films like Gloria ( Cassavetes, 80), Léon: The Professional (Besson, 94) and Road to Perdition ( Mendes, 02). These films also share thematic connections to others like Little Miss Marker (Hall, 34) and Shane (Stevens, 53). The Indonesian film The Night Comes for Us separates itself from the pack by adding a shit-ton of gore! Like, a lot. Joe Taslim ( Mortal Kombat, The Raid: Redemption) is Ito, a world weary Triad assassin and squad member of an elite group called The Six Seas. Confronted with the lone survivor of a village that he and a group of Triad killers just wiped out, a young girl named Reina (Asha Kenyeri Bermudez) , Ito makes the spur of the moment decision to save her in hope of ultimately redeeming himself. This does not sit well with his Triad bosses and fellow Six Seas member Chien Wu ( Sunny Pang), not just because Ito killed all of his comrades to save the girl. The girl still lives, you see. No, she isn't the daughter of anyone important. No, she doesn't have the codes to some secret Triad whatever buried in her memory. It's just, well, when the Triad says a whole village gets wiped out then EVERY FUCKIN' BODY DIES!!!!!! A wounded Ito takes Reina to his hometown where he is patched up by his ex-girlfriend Shinta ( Salvita Decorte) and reunites with members of his former gang Fatih ( Abimana Aryasatya) and White Boy Bobby ( Zach Lee). Meanwhile another old gang member, Arian ( Iko Uwais, the hero of the Raid films) is recruited by Chien Wu to take out Ito and kill the girl. Arian has been running a Triad club in Macau. A little conflicted about going against his friends, he is nevertheless deeply ambitious and covets Ito's spot. Fatih arranges passports for Ito and Reina. Ito leaves Reina in Fatih's care and goes off to collect money he left behind from another former gang member, the psychopathic Yohan ( Revaldo). Yohan works out of a butcher shop and knows the Triad is after Ito. Naturally, all hell breaks loose. Here is where things get kicked up several notches. Now this being an Indonesian martial arts film I expect a certain level of brutality but this made me think of the old days of kick-boxing where you had to throw a minimum number of kicks each round or be docked points. Otherwise it would be nothing but two dudes punching each other in the face. Here we get the bare minimum of elbow and knee strikes but it is mostly choppity chop chop slice slice. I don't mean Karate chops either. "Well," I reasoned, "it is a butcher shop, after all. Probably the next set piece will settle into something with a bit more emphasis on the hand-to-hand.". Nope! After the horror show at the butcher shop is interrupted by Triad killers with firearms that lay waste to everyone still alive except for an escaping Ito, the action moves to Fatih's place where a horde of knife and hatchet wielding goons sent by Yohan attempt to separate everyone from all of their body parts. Somehow Fatih, his cousin Wisnu ( Dimas Anggara) and White Boy Bobby manage to survive this onslaught and protect Reina but then the real trouble shows up in the form of lesbian super assassins, Elena ( Hannah Al Rashid) and Alma ( Dian Sastrowardoyo). Think Naked Killer only they keep their clothes on. So as not to give everything away, Fatih, with a little assistance from the still conflicted Arian, manages to escape with Reina to his building's parking garage where even more carnage will ensue. Honestly, if I weren't doing the review for this, when we hit the point where even little Reina gets all stabby I might have stopped watching. Director Timo Tjahjanto is probably more known for his horror films and it really shows. I mean I love me some horror but I wasn't in that mindset when I began the film. But then she walked into my life and all was good again. The Operator (Julie Estelle, Hammer Girl from The Raid 2) shows up like the Baddest Badass of Badassville and coolly takes out the remaining Triads in the garage and then disappears. My favorite things in life are puppies breath, long walks in the rain and cinematic female warriors. Later on, before joining forces, she'll square off with Ito , WHUP DAT ASS and deliver a modified RKO through a toilet tank to put him to sleep for a minute. She's a Bad Mama Jama. Anyway, with the killers closing in, Ito decides to take the fight to them where he'll have the eventual showdown with Arian. All things considered, it's a pretty good one. Joe Taslim is pretty good as the lead but his character is underwritten. Honestly almost every other character is more interesting. Except little Reina. You might even forget she is the motivation for all of the killing except she'll pop up around the corner in the middle of all the carnage and a Triad will be like "Oh yeah, gotta kill her!". Her and Ito don't do much bonding as he tends to pass her off to someone else to care for her and when they are together, half the time he is unconscious. Iko Uwais manages to add some depth to his villain. And it's maybe a little early to put Julie Estelle up there with the likes of Cheng Pei Pei, Angela Mao, Pam Grier, or Michelle Yeoh but if the proposed Night of the Operator film gets made, she'll be on her way. A bit too much choppity chop chop slice slice for my taste but I can see this as Chang Cheh's wet dream put on film.
  8. Huo Yuanjia, much like Wong Fei-hung or Davey Crockett or at this point Ip Man, has been so built up with mythology that the real-life man is hard to pin down. His poisoning is more likely down to the medicinal practices of his day rather than an assassination of an unbeatable fighter and his most famous fights probably never happened. In a world where low-level MMA fighters post videos of themselves destroying Kung Fu Masters in seconds, there is something very pro wrestling about his whole story. Makes for great films though! Of the various films and television series that deal directly with Huo Yuanjia, my favorite is probably Yuen Woo-ping's Legend of a Fighter, with Leung Kar-yan (aka "Beardy") and Yasuaki Kurata. Thanks to the success of Fist of Fury, the fictional role of Chen Zhen that Bruce Lee originated has been added onto many of these productions as if he were a historical figure. Aside from becoming a part of the Huo Yuanjia story line, the Chen Zhen character has had his own films and TV series, including remakes of Fist of Fury and continuations of that story. Of those, it's hard to go wrong with Fist of Legend with Jet Li as Chen Zhen and Yasuaki Kurata in a similar role as the one he played in Legend of a Fighter. Many of the TV series can be found with English subs so track down as much as you can.
  9. lol not sure your pick is going to be reviewed. We're still short four.
  10. Film: Fist of Fury Picked by: Raziel " So, I'm gonna go with Fist of Fury (1972, Wei). As much love as I have for Enter the Dragon, this one is more Lee in a showcase for the whole movie, and is a bit more of a template for Kung Fu flicks going forward. Not as good as Big Boss, but we already did that one. " Fist of Fury ( Jing wu men ) - 1972 Golden Harvest Company Written & Directed by: Wei Lo Cast: Bruce Lee (Chen Zhen), Nora Miao (Yuan Le-erh), James Tien (Fan Chun-hsia), Maria Yi (Yen), Robert Baker (Petrov) Reviewed by: J.T. After spending nearly a decade banging his head up against a wall trying to make it in Hollywood, Bruce Lee returned to Hong Kong to increase his star power. The first film he made, The Big Boss (1972), broke box office records and transformed Lee into an international star. Fist of Fury is far more polished and slickly executed than The Big Boss as it benefitted from a much larger budget and Lee's creative control over the fight scenes. The aesthetic that martial arts fans have come to identify with Bruce starts taking shape in this particular film. Like most of the Kung Fu movies from the 1960's and 1970's, Fist of Fury is a period piece. It is set in 1910's Shanghai and begins with the mysterious events surrounding the poisoning death of Huo Yuanjia, a real-life historical martial arts master who was especially revered in China for his nationalism and unrivaled fighting prowess. Lee stars as Chen Zhen, a fictional student of Huo’s who returns for his funeral and seeks vengeance for his death at the hands of the Japanese masters of a competing martial arts school. Lee goes full ham during the funeral scene when Huo is laid to rest, hurling himself onto Huo's coffin in comically Baptist fashion as it is being lowered into the ground and swearing revenge until he is knocked unconscious with a shovel. The rest of the movie is pretty formulaic, but Lee manages to show some flashes of comedic genius, donning ridiculous disguises (most memorable being a goofy telephone repairman whose mannerisms were strikingly similar to Jerry Lewis, one of Lee's favorite actors) in order to discover the truth about his master's assassination and taking violent revenge on those responsible.. I have to admit that Fist of Fury is pretty low on my own personal scale of Bruce Lee movies. The blatant racism is borderline offensive and the villains are cardboard cutouts are almost unworthy of Chen Zen's righteous anger. Robert Baker's Petrov provides the template for Bob Wall's Oharra from Enter The Dragon and provides some menace and competition, but we all know that Petrov's brute strength is doomed to be outclassed by the speed and precision of Chen Zen. The fights in Fist of Fury are brutal and worthy of your viewership, but there is a bit too much of the fantastical thrown in for my liking. I much prefer the hyperkinetic realism of Enter The Dragon, but I realize that EtD stands on the shoulders of The Big Boss and Fist of Fury. Not too many people like to get into the mechanics of Lee's dramatic acting skills, but he really does deliver in Fist of Fury. The movie is carried by Chen Zen's unbridled rage and the pursuit of his master's killers feels authentic. Lee never lets you forget that Chen Zen is on a crusade for justice and if the perpetrators in his path just happen to be Japanese, all the sweeter. The violence being heaped on Chen Zen's enemies feels like it comes from a very personal place, unlike the hilarious beatings doled upon the generic, faceless thugs from The Big Boss or Way of The Dragon. Fist of Fury definitely belongs in the mythological hierarchy of classic martial arts films. It is the movie where Lee entered in as a rising star and left as a true legend.
  11. I liked it a lot. Better than any Iron Man film, easily. It's the little things that put it over the top like Yelena mocking Natasha's fighting pose. Also, I assume Natasha got the idea for the parachute save from watching Moonraker. Nice. The Taskmaster reveal instantly made me think of this:
  12. That is definitely true but I think it declined a bit last year.
  13. Holmes certainly started off with a bang with the Norton fight and even if there were a handful of tomato cans ( Cobb, Cooney) there are still a lot of solid, if unspectacular, heavyweights in his win column. He is indeed an all-timer. IMO prime Holmes handles Tyson pretty easily.
  14. I don't have any desire to see the continuation of the Nathan Diaz Show. And if Nate had spent less time laughing and pointing and more time punching Connor in the face, he'd of probably won the second fight anyway.
  15. Here is to hoping that the movie review projects make a big comeback for Halloween.
  16. Yeah, I reviewed it, obviously not very memorably. ?
  17. Film: Mortal Kombat Picked by: RIPPA "It is topical and I am gambling on someone picking the new one (or at least doing it as a bonus review) So much nostalgia... so many.... attempts.... at fighting Plus I want to insert MOR...TAL.... KOM....BAT~! (insert techno beat here) in every thread" Mortal Kombat (1995) New Line Cinema/ Threshold Entertainment Directed by: Paul W.S. Anderson Cast: Christopher Lambert, Robin Shou, Linden Ashby, Talisa Soto Reviewed by: odessasteps Disclaimer: i was never a Mortal Kombat player in the 90s, so i have no nostalgia for the original game. The film is a wonderful mish-mash of genre tropes, from 70s Kung Fu films to campy superhero movies and a vunch of others. Do i really need to explain the plot? A mystical martial arts tournament, in the style of Bruce Lee’s Game of Death. This is a year before UFC too. Various archetypes are chosen as POV characters: johnny Cage, the white guy slumming as an action film star, Sonya Blade, the icy blonde Special Forces officer and Liu Kang, the former Monk out to avenge his brothers death from the tournament organizer and number one bad guy, Shang Tsung. Then throw in the comic book underlings Sub Zero and Scorpion, the beautiful Princess who of course falls for the hero and the monster henchmen, straight out of a Ray Harryhausen film. The film got decent reviews at the time but has since undergone a critical reevaluation and is viewed as one of the best video game film adaptations. Its good cheesy fun, good action with only the occasional dubious Mid 90s CGI and likeable characters played mostly by unknowns at the time. Well, except for the wonderfully hammy Christopher Lambert, who talents mesh well here. And the internet tells me Frank Welker did VO work, including the voice of the Emporer. Still a fun, quick watch as long as you dont try and overthink it.
  18. I tend to want to separate the period kung fu films and the more action oriented into two lists and my viewing of his films from the last two decades is extremely spotty. I feel like there are maybe 3 or 4 that might make the cut if I ever get around to watching them. Having said that: The Young Master Drunken Master II Police Story Armour of God II: Operation Condor Police Story II Crime Story Snake in the Eagles Shadow Wheels on Meals Miracles Who Am I? Honorable mentions to Police Story III & IV, Twin Dragons and Mr. Nice Guy.
  19. Normally I'd try to post daily but with so little to work with that ain't gonna happen. So everyone should feel free to fill the space with your random kung-fu movie talk, Jackie Chan top ten lists, etc.
  20. Still waiting for four reviews so I'm starting with a bonus. The Korean Connection ( Lee Doo-yong, 1974) Habdong Films. The Korean Connection starts off like a Spaghetti Western/film noir hybrid. Three killers ( henceforth referred to as The Three Amigos) enter a restaurant in search of Tiger, a former gang member and adopted son of Boss Wang Hae-rim. Tiger isn't around and a waiter tells The Three Amigos that Tiger usually hangs out at a different establishment. It seems the once formidable Tiger has become a drunk who spends his time begging for or stealing drinks. The locals now refer to him as Paper Tiger. Before the Amigos can be on their way, a local tough and his boys decide that their turf has been disrespected and challenge the strangers. The Amigos, a bald, studded wrist-band wearing hatchet fighter, a leather-clad knife expert and the suited up leader with a fancy sword cane, quickly wreck the entire restaurant. The Amigos eventually catch up to him at Chung Ho's tavern where they find a drunken Tiger about to lick the shoes of Chung Ho in order to settle his debt. Seeing the Amigos, Tiger takes off like Usain Bolt and soon finds himself hiding out in the room of a prostitute/spy. She tells Tiger that her cousin, Kim Sung, has been seeking out Tiger to help recover stolen money and government documents. In a flashback we see what has led to Tiger's current condition. Tiger wanted to marry Hyang Souk but her brother, Hae-bin Kim, refused to allow it. They fight it out by a river with Tiger winning. The brother relents but on the condition that Tiger gives up the gangster life. This news doesn't go over well with Boss Wang who beats the snot out of Tiger. Despite the beating, Tiger begs for his freedom. Boss Wang tells him he can go after just one more job. That job involves the money and documents and leads to the death of Hyang Souks's brother, her rejection of Tiger, and his downward spiral. We also learn that The Three Amigos were sent after Tiger by Yamamoto, Boss Wang's other adopted son and the killer of Hyang Souk's brother.* When Tiger learns Hyang Souk is Yamamoto's captive he decides to help Kim Sung. The Korean Connection is a solid martial arts film if you can live with some major issues. The dubbing is awful even by chop socky standards. Drunk Tiger sounds like he has brain damage and sober Tiger sounds simply bored. The Foley work is horrible with sound effects not matching strikes and sometimes dropping out completely so that you get several seconds of silent fighting. There is also unintentional comedy. During Tiger's fight with Hae-bin Kim they both tumble into the river. As the camera pans to the opposite bank you can still hear strikes being landed until the two finally pop up from underwater. There is also a bit where bald Amigo rushes inside a small tent thinking Tiger is inside. Whoosh! Crack!! Boom!!! Fighting sound effects and the tent flapping wildly until bald Amigo stumbles out of the tent and Flair Flops to the ground. The only thing missing is a scene with a whirlwind of dust with flailing arms and you have a Popeye cartoon. On the plus side the fighting is generally pretty good. No battles of technique here; it's Asian street fighting, Korean style. That means about 90% head kicks. This allows the Amigos to stand out because they are mostly using fists and weapons. There is solid hand-held camera work with effective use of Dutch angles. We get a face turn from one of the Amigos who puts duty to country over money. Yong-cheol Han, with his Bobby Goldsboro hair-cut and Burt Reynolds 'stache, makes a pretty effective lead as Tiger.** He certainly has the fighting chops. He made several films around this time and then seems to disappear. The film also boasts several familiar faces including Yeong-mun Kwon ( Project A, My Young Auntie) as Kim Sung. Thunderleg himself, Jang-lee Hwang has a role as Yamamoto's henchman though sadly, he doesn't get to show much of his skills. Mang Hoi (Heart of the Dragon, Pedicab Driver), who just five years later would also be working as an action director, has a bit part as a beggar child. Worth a watch if you like good fights. And bonus! you can pretty easily MST3K this thing while you're at it. *With the dubbing, the politics are kinda muddy but as the film is set in the 1930's, there is a lot going on with the Japanese occupying Korea and most of the resistance to that coming from the North. Though Yamamoto is a gangster and not a military leader or government official, he still hits all of the notes with the hostile takeover of the gang, killing of Korean freedom fighters, the likely rape of Hyang Souk and just generally being sadistic and bat-shit crazy. ** If you can picture Tiger's hairstyle without watching the trailer or searching 'Bobby Goldsboro' then congratulations for living so long.
  21. I'm going to start it tonight. I still have only the same three reviews that I mentioned last time so I'm going to post a bonus review to start and maybe that will light a fire under some people. :)
  22. Their screen cap for Drunken Master is also wrong.
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