A Chinese action comedy directed by Sammo Hung, starring Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao.
5 men go to Japan to free their friend from mobsters.
Stupid, pointless and incoherent. I watched about an hour of the 1.5 hour duration and was still lost. I have a feeling that most of the humor that may have been there was lost in translation. I didn't see much action either. In accordance with my turn off policy, I rate this shit. Do not watch!
A Chinese kung fu directed by John Woo, starring Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung.
A military leader has destroyed Shaolin and some various fighters team up to defeat him.
Yet another standard kung fu. If you're looking to see what old school fu was like, it was like this. If you're looking to watch a good movie, steer clear. How many revenge plots involving the destruction of Shaolin by a singular villain can there be? The shallow characters did not do it for me. They were like every other fighter in any of the hundreds of kung fu films I've seen. Dialogue could have been copied and pasted from other films and I seriously doubt that anyone would notice. You probably wouldn't even have to change the names. Acting was the same. Same, same, same. There was lots of fighting with weapons and hand to hand as well as discussion of different styles. I swear the filmmakers all used the same sets and costumes. They were like community property for anyone in China who wanted to make a kung fu flick. There was some shot variety in the camera-work and editing. Two that I noticed were an actor seen from between the feet of a horse and a flashback to training during the final fight. Special effects were the same as every other kung fu and so was audio. IMDb lists a rating of 6/10, AllMovie lists 2/5 AllMovie rating with 3.5/5 user ratings and Rotten Tomatoes lists 44% audience score for an average of 53.5%. That sounds right to me because it was so dull and could not be differentiated from any other fu flick. I rate this tolerable because it was not painful to watch.
I might be taking a break from this soon. School taught me too much about movies and I've watched too many. 2500 and something reviews over 8 years is not a bad run if that's all I do with my film blog.
A Chinese kung fu romantic comedy directed by Sammo Hung and Corey Yuen, starring Jackie Chan.
A lawyer is working on a court case involving a woman who owns a fish farm that is being polluted by a nearby factory. The lawyer calls in 2 friends and they try to distract the women with romance.
It seems like this was trying to be everything and ended up as nothing. The hour and a half duration seemed long, mostly because I'm having a really crappy day when everything is problems. The plot was a little too convoluted for a kung fu flick and full of cliches from the genre, location and time. The characters did not impress me, except Mr. No Eyebrows at the end (image). He's the only non-Asian in the entire film! I think that much of the verbal humor was lost in translation during the absolutely horrid dubbing process. Physical humor remained and the team of Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan do a great job at that. The sets and costumes looked professional. Camera-work and editing looked textbook-perfect like Home Alone (1990). However, that does not include creativity or surprise. It was all very predictable and straight forward. There was just enough kung fu to classify it in the genre, but romance took priority over fighting. What fighting there was looked very much like the style of the 2 main stars, for obvious reasons. As I mentioned before, the dub was bad, but the audio quality was not. The dialogue was a little low in some sections and the kung foley was a little loud, but not annoyingly so. IMDB has this at 7.3/10, AllMovie rates it 1.5/5 AllMovie rating and 4/5 user ratings and Rotten Tomatoes has a 79% audience score. 65.5% is so close to getting an F that it can feel F's breath on the back of its neck. I agree with this average. Wikipedia says that this sucked because the actors played out of character to the point that a woman poisoned herself at the film production company's office. It's not worth poisoning oneself over a crappy movie though. I rate this poor. You probably should not watch it.
A Chinese action film directed by Jackie Chan and Eric Tsang, starring Alan Tam and Rosamund Kwan.
A former musician has sold an antique sword that is demanded by people who have kidnapped his ex-girlfriend. Her new boyfriend goes with to retrieve the weapon and save the girl. They are opposed by a group of evil monks who have the other pieces of the set of armor that the sword belongs with.
This is the film in which Jackie falls out of a tree and hurts his head. The hour and a half duration was apparently not enough because the plot was inconclusive. It did hold my interest with action. Something was always happening. How does a musician become a kung fu master/adventurer/treasure hunter? I did not find the back-story of the characters believable. Dialogue and acting were overlooked in favor of action sequences as well. This included some great sets and locations. Right at the beginning, Jackie slides down a mountain as he is being chased by a tribe from whom he stole the sword. The lair of the evil monks was expertly done as well. When he fights the high heel fighters, there is a "double boob punch" that I thought was worth mentioning. Camera-work was not bad at all. I think it looks less impressive than it really was for the camera crew to find placement in odd areas and do moving shots to follow the action. I couldn't tell if it was a real cave or a fabricated set. Stunts made up most of the special effects. Falls, jumps, slides, fire and sparks are pretty standard in a Jackie Chan flick. Audio was not the best. The dubbing looked and sounded really fake and the soundtrack was really cheesy. This won best action cinematography at the 1988 Hong Kong film awards. It has 7.1/10 on IMDB, 4/5 AllMovie rating and user ratings on AllMovie and 78% tomatometer, 62% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. I agree with the 74.2% solid C grade. It's an average, but decent Chinese action film of the late '80s. Nothing else to say but rate it o.k.
A Chinese American directed by Sandra Weintaub, starring Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao and Cynthia Rothrock.
Basic information on martial arts is given, followed by examples of different elements involved in the films.
If you want to watch some fight scenes, this movie is for you. If you want information, titles and years, watch Films of Fury. The hour 26 duration seemed to go on forever because it was all just fighting. It had pitifully low information density and only a few people were interviewed. These people also showed up in all of the fight scenes. They were Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao and Cynthia Rothrock. John Saxon's narration was unenthusiastic and dry, the opposite of the narrator from Films of Fury. Most of the clips looked and sounded alright, but some were so underexposed that the fighting was nearly invisible in a sea of black. This has a 7.3/10 on IMDB. I think that the score should be lower because documentaries are supposed to be relatively informative. I'm not talking a master class in kung fu flicks, but titles and years for the clips would have helped. I rate this poor for low information density. The only thing that saves it from "bad" is in depth interviews with Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung.
A kung fu directed by Rob Minkoff, starring Jackie Chan and Jet Li.A modern American boy is transported to ancient China when he tries to help a pawn shop owner defend his shop from robbers. The shop owner tells the boy to return a magic staff from the shop to it's rightful owner. Once in China, the boy makes friends with a fighter who knows the owner of the staff is the monkey king, whom the jade warlord has imprisoned in stone. Quest time.This had so much potential. They could have made such a great kung fu film that anything else would be absurd. They did nothing of the sort. They made an absurd, over-done disasterpiece. The pace was so fast and jumpy and the plot so complex that the viewer has no time to enjoy what's going on. The kung fu and the wire work are good, but there is way to much CG for the tastes of die hard fu fans. I'm rating this adequate because it has entertainment value, but could have been done so much better.
A mockumentary directed by Arthur Hiller, starring Whoopi Goldberg, Jackie Chan, Sylvester Stallone and Coolio.A director gets his first directing job and the film is mishandled without his consent. It turns out bad, so he steals it to keep his name from being associated with it.Wikipedia bills this as the worst film ever, but it's actually ABOUT the worst film ever. When the characters are introduced, the screen pauses and character profile lists come up, detailing the person. Some of the attributes are funny. I also thought the 3 celebrities chosen for the film within the film make a funny team. I'm rating this o.k.
An action film directed by Stanley Tong, starring Jackie Chan.A cop from Hong Kong visits America to attend a wedding and starts a rivalry with a gang while defending the family supermarket and car. Stolen diamonds get hidden in the wheelchair of a handicapped child in the family and the Chinese fuzz has to save everyone.Being called Rumble in the Bronx, you would think that this would be filmed in New York, right? Wrong! Vancouver! I don't really like Jackie Chan and think his movies lack the physical prowess of others like Tony Jaa (the inhuman master of fu) and the beauty of CTHD (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon). This isn't a bad run of movies that I'm watching. It's the old DVDs and I'm trying to crank out reviews as fast as possible, which means I get tired of it and films get worse ratings because of my mood. Anyway, I'm rating this bad.
A kung fu directed by Benny Chan, starring Jackie Chan and Andy Lau.During the warlord era of early republican China, Shaolin temple is a total disaster area.The plot was a little disjointed and some of the subtitles didn't work. What I mean is that "sub duration: 3,303" is not a substitute for important dialogue. There was some wire used in long jumps, or jumps off of buildings, but there was no flying. The heroes and villains each got equal screen time, which I thought was a little odd. Also, the sun did not make an appearance. It seemed like everything was done at night. This would have been o.k., but I know that real shaolin monks practice all morning, not in the evening. I'm rating this o.k. for being generally mediocre.
A kung fu directed by Chen Chi Hwa, starring Jackie Chan.Many clans are in pursuit of a man who supposedly has a powerful book of martial arts.The audio and video were horrible.This is just another kung fu flick from a time when they were being mass produced. It's probably best to avoid this one.
A kung fu directed by Lau Kar-Leung and Jackie Chan.A young drunken boxing master gets parcels switched on a train. This sets into motion a complex series of events.The audio was in English and the video was o.k.check out: "what does it mean when it has a picture of a skull on it?" "good stuff!"This film has such good fight scenes that it almost redeems Jackie for his later performances in Hollywood bullshit movies like "Rush Hour" and "Shanghai Noon". It's definitely worth watching if you like kung fu.
A kung fu directed by Yuen Woo-ping.Jackie Chan is a rowdy son who is sent to learn kung fu from his uncle, Beggar So who is a master of drunken boxing.The audio was in Chinese and subtitles were provided. The video definitely showed the age of the film.check out: no wire!Jackie Chan + Simon Yuen + drunken boxing = a really good kung fu movie! This is the original drunken master by the way, not one of the many sequels, spin-offs, or imitations. If you like kung fu flicks, you'll like this.
