Archive for the 'Martial Arts' Category

The Foot Fist Way

Published
by
Chalupa
on October 12, 2008
in Comedy, Film in film, Independent and Martial Arts
. 0 Comments

The first time I saw the trailer for The Foot Fist Way I knew I had to see it.  It immediately brought back images of Rex Kwon Do from Napoleon Dynamite.  That guy looked just like Rex.  Well, that guy just happens to be Danny R. McBride.  Recently he has gotten a lot of work in films like Superbad, Tropic Thunder, and you’ll most likely remember him as the drug dealer in Pineapple Express.

McBride’s character, Fred Simmons, is a little hard to take.  He’s a Grade A jerk to pretty much everybody in his life.  His trophy wife is just that…a trophy wife, and when you take that away you’re left with not much more than a late model, cheap sports car, and his small martial arts business.  When everything seems to just be not going Simmons’ way, he meets up with his #1 hero, Chuck ‘The Truck’ Wallace.

The film is full of laughs, but has also definitely earned it’s R rating.  The langauge gets to be a bit much here and there.  It’s not that what they’re saying is so bad, it’s just the time and place if you know what I mean.  I wouldn’t call this a grown-up Napoleon Dynamite, but I would say it’s maybe a peak into Rex Kwon Do.  You could also look at it as a man whose life takes a nose dive, but is saved by Tae Kwon Do…sort of.

Rating: ★★★½☆

Appleseed: Ex Machina

Published
by
Chalupa
on March 11, 2008
in Action, Animation, Anime, Based on a comic, Based on a graphic novel, Conspiracy, End of the world, Foreign, Future, Japan, Martial Arts, Sequel and War
. 1 Comment

This is my first-ever sponsored review. I haven’t done anything like this before. If you’ve never heard of Appleseed: Ex Machina before, you should know it’s an Anime sequel to Appleseed. This film does come from Japan, but the Region 1 DVD release has been dubbed into English. Directing this film is the legendary Shinji Aramaki. I say legendary because this man has been very influential in the world of animation and the drawing of cartoon machines. This guy worked on the drawings and designs of the first Transformers toys, MASK, the Genesis series, and Fullmetal Alchemist. Producing this film is John Woo of action and martial arts fame.

If you know anything about Anime, you know it’s a style of animation from Japan. John Woo happens to be from China. The two of them working together, in a creative manner, is nothing short of amazing due to the long history of being at odds that their two countries have. The fact Woo is involved leads a lot of credibility to the project and puts the film on the radars of many potential fans. Even though Woo is known for his fight scenes, there’s the element of emotion that many miss. The emotion and depth to the characters and story turns a film like this from being just eye-candy into a truly wonderful work of art. You’ll definitely see his influence in scenes where slow motion, creative fighting styles and lots of bullets are used.

The word Anime is really just an abbreviation of the English word animation and has its roots in Japanese Manga. Anime is traditionally hand drawn, but computer animation is becoming more and more common. Having majored in computer science as an undergrad, I know a tiny bit about the work and processing power it takes to make cartoons and animated films. The 3-D animation is this film is nothing short of amazing. Everything looks so realistic from the body movements, facial expressions, fully animated jaws, backgrounds, sceneries and landscapes. The visual aspects of this film are breathtaking.

I haven’t seen the original film, Appleseed, so I may be a little clueless to the story. I think this is a good thing when it comes to a review because I have no pre-conceived notions of what’s happening. Ex Machina takes place in a futuristic, post-apocalyptic world. At some point in the past there was a global, non-nuclear war which took out pretty much everything. Olympus is a Utopian-like city where peace and order stand with the help of its elite fighting force, the ESWAT. This isn’t the only city in the world though. There are still other countries and governments. There are also three types of people: humans, cyborgs, and bioroids. I’m going to assume you already know what humans and cyborgs are. Bioroids are clones, genetic copies, of real people made with the best technology available. They also lack some of the bad qualities that seem to contribute to the not-so-great aspects of humanity.

The three main characters are Deunan, a human, Briareos, human turned cyborg, and Tereus, a bioroid that is a copy of Briareos when he was human. I’m sure you’re already imagining the drama between the main trio. Deunan and Briareos were partners back in the day and continued to be after he was severely injured and turned into a cyborg. As far as I can tell, they exist in the original film. In Ex Machina we find ourselves in another classic, Confuscist battle of good versus evil; there are organized terrorist attacks trying to bring down the peace and order of Olympus.

In the midst of peace talks between all the countries and governments of the world, humans and cyborgs are being turned into mindless zombies. These remotely controlled drones are being made to massively attack anything of strategic value in the city. At first it is thought the cyborgs are just susceptible to rogue, controlling frequencies, but humans are being affected too. Are Deunan, Briareos, and Tereus susceptible to this mind control? Will they be able to take down a terrorist mastermind that makes Dr. Octopus look like a distempered man-child? Well, I couldn’t really tell you or I’d be ruining the movie for you.

I highly recommend this film. I think it will be dearly loved by existing Appleseed fans. It is a great addition to the already wonderful Anime genre and there’s enough story, action and drama to keep everyone else wanting to find out what happens next. Rent it or buy it, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Rating: ★★★★½

Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo

Published
by
Chalupa
on February 20, 2008
in Action, Adolescence, Drama, Foreign, Martial Arts and Samurai
. 0 Comments

This was kind of a weird movie. If you’re familiar with both Yojimbo and the Zatoichi story, then you can probably figure out what the movie is.

Yojimbo is a classic Samurai film written and directed by the great Akira Kurosawa. A story that has been used for other films like Last Man Standing and A Fistful of Dollars. It’s in the Criterion Collection and is a must-see for any fan of the Samurai genre.

Zatoichi is the classic character of a blind swordsman. There are many, many movies out there about this character. I saw Zatôichi from 2003 and really enjoyed it.

I wouldn’t rank this movie as a favorite by any means. I also wouldn’t urge you to rush out there and rent it. Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo is interesting because both stories are meshed, but that’s about it. I don’t know how interesting it would be if you weren’t already familiar with what this movie is based off of.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Balls of Fury

Published
by
Chalupa
on January 15, 2008
in Action, Comedy, Crime, Martial Arts, Ping Pong and Sport
. 1 Comment

I remember first seeing a preview for Balls of Fury before Transformers. At first glance I knew it didn’t look that great, but I wanted to give it a chance because of the one and only Christopher Walken being in it. Jeremy, one of my buddies that was there, tried to tell me this movie would suck and not be worth my time. I kinda didn’t listen to him at the time, but maybe I should have.

Well, co-worker Steve picked it up to play on the big-screen here at work last Friday. I can’t say I’m sorry I saw a good chunk of the film, but I’m not necessarily better for it either. The basic plot is Randy Daytona, played by Dan Fogler, was a child ping pong prodigy and is recruited later on in life to compete at a secret world competition in an effort to save some friends of his. Have we seen this plot before? How about Beerfest or even Enter the Dragon? I know these aren’t both literal translations in the sense of Yojimbo, Last Man Standing and A Fistful of Dollars, but I’m sure you can see some similarities. This has basically been done before.

Christopher Walken wasn’t a disappointment, but I think the rest of the movie was. There were some funny bits here and there but not enough to really redeem the movie. I can’t say I’ve seen Fogler in anything else. I checked his IMDB listings and saw Good Luck Chuck and School for Scoundrels - both movies that I heard kind of tanked. I don’t want to say Fogler is trying to emulate some of the great, fat comedians…but I kind of got that impression. Co-worker Steve said the movie would have been much better with Jack Black in the starring role. I agreed, but also knew that Black would never have accepted this role. It would have been totally below him. Yeah, his band played in Bio-Dome and he’s had some minor roles in movies like Demolition Man, The NeverEnding Story III, The Jackal and Waterworld. I’m sure a lot of you are even better familiar with his more recent jobs since his breakout role, totally my opinion, as Barry in High Fidelity. I’m kinda going off track here, but the point is that Jack Black has way more class than Balls of Fury. In fact, after writing this I was browsing Pajiba and saw that it won a Golden Pajiba, and I quote, “To say he’s a low-rent Jack Black would be a disservice to cockroach infested, crime-ridden Section 8 housing.”

I’m going to have to say I don’t suggest this one. It was pretty lame all around.

Curse of the Golden Flower

Published
by
Chalupa
on May 7, 2007
in Action, Adventure, Based on a play, Drama, Epic, Martial Arts, Romance, Suicide and Tragedy
. 0 Comments

Once again, I was awed by yet another action movie from director Yimou Zhang. You may seen some of his other movies like House of Flying Daggers, Hero, Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles, Raise the Red Lantern, etc. This guy puts out good stuff.

This film centers around the royal family of China during the Tang dynasty. Like most Greek tragedies, this film doesn’t end on a much happier note. Through lies, betrayal, plots and secrecy, the royal family collapses on itself leaving very few alive when everything’s said and done. The emperor alone seems to be the only one who is untouchable. I think that’s how it’s supposed to be though. Even though he is the most powerful man in the empire, he is the loneliest because he can’t let anyone get too close to him. I’m not going to go much deeper into the plot for fear of ruining this for anyone.

I’m sure some people will/were disappointed with this film because they were expecting something action-packed from the trailer. You do get plenty of action, but not all the way through. I found the movie quite interesting and, as usual with Yimou Zhang, quite beautiful. I don’t know if he is always behind the color schemes, artwork, scenery and costuming, but they are all breath-taking in the films of his I’ve watched.

One thing I found out in the “extras” was they actually built the entire palace set. I assumed it was mostly green-screened due to its size and grandeur, but it was actually built. There was one part where Li Gong is talking about foreign tourists seeing the set and thinking they were crazy for building something of that magnitude. Speaking of which, you might recognize her from Memoirs of a Geisha. Hopefully you’ll also recognize Yun-Fat Chow from movies like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Bulletproof Monk, Anna and the King, Replacement Killers, etc.

One other thing that caught my eye were the weapons of some elite ninja fighters. I’m not expert on martial arts movies, but I feel like I’ve seen a few. These guys has scythe like swords with ropes attached. They would swing them around like grappling hooks and slice up their opponents. The epic-battle scene in the end was pretty amazing too. I was also pretty impressed with the immediately clean-up and how everything was “back to normal” afterwards. Hopefully I haven’t spoiled anything for you. I highly suggest you check this one out.

Jet Li’s Fearless

Published
by
Chalupa
on January 31, 2007
in Action, Drama, History, Martial Arts and Philosophical
. 0 Comments

I should probably start off by saying I’m a big fan of the Kung Fu/Samurai film genre. I’m not well-versed in the genres, but I’ve been trying to watch some of the classics.

I think martial arts for many in the US is all about taking a name and kicking an ass. Seriously. I see kids all the time kicking and punching and screaming like a character from Mortal Kombat. I have to admit that I too was one of those kids, however, I was impersonating the Karate Kid. I’m also not an expert on Asian culture or their martial arts forms, but I do know that the philosophy behind it is not about beating somebody up, but more about bettering oneself in mind, body and spirit. So the better fighter will actually defend himself instead of taking the opportunity to severely injure their opponent. I’m sure this blows some minds out there, but please keep reading.

Bruce Lee - one of the premiere martial artists to bring kung fu to America was constantly denied adding philosophy to his movies. All people really wanted to see was his famous one-inch-punch and those numchucks hitting somebody in the head. I have to admit I really enjoyed seeing people fly off screen after making the mistake of making contact with Bruce’s limbs of fury, but now that I’m a little older I appreciate some of the other aspects.

In Jet Li’s Fearless, Jet Li does just that. He brings the true philosophy into his last martial arts film. Some other good films I would suggest in this genre are Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero, House of Flying Daggers, Kung Fu Hustle and Unleashed. I can’t deny that there aren’t awesome and amazing fight scenes in this movie, but they aren’t the main focus or theme throughout.

This movie is really about redemption. You have a man who becomes famous and reckless in all aspects of his life. He thinks he is on top, but he really still has a lot to learn. Due to some misunderstandings, he makes the worst mistake of his life and loses everything. Years later though, he gets a second chance and is able to make a difference.

If you can’t tell already, I loved this film and highly suggest it to everyone. Other than violence, there really isn’t any other objectionable material in the film to make someone want to avoid it. So please go out and rent this one and tell me what you think.

Shogun Assassin

Published
by
Chalupa
on July 24, 2006
in Action, Adventure, Assassination, Drama, Graphic Violence, Japan, Martial Arts, Samurai and Thriller
. 1 Comment

If you’ve seen Kill Bill, than you probable remember in part 2 where BB wants to watch a video before going to bed. The video she wants to watch is Shogun Assassin. In my latest quest to see some of the samurai movies Tarantino loves so dearly, I also put this one on the list just because it’s referenced in the movie.

The whole film is narrated by a small boy talking about his father. His father used to work for the shogun, but his father became too powerful and the shogun became afraid. The shogun then tried to kill him but his plans went awry and he then made an enemy of his most powerful servant. The samurai then took to the roads with his small son. The shogun sent groups after groups of assassins and ninjas after this man, but nobody seems to be able to kill him. This guy makes Chuck Norris and Rambo look like girly-men.

This whole movie is in english so there’s no subtitles to deal with if that bothers you. It’s also short and sweet - kinda like Replacement Killers. If you liked Kill Bill, you’ll probably like this one too.

Six String Samurai

Published
by
Chalupa
on May 17, 2006
in Action, Adventure, Cold War, Independent, Martial Arts, Music, Samurai and Sci-fi
. 0 Comments

If you’re looking for something fun and a little “out there”, this might be the movie for you. Picture this - The Russians have dropped the bomb on the US. The last stronghold of freedom and America just happens to be Las Vegas. The president is none other than THE KING, Elvis Presley. So 40 or so years later the king has died and they are looking for a new, hip musician to rule. This is where Buddy comes in. Besides being able to play a mean six string guitar, he also happens to be a samurai warrior.

So yeah, this sounds a little weird, but it’s worth checking out if you consider yourself a movie buff.

Oldboy

Published
by
Chalupa
on April 23, 2006
in Based on a comic, Based on a graphic novel, Drama, Graphic Violence, Kidnapping, Martial Arts, Mystery, Narrated, Neo Noir, Revenge, Thriller and Twist
. 0 Comments

Oldboy is a movie I learned about from my good buddy Tim Mahan. It’s a Korean film about a man who is kidnapped and held in a room for 15 years. He’s allowed to watch some TV but has no access to things like sunlight and contact with other human beings. Eventually he breaks free and decides to try and figure out who imprisioned him and why. He can’t find his family and friends because the world thinks he murdered his wife and is on the run.

Through the twisted world one man has created, we eventually discover exactly what Dae-su Oh has done to warrant such revenge. I do need to say that this movie is kind of messed up and wouldn’t be enjoyed by many. If you’re up to it though, you might want to give it a try some time.

Kung Fu Hustle

Published
by
Chalupa
on November 11, 2005
in Action, Animation, Comedy, Crime, Fantasy, Foreign, Independent, Martial Arts, Philosophical and War
. 0 Comments

I never really knew what to think of this movie when I saw previews for it and when it was in the theater. A couple friends of mine said it was really good, but I sorta forgot about it. Well I put in on my Netflix list and low and behold, I gave it a 5/5 rating.

The only way I can describe this movie is to say it combines some of the surrealness of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and House of Flying Daggers with some of the martial arts of The Matrix, Hero and previous movies, along with a touch of the hilarity I’ve come to know as the one and only, Jack Black along with a dash of Looney Tunes. Confusing? I hope so. I’m trying to entice you to go out and actually watch this.

This movie starts off innocent enough with an all well too familiar story of a gang oppressing the poor and helpless. However, it’s the way that the silent heroes unmask themselves and save the day that makes this movie unique and oh so cool. What starts out as a small grudge between one gang and a small community soon turns into something much bigger as long retired masters step up to the plate and a long-ago locked away criminal is brought out as a trump card. Yes, this certain aspect is a lot like Boondock Saints.

Even though this movie is full of revenge, violence, grudges, and the poor and weak being trampled upon, there is still redemption. True Kung Fu is not about big muscles and kicking the crap out of people. In fact it has so much more to do with balance, continuity, peace and not having to fight. This goes so much against our high school gotta-impress-the-ladies and prove our alpha-maleness mentality.

The special effects in here were awesome. A lot of wire-acrobatics were employed along with blue screens and CGI. All of it seemed very appropriate to me. None of it came off as cheesy and over the top. There was even a very obvious reference to Bruce Lee’s greatness when the heads of the Axe Gang are being warned to step off. I loved it!

One other thing I’d like to highlight is the use of Chinese music in this film. So many foreign films these days use Western music when it just doesn’t seem to fit. Kung Fu Hustle uses only Chinese music played on the traditional instruments. It just fits so well with everything.

If you haven’t been able to guess already, I highly recommend this film. So get out and watch it if you haven’t seen it already.