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What ELSE (other than KUNG FU) has everyone been watching?


Guest kenichiku

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Guest kenichiku

Reruns to you maybe, but to me all these for the first time ever:

Vengeance is a Golden Blade ***.5/5, dtr to be Kao Pao Shu was damn great!

A Place To Call Home **.5, extremely heavy handed ultra-conservative material but...there was a topical context

Mr Funnybone ***, wholesome stuff; Li Ching's last good leading role

A Deadly Secret ***.5, clever auteur twisted typical studio material

and...

The Wedding Crashers ****.5

John Waters, A Dirty Shame ***.5

Girl with the Pearl Earring w/Johansson ****

Shimizu, Juon (Jpn) ***

Anderson, The Life Aquatic of Steve Sissou ***

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Guest ShaofuSage

Watched Return to the 36th Chamber last night. It was a little slow at the beginning, with the lack of action and all as the story was developing, but that amazing ending made up for everything. Scaffolding kung fu, pure genius!

After viewing this film, I realized that one of the great things about kung fu flicks is that you can sit through an hour of mediocraty and then get blow the hell out of your seat by the last 20 to 30 minutes of the movie.

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Guest iron flag

Magnificent Wonderman(pretty good)

Master of Death(pretty good)

Brave Archer 2 (not so good)

Bandits from Shantung(very good)

non KF:

Sideways(excellent)

Star Wars-Clone Wars(excellent)

Iron Giant(excellent)

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Guest ShaofuSage

Recently watched Fighting Fists of Shanghai Joe AKA Dragon Fights Back. My copy of this film is the latter name, and what a shi**y copy it is (guess one can't expect much for $2, but I do wonder if there is a half decent copy of this somewhere). Anyway, I enjoyed the film, mainly the "Shanghai Joe against all odds" aspect of it. It seemed like every five minutes, our main character had to fight a new enemy, very few low spots in this one. If only the fight scenes were a little better, this would have become a personal favorite.

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River of Fury- Not bad. More of a drama than kung fu movie. I thought it was okay.

Proud Youth- Liked it. Thought the fights were good. Chen hui-min was awesome.

Shadow Boxing- Had some good fights in it, but was one of LKL weaker movies.

(american movies)

Alexander - I thought this kinda sucked. It should be called Alexander the gay not Alexander the great.

Pride Fc Bushido- decent. Gracie's vs japanese fighters

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Guest Ivy Ling Po

Ode To Gallantry - enjoyed this one and glad to see my favourite Venom Sun Chien in a prominent role. Liu Hui Ling also has a bigger role in this one than in Chu Yuan's wu xia and I feel sad to learn that she died a few years later while giving birth.

Laws Of Attraction - Julianne Moore is great to watch as always and Pierce Brosnan tries to keep up.

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Guest jmungus

this past week:

sahara: faceless popcorn crap, watchable but equally forgettable.

godzilla- final wars: kitamura fuses 70s rubber suit monster trash with state of the art sci-fi/futuristic style japanese movie making (see izo, zeburamaan, casshern, devilman etc...)

other than miike`s brilliant zeburaaman, GFW is about the coolest, tightest and most entertaining ive seen this (and last) year outta japan.

demon world aka shaolin vs evil dead:

gordon`s days are over period.

tsuis vampire hunters 2 years back was in a similar vein, not a "good" film at all but still 100 times better than this bore.

white lotus cult: niiiice part from the "sam the iron bridge"-trilogy.

very decent new wave m.a. entry. not as polished as the usual jet li stuff. always fun to pick that up again every few years for a rewatch.

warrior from shaolin: somewhat disappointing lau brothers indie flick.

one of gordons few old schoolies ive seen for the very first time.

i was mildly entertained, it had some highlight moments, but for the most part is was just another average chop sock gem.

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Guest kenichiku

Lady Jade Locket ***/5 w/Li Li Hua, Li Ching

Star Wars II - Attack of the Clones ***

James Toback, Harvard Man ****

Takashi Ishii, Black Angel II (Kuro no Tenshi) ***.5 w/Yuki Ammami (yeah!)

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Guest limubai2000

I just knocked off...

Four Brothers, good film, nice twists and turns

40 Year Old Virgin, hilarious, great movie

and on DVD...

Trail of the Broken Blade, tedious but good film

Shaolin Challenges Ninja, a tad slow but good film

Martial Club, also good

Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla 2, Sony widescreen! Good zilla film.

Son of Godzilla, Sony widescreen! Eh, ok zilla film.

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Guest gorlank

Just watched a killer vampire movie called "Vampire's Breakfast" with Kent Cheng and Emily Chu. Plays like a HK version of Carl Kolchak's Night Stalker with some great creepy scenes and hyper kinetic action. In one great scene the gwailo vamp wades thru a horde of firing cops. Great little movie that is a major sleeper. Pick it up.

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Guest teako170

Shaw:

Mad Monkey Kung Fu

While I'm not a big fan of the monkey style, LKL did a very admirable job here creating, not only an action-packed film, but also a film with a solid story line. The fact that LKL doesn't create some magical cure (or kung-fu fix) for his crippled hands allows this picture to stay grounded in reality and not stray into fantasy as many other films tend to do.

Ode to Gallantry

Sorry but "bastard" is just not as funny as "son of a bitch." Kuo Choi though was quite entertaining and its always good to see Sun Chien not playing "just another background character" though Chiang Sheng's participation was rather trivial.

Non-Shaw:

LOTR: Return of the King

I enjoyed the first installment but the second one became a bit of a bore (other than the final battle sequence). I was rather pleased though with this third part of the trilogy - the best of the three. Never a dull moment and quite engaging.

Chances Are

Funny little rom-com of the late 80s. I've always enjoyed Robert Downey Jr.'s films and he had the potential in becoming a great actor if only he could've kept his personal problems under control.

Theatrical:

Nada.

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Guest iron flag

Brave Archer & His Mate: Very good (my favorite of the 4)

Ode to Gallantry: Fair,reminiscent of BA3 (would have been much better with a few more fights)

South Shaolin Master: Good (Fights where terrific though to many dull spots in between)

Prodigal Son: Excellent (Expected the worst as it began<comedy> but really started to enjoy the comedy,liking the characters,and the fights where great!)

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Guest jmungus

dirty tiger crazy frog - the raggamuffin-feel movie in sammos catalogue.

being a proud owner (but totally incompetent in workin it lol ;-) of a 3 section staff myself, its a joy to watch the finale.

some fights earlier in the movie could have needed a more imaginative choreo. 7.3

death duel as with so many chu yuan flix, i loved how he made use of the musical score and lament the way he shot the fights.

first 20 or 30 mins felt a bit uneven, then it went uphill until the end.

good entry in the 'dark-n-eerie wuxia' category 7.2

secret of shaolin kung fu

never considered myself a li yi min fan, but the kid sure got game.

very engaging, swift and tight performance, yi min reminds me of a cross between chi kuan chun and jackie chan in this above average chop sock entry. 6.5

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Guest David G Rees

Being sent lots o title to watch as i have to review them for some magazines...some good some awful.

Kung Fu Master.***

First in the Tai Seng releases of the tv series, i thought that it was very enjoyable, Donnie Yen shows he can be a decent actor and the fight scenes were good for a tv show and not speeded up to much which i know Donnies work suffers from.

Fist Of Fury : Sworn Revenge. **.5

Another edited Donnie tv outing but much better than the original release Fist Of Fury. This follows Chen Jens early years, his first days in Shanghai and his meetings with his teacher Fok Yun Gap.

Eddie Ko is excellent as Fok as well as good cameo from Hung Yan Yan.

The Commitment *

Terrible, confusing Thai horror with bad acting but plenty of gore...Avoid.

Running Out Of Time. ***

Good thriller with Andy Lau and the always excellent Lau Ching Wan. Is Johnny To still making great movies like this?

Red Trousers. ***.5

Excellent documentary / short film about HK stuntmen and there opera background. The dvd has longer interviews with Sammo and Lau Kar Leung.

The Bodyguard. **.5

OK Thai action comedy from the team that did Ong Bak. A short cameo from Tony Jaa and ok action scenes, but i found the film a bit bizarre and the comedy did not translate well for me.

Non Asian.

Arthur. ***.5

Brilliant comedy with the late great Dudley Moore still stands up well today. Superb oscar winning performance from John Guilgud also.

Man With 2 Brains. ***.5

Steve Martins best and funniest film and Kathleen Turner is superb as the sexy vamp. What happened to Steve Martin?

National Treasure. **.5

OK Indiana Jones type adventure with Nicholas Cage but it does feel like its all been done before.

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Guest ShaofuSage

The Fist, the Kicks and the Evils - another installment in the revenge plot kung fu comedy segment, with some great fights and one of Bolo's better on-screen fighting performances - a semi-enjoyable experience.

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Guest ironfistedmonk2003

Watched Unleashed at the cinema last night, quite impressed, great action and Bob Hoskins is the man.

Also watched Grand Master of Shaolin Kung Fu, decent film but Kam Kong should have been the main villain and not a lackey.

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Guest Ivy Ling Po

I found this movie quite bland in the beginning but in the second half, it redeemed itself with a terrific performance from veteran actress Wang Lai. Ching Li is also fighting with more close-ups than normal. I still don't like David Chiang's hair which will no doubt look good on a younger person like Wong Yue. Chen Wai Min makes a fierce enemy and poor Tsing Hua is no match. I would give it 3 stars.

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Guest ShaofuSage

The Chinese Boxer - A real bloodfest, plus I loved Wang Yu's surgeon outfit. Seriously though, it was ok. Quick question: in real life, when a human punches another human in the stomach and happens to penatrate through, as in Wang Yu's final blow to Lo Lieh, is it possible for approximately 10 pints of blood to come gushing out of the victim's stomach?

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